The 2025 Hopewell Vikings football season came to an end following a quarterfinal loss to Imani Christian.
I’m not going to rehash the loss because in the end, it doesn’t matter. The bottom line was that it very evident from the opening kickoff that this Imani Christian team was VERY TALENT, VERY BIG, VERY PHYSICAL, VERY FAST AND VERY SKILLED.
In reality, Imani Christian was just a better team than Hopewell at this stage of their careers. While Hopewell has talent, a majority of it is young and still developing physically and this was their spotlight playoff game against an elite opponent.
Let me repeat, Imani Christian was the most talented team that Hopewell has played this season.
A handful or more of their players will go on to play D-1 football and their best player, 4-star quarterback/linebacker Gabriel Jenkins was without a doubt the most physically talented player Hopewell has played and that I’ve personally seen play in a long time.
It’s not surprising that he holds a scholarship offer from Penn State and many of Power 4 programs. Their second-best player, senior David Davis isn’t far behind Jenkins in terms of skill level. Davis, who was also committed to Penn State before de-committing after HC James Franklin was fired, finished the game with 187 yards rushing along with a 50-yard punt return for a TD.
Losing last night in no way takes away from this 2025 season. Not one bit.
The only thing that’s disappointing is the fact that Friday night was the last time a number of seniors will ever put on a Hopewell football uniform again. It was an emotional scene afterwards as the Hopewell seniors took turns hugging each other. It was especially tough seeing some of the seniors trying to hold back their tears as they walked off the field for the last time.
As one senior player said to me afterwards, “It hasn’t hit me yet that it’s over.”
That’s what a lot of the players are feeling this morning but looking at it from a big picture perspective, while the 2025 season might be over with, this was just the start of the rebirth of the Vikings football program.
While the end goal wasn’t reached, there’s plenty to be proud and excited about when looking back at 2025, including a 7-win season, getting back to the WPIAL playoffs and winning a playoff game.
More importantly, thanks to head coach Matt Mottes, his talented and dedicated group of assistant coaches and these players a new cultural has been built. Players currently in and new ones entering the football program have a standard that needs to be reached and expectations that must be met.
It took a couple of years for everyone to realize that there’s a new sheriff in town and that if you weren’t willing to work and do whatever necessary to meet the staffs’ expectations, they’d find players that were.
Trust me, it won’t be long before Mottes and the coaches start the process of preparing, training, getting bigger, stronger and faster for the 2026 season. The expectations for next year will be a lot different where making the playoffs won’t be a goal, it’ll be assumed. The goal for next year is get better and find a way to advance further in the playoffs than they did this year.
It remains to be seen who Hopewell’s section opponents will be in 2026, who are likely to change. That aside, this team will enter the season with a large target on their backs because they’ll be returning a bunch of talent.
Scheduled to return next year are James Armstrong, Nasir Wade, Brody Rock, Tre Cameron, Avery Bokor, Aris Haniotes, Keith Young, George Tafkov, Tyler Schroder and Richie Johns.
That being said, the coaching staff will also face the challenge of trying to replace players and key contributors such as Kingston Krotec, Justin Obeldobel, Michael Garguilo, Julian Baldwin, Zander Muzy, Mikey Black, Rocco Marcantonio, Nick Thomas, James Gill, Vinny Boris, Brian McCabe, Logan Triscila, Jeorge Deko, Dom Gaughan and Josh Brunton.
That’s a lot of players that have taken a lot of snaps for the Vikings over the last few years.
In order for the winning to continue and for them to take a next step, young players will need to develop between now and next August. Can players like Greg Gigliotti, Evan McCabe, Joey Barkovich, Jayvion Lindsey, Dom Boris, Maddox Fattore, Landon Matthews, Brian Olden, Roman Amadio, Josh Reynolds, Aiden Gonzalez develop into players than can replace that long list of departing seniors?
That’s what winning programs are able to do- lose players but at the same time have others in the system ready to step on the field and produce.
Losing sucks but there’s plenty to be excited about heading into the offseason.
Football is back in Hopewell in so many ways.
1) The numbers in the youth programs are growing and before long, those players will be stepping into Tony Dorsett Stadium to play.
2) The fans in this town are excited by this program and did a tremendous job of supporting this team all season long, both home and way. The amount of Hopewell fans that traveled last night to watch this team play, in a less-than-ideal environment, was very impressive. In fact, by my unofficial count, Hopewell had more fans/school members in the stands than the home team.
3) This coaching staff is 100% bought into these players and this programs success. Whether it’s gameday environment, travel accommodations, film preparation, uniforms/practice gear and time invested, this coaching staff will do whatever and have done whatever necessary to make this program as successful as possible. Keep in mind, these groups aren’t being paid million-dollar salaries and their time invested has far exceeded what they’re making. All they care about is developing these kids ON AND OFF THE FIELD as well as making Hopewell a winner.
4) Players are bought in. Everything listed above is great but if the players aren’t buying in, winning will be difficult. I can tell you that the core group of this team is bought in and because of that, everyone else on the roster has no other choice. If they don’t share the same mindset, they’ll get left behind.
Once again, a big shoutout to this 2025 team, especially the seniors for truly bringing football back to Hopewell. Keep your heads up and chests out because you have tons to be proud of.
