COUGARS MARCH TO PLAYOFFS CONTINUES, WHIPPING THE WHIPPETS.
For the second year in a row in the Downingtown Civil War, the
Downingtown East Cougars claimed the "Battle of the Brandywine"
trophy; by defeating their crosstown rivals in the Downingtown West
Whippets. Also for the second year in a row, the Cougars were able
to score over 40 points against the Whippets. Last year's rendition
of the Downingtown Civil War (won by East, 42-28) had the highest
combined score at 70 points; this year's rendition set the record
for most lopsided victory margin- as Downingtown East dominated
West, by a score of 44-14. Not only does the win help the Cougars
in positioning in the District One playoffs, as they get 160 points
with the win; they even the series in the Downingtown Civil War at 4
wins apiece.
The action started quickly, as Downingtown East was able to move the
ball early; until the Whippets' defense made one of very few stands
on the night. The Whippets intercepted a Kyle Lauletta pass, on a
tip drill off Lauletta's intended receiver and a Whippet
linebacker. Unfortunately for West, it was all for naught, as their
offense could not move the ball. Following a small gain on a run;
Whippet senior quarterback Ken Fuhrman was called for intentional
grounding in the endzone, resulting in a safety, and a 2-0 Cougar
advantage.
Downingtown East got good field position immediately, as the ensuing
free kick was squibbed by West, giving the Cougars the ball at the
Whippet 40 yard line. It did not take long for East to score again,
as sophomore tailback Ryley Angeline scored on a 2 yard touchdown
run. From there, it went from bad to worse for the Whippets, as the
Cougars' defense harried Fuhrman into an interception. Downingtown
East systemmatically gashed West's defense; and Kyle Lauletta
capped Downingtown East's third drive of the game off with a 28 yard
pass to Jay Harris, the first of four times the two would
connect through the air.
The snowball effect got worse and worse for West, as the
Whippets looked more like the Bad News Bears than a 6-1 football
team. There was nothing special about West's special teams tonight,
as a short punt gave Downingtown East a short field; and paid for it
rather quickly. The Cougars' advantage became 23-0, on another
touchdown pass from Lauletta to Harris, covering 31 yards.
Following one of several Eddie Kozlowski punts that
pinned Downingtown West inside their 5 yard line, the Whippets drove
99 yards; most of that on a Dante Harrell 83 yard run.
West's momentum was very short lived, as the Cougars continued to
move over, around, and through the usually solid Whippets defense.
Kyle Lauletta and Jay Harris did it to West again, this time a 25
yard pass swelled Downingtown East's advantage going into halftime
to 30-7. At this point in the game, Downingtown West was
dominating West in every facet of the game. Offensively, the
Cougars outgained the Whippets 294-90 and the East defense forced 3
turnovers.
Downingtown West started the second half with the ball, and the
Whippets were not quite ready to go away yet. Their lone bright
spot in Dante Harrell was effective in the wildcat formation, as he
scored his second touchdown of the night on an 18 yard run. What
made Harrell more effective than most athletes on the high school
level that run the wildcat; is that Harrell was Downingtown West's
quarterback for the first 3 games of the 2010 season, while Ken
Fuhrman was rehabbing a baseball injury.
For Downingtown West, it went from ugly to worse in the fourth
quarter, as 30-14 was as close as the Whippets would get. Kyle
Lauletta hooked up with Jay Harris on a 5 yard pass to make it
37-14, and Ryley Angeline scored the final touchdown of the night
from 3 yards out. Once Drew Harris was lost for the season in the
Coatesville game (he wound up with 4,977 yards) with a torn ACL,
Ryley Angeline has filled in admirably.
Defensive standout Joe Wetty stated that "our defense has been
playing real well lately, we have been working our (butts) off week
in and week out." Quarterback Kyle Lauletta thought that "it was a
huge win for us. With the raucous crowd, it was a lot of fun to
play in a game like this." Downingtown East coach Mike Matta stated
that "We won all 3 phases of the game today- offense, defense, and
special teams. In the beginning of the game, the field position
battle was huge for us. Eddie Kozlowski was our second string
punter coming out of camp. We did a lot of good things today, but
they had us on our heels in the 3rd quarter. We were able to
readjust, and continued to play hard. Over the last couple games,
we ran the ball real well. Also, we looked at ourselves in the
mirror, and got Jay Harris more involved in the offense."
With the win Downingtown East improves to 7-1 (2-1 in the Ches-Mont
National Division), and the Whippets fall to 6-2 (2-2 league). Up
next for Downingtown East- is their homecoming game, against West
Chester East. For West, it is a road game against an angry bunch of
Coatesville Red Raiders.
Scoring Summary-
Dtown East- 9-21-0-14- 44
Dtown West- 0- 7- 7- 0- 14
DE- Safety, grounding in end zone.
DE- Angeline 2 yd run (White kick)
DE- J. Harris 28 yd pass from Lauletta (White kick)
DE- J. Harris 31 yd pass from Lauletta (White kick)
DW- Harrell 83 yd run (Caruso kick)
DE- J. Harris 25 yd pass from Lauletta (White kick)
DW- Harrell 18 yd run (Caruso kick)
DE- J. Harris 5 yd pass from Lauletta (White kick)
DE- Angeline 3 yd run (White kick)
East West
First Downs 16 10
Penalties-Yards 11-75 5-30
Fumbles-Lost 1-1 4-3
Punts-Average 5-36.8 4-32.3
Rushes-Yards 48-202 35-145
Comp-Att-Int 11-17-1 2-9-2
Yards Passing 187 25
Total Yards 389 170
Rushing-
Downingtown East- Angeline 31-120-2tds, Mastrog 3-9, J. Harris 1-4,
Lauletta 11-69, Kozlowski 2-0
Downingtown West- Harrell 11-138-2tds, Barr 20-46,
Costello 1-0, Fuhrman 3-(minus 39)
Passing-
Downingtown East- Lauletta 11-17-187yds-4td-1int
Downingtown West- Fuhrman 2-8-25 yds-2ints, Harrell 0-1
Receiving-
Downingtown East- J. Harris 5-118-4tds, Bond 2-29,
Mastrog 1-28, Restrepo 1-6, Dais 1-6, Zahnheiser 1-28.
Downingtown West- Harrell 1-12, Bolenbach 1-13