Cougars Roar:  Downingtown East Bull Rushes Glen Mills 35-0

By Paul Sarpen

            Tonight, the Cougars of Downingtown East struck early and often in the first half, routing the Glen Mills School, 35-0.  Things went so well for the Cougars, that they had a 13-0 lead and 103 yards on offense on 9 plays, before Glen Mills ran a play from scrimmage.  Downingtown East took the lead 6-0, on a 69 yard touchdown drive- capped by a 2 yard Duron Wilson run, his first of three touchdown runs for the game.  Mike Thurm was stopped short of the goal line, after he recovered a bad snap on the extra point.

Things went from bad to worse for Glen Mills, as they fumbled the ensuing kickoff.  Commenting on the Glen Mills fumbled kickoff, Downingtown East coach Mike Matta stated, “We were concerned about their speed, so we kicked away from it.  Luckily for us, they fumbled the ball on the return, giving us a short field to work with.” 

            After both teams traded punts in the first quarter, the Downingtown East aerial attack took charge.  A 30 yard touchdown pass from Pete O’Connor to Danny Weber closed out the first quarter scoring, extending the Cougars lead to 20-0.  Early in the second quarter, Eddie Matta was on the receiving end of a 2 yard strike from O’Connor.  This time, the two point conversion was good, and Downingtown East went into the locker room at half-time with a 28-0 lead.

            Defensively, the Cougars suffocated a Glen Mills offense that scored 41 points in a win over Coatesville last week.  Downingtown East allowed only 121 yards of offense, and forced five Glen Mills turnovers- including three fumbles.  There were numerous standouts on Downingtown East’s defense tonight.  Three standout players for East were Tim Corcoran, Austin Woodford, and Danny Weber.  Woodford had four of East’s six quarterback sacks- including three on consecutive plays, which put Glen Mills into a fourth down and 44 situation.  Corcoran and Weber also recorded interceptions for the Cougar defense.

When Downingtown East’s defense wasn’t pressuring Glen Mills into making mistakes, the Bulls made some unforced errors of their own.  A holding penalty negated a 67 yard run by Bulls tailback Maurice Houze.  Glen Mills had numerous illegal procedure and offside penalties during the game, including an offside penalty on Downingtown East’s first play from scrimmage.

            It was Weber’s interception that set up the final touchdown drive of the night.  Duron Wilson closed out the scoring, with a two yard run, with 4:50 left in the third quarter.  Wilson’s final score enabled the mercy rule for the rest of the game.  The defense held Glen Mills the rest of the way for the Cougars’ second shutout of the season.  Matta gave the defensive staff most of the credit for tonight’s defeat of Glen Mills, stating, “It was a quality win for us, even with #20 (Bernard Pierce) hurt.  Our defensive staff had a sound game plan.  We wanted to jump on them early and take Glen Mills out of their game plan.  We have played sound defense all season, and much of the credit goes to the defensive staff.”

Up nextfor Downingtown East (5-1) is Bishop Shanahan next Saturday afternoon.  On the docket for Glen Mills next week is Chichester.

GAME NOTES-

First meeting between the two schools.

Downingtown East 20-8-7-0- 35

Glen Mills- 0-0-0-0- 0

Scoring
First Quarter-         DHSE- Wilson 1 run (conversion failed)

                             DHSE- Wilson 2 run (McKinley kick)

                              DHSE- Weber 30 pass from O’Connor (McKinley kick)

Second Quarter-    DHSE- Matta 2 pass from O’Connor (Thurm pass from O’Connor) Third quarter-        DHSE- Wilson 2 run (McKinley kick)

Team Totals

                                    DHSE              GMS
First downs                  16                    8         

Yards rushing               25-103             27-13  

Yards passing               184                  108

Total yards                   287                  121

Passing                         12-21-0           8-17-2

Fumbles-Lost   1-0                  5-3

Penalties                       3-25                 10-75

Punts-Avg.      4-28.8              3-19.6

Individual Statistics
RUSHING – Downingtown East- Wilson 14-47 3 TD, Thurm 1-14, Goetz 6-25, Zelinski 4-17

Glen Mills- Bell 9-(minus 40), Houze 11-22, Richardson 6-33, Smith 1-(minus 2)

PASSING – Downingtown East- O’Connor 12-21, 184 yards, 2 TD, 1 INT

Glen Mills- Bell 8-17, 108 yards, 2 INT
RECEIVING – Downingtown East- Thurm 2-26, McKinley 2-37, Matta 2-18 TD, Savastio 2-39, Weber 2-37 TD, Best 1-12, Hummel 1-16

Glen Mills- Sucharski 2-8, Houze 1-5, Wallace 3-31, Graves 2-44 Garcia 1-20