Inspired Downingtown East blanks Boyertown

DOWNINGTOWN — Last week the Downingtown East football team used a ferocious second half comeback to get its first win of the season on the road at Spring-Ford. Friday night at Kottmeyer Stadium the Cougars played 48 minutes of inspired football as the Cougars rolled to a 35-7 win over Boyertown in a non-league affair.

Downingtown East had a 35-0 lead at halftime and Cougars’ head coach Michael Matta used his reserves the entire second half, which was played under the mercy rule. The Cougars defense was rabid all night as they did not allow the Bears (0-4) a first down in the first half.

“We used last week as some energy and we played defense up to Downingtown East standards,” linebacker Jack Griffiths said. “Last year the defense had nine straight shutouts and they set the standard and we came out strong tonight and played fast and hard.”

The Cougars’ defense got things going early in the first period. Connor Keibort picked off a Connor Foskey pass and rambled 29 yards to the end zone to give East an early 7-0 lead. The Cougars picked off three passes for the game.

After the Cougars’ defense forced a Bears three-and-out, East took the Boyertown punt at the Bears’ 40 yard line. Four plays later, quarterback Mason Ippolito rolled 15 yards around the right side of the Bears defense for a 14-0 lead.

As well as the Downingtown East offense played, it was the ravenous Cougars’ defense that led the way. East held the Bears to just four first downs for the game and just 58 total yards of offense, most of which came late in the fourth period.

The Cougars put the game effectively away in the second period, scoring 21 unanswered points to take a commanding 35-0 lead into the halftime locker room. Alex Rios scored on a four-yard touchdown run to make it 21-0. Rios carried the ball 11 times for 67 yards and two scores. Robinson carried the football 17 times for 70 yards.

The Bears’ offense could not muster anything against the Cougars the entire first half. After another Bears punt, East went on a 52-yard, eight-play scoring drive with freshman Jules Robinson banging in from two yards out and it was 28-0.

The Cougars finished the first half scoring with 2:30 left when Rios went nine yards up the middle of the line for a 35-0 lead. The ensuing second half would be played under the mercy rule.

“We used our energy tonight to start strong,” linebacker Caleb Aikens said. “We have standards here and we just play our game. We do not play down to anybody. We just play hard and we are going to use this win to have a great week of practice and get after it again next week.”

The dominating win evens the Cougars record at 2-2 with a road test coming up next Friday against Great Valley. Matta wanted to talk about how his young defense is coming together.

“We only had one starter back from last year,” Matta said. “And we had some hiccups against North Penn and in the first half against Spring-Ford last week. But they play very hard and they are starting to tighten some things up and be a quality unit.”