Senior back Myles Robinson carries Kennett to second win

ELVERSON >> Talk to anyone associated with the Kennett football team, and they’ll tell you the Blue Demons have come a long way over the past few seasons.
A lot of Myles, judging by the last two weeks.
Senior back Myles Robinson continued his big-play propensity Friday night, accounting for all four touchdowns and racking up 211 all-purpose yards to lead visiting Kennett to a 30-15 non-league victory over Twin Valley.
Quarterback Jake Dilcher threw for 243 yards and two TDs, with 6-3, 230-pound Kerry Tomasetti notching six grabs — half of them for clutch third-down conversions — as the Blue Demons (2-1) won their second straight game since a 35-7 loss to Avon Grove in their opener.
Perhaps the biggest key for coach Doug Langley’s squad, however, was a resurgent defense that forced five turnovers — including two interceptions by Mitch Kosara.
“Defenses really drive a team,” Langley said. “Last week (a 27-14 win over Chichester), we really showed up and played well defensively, and we played really well defensively today. I think that’s really what will drive us.”
The Demons’ D set the tone from the outset, as D.J. McNamara intercepted Raiders QB Zach Gardner on the first play from scrimmage.
Dilcher then went deep to Robinson – a 5-10, 185-pound senior with blazing speed — for a 54-yard scoring strike and Kennett never trailed.
“I’d say the main thing was our intensity,” Robinson said. “We were all hyped. We came out there knowing we were going to win. Our intensity was high the whole game.”
Kosara blunted a monster 17-play Twin Valley drive with an interception at the 2 two plays into the second quarter, then Neil Erickson came away with a huge fumble recovery at the Raiders 23 to set up Robinson’s 1-yard run that made it 13-0 with 39 seconds left in the half.
“We were capitalizing on their mistakes, and the turnovers got everyone hyped,” Robinson said.
The Blue Demons got even more hyped coming out of the locker room, as Robinson made a sweet over-the-shoulder grab on Dilcher’s long heave for what wound up a 75-yard catch-and-run score on the first play from scrimmage in the second half to up the advantage to 20-0.
“It was the big plays,” said first-year Twin Valley coach Dean Owens, the former highly successful baseball coach at West Chester East as well as football assistant at East and Henderson. “We knew that coming into the game: we had to prevent those big plays, and we didn’t. We blew coverage on both of those (long passes to Robinson), but to give them credit, they made plays. I thought we had them contained most of the night, but then the QB would roll and scramble around and we’d lose our coverage.”
Twin Valley (1-1), thanks to Mason Bennett’s long kickoff return, got on the board on a 19-yard TD pass from Gardner to Zach Schaffer wiht 10:46 left in the third. Then, after Jim Tuley connected on a 23-yard field goal for the Demons, the Raiders got within 23-15 when Bennett scampered for a 15-yard score on the first play of the fourth quarter and Gardner hit Josh Mable for the conversion pass.
But Kennett would not be denied, answering with a six-play drive culminating in Robinson’s 8-yard TD run that provided the final margin.
“I was impressed with the mental part of our game,” Langley said. “We got up quick, then we stayed up and stayed in the game mentally. That’s what we’ve been focusing on a lot.”
That focus appears to have paid off in spades as a squad that won just three times in its previous 20 games has already matched last year’s victory total.
NOTES >> Kennett’s Nate Pizzini forced a fumble that Jose Rodriguez recovered and also notched one sack, as did Tomassetti, Connor Hynzy and Eugene Hall. … Kennett, which faces Downingtown West next week, took a 4-3 lead in the series. … Tuley averaged 39.2 yards on his five punts, including a 50-yarder. … Bennett ran for 73 yards and Schaffer and Darren Sipf combined for 11 receptions for 144 yards for the Raiders, who had won five straight dating back to last year and were looking for their first 2-0 start since opening 3-0 in 2009. … Twin Valley inducted former professional baseball players Tom Patton, Joe Casey and Nick Mattioni into its sports Hall of Fame at halftime.