Coatesville rolls past West Chester East

COATESVILLE—Coatesville defensive back Zach Hillard has a clear understanding about what can happen when you take a team lightly. It isn’t pretty.

The Red Raiders (6-1, 3-0) made it known early on that they would approach Friday night’s game against visiting West Chester East (0-7, 0-3) the same as they do against everyone that lines up across from them. Coatesville found the end zone five times in the first period alone, and cruised to a 63-14 victory.

“Back in my sophomore year, we kind of looked past West Chester East,” said Hillard. “And they beat us. There was no way we were going to let something like that happen again. We worked hard all week, and played hard tonight.”

Hillard and his Red Raider defensive teammates were basically impenetrable for much of the first half. It was late in the second period before the Vikings were showing positive offensive yardage on the stat sheet.

Offensively, Coatesville moved the ball at will, scoring on every possession of the first half, and with equal efficiency through the air and on the ground. Ricky Ortega threw for 136 yards and 3 touchdowns on 11 of 14 passing. The Raiders ground game, led by Aaron Young’s 95 yards and 2 touchdowns on 6 carries, rolled up 157 yards over the first two periods.

Even the special teams got in on the action. East looked like they might have caught a break on a broken play on a punt when the boot got a favorable roll, sending Dapree Bryant going all the way back to his own thirty to pick it up. But Bryant took off to his left, broke a couple tackles, then cut back the other way and raced 70 yards down the right sideline for the score.

“I just saw everything open up in front of me,” said Bryant. “I made a few cuts, picked up some blocks and I was gone.”

It was already 56-0 and almost halftime before the Vikings got anything going. Helped along by a couple of Red Raider penalties, East moved the ball down into the red zone, and capped a 52-yard drive with an 11-yard pass from Ryan Cassidy to Michael Gray. They added another score in the third when Cassidy hit Tim Clifford for a 30 yard touchdown.

“We’re playing really well right now,” said Bryant. “Both offense and defense are doing the job.”

The cushion gave Red Raider coach Matt Ortega to get some playing time for some of his younger players, and they responded. Eric Kirk scored a 32-yard touchdown on his only carry. Malachi Harris ran for 47 yards on six carries. Quarterback Eddie Easterday completed 4 of 6 passes for 42 yards and a touchdown.

“You’ve got to come out every game with the mentality that it’s your last if you lose,” said coach Ortega. “These kids came out and played tough and built a big lead early.  It’s definitely great when you can get more kids into the game and get some meaningful minutes. Those things pay off down the road.”

Coatesville 63 West Chester East 14
WC East 0 7 7 0 — 14
Coatesville 35 21 0 7 — 63
First Quarter
CV—Young 13-run, Mihalik Kick 7-0
CV— Alexander 11-pass from Ortega, Mihalik Kick 14-0
CV—Young 42-yard punt return, Mihalik Kick 21-0
CV—Crews 8-pass from Ortega, Mihalik Kick 28-0
CV—Young 28-run, Mihalik Kick 35-0
Second Quarter
CV—Crews 7-pass from Ortega, Mihalik Kick 42-0
CV—Kirk 32-run, Mihalik Kick, 49-0
CV—Bryant 70-yard punt return, Mihalik Kick 56-0
WCE—Gray 11-pass from Cassidy, Roth Kick 56-7
Third Quarter
WCE— Clifford 30 pass from Cassidy, Roth Kick 56-14
Fourth Quarter
CV — Shields 20 pass from Easterday, Hylen Kick 63-14
team statistics
WCE CV
First downs 7 16
Rushes-yards 30-19 25-251
Passing 8-16 15-20
Passing yards 95 178
Total yards 111 429
Punts 8-29.4 0-0
Fumbles-lost 3-2 1-1
Penalties-yards 3-25 6-50
Individual statistics
Rushing — WCE Marchant 15-25 Clifford 6-8 Chichanowski 5- (-1) Cassidy 3-(-16) Gray 1-2 CV—Young 6-95 2TD, Ortega 2-20, Kirk 1-30 TD, Harris 4-27 Easterday 3-0
Passing — WCE—Cassidy 8-16, 95, 2TD CV—Ortega 11-14, 136, 3TD Easterday 4-6, 42, TD
Receiving — Bryant 4-50, Alexander 2-29 TD Crews 2-15 2TD, Aa Young 1-13, Summers 1-10, Kirk 1-19, Shields 2-33 TD, Sherman 1-7 Limper 1-2
Interceptions — NONE
Sacks —CV–Raimondo, Holmes