West Chester East jumps all over Sun Valley early, rolls to victory
WEST GOSHEN >> Friday night’s Ches-Mont League American Division game between West Chester East and Sun Valley was a clash between two teams at opposite ends of the standings. West Chester East was undefeated in two games, while Sun Valley dropped its first two contests by wide margins.
Form held true Friday night as East rolled up a big first half lead and cruised to a convincing 41-7 triumph over the young Vanguards.
West Chester East (2-0 Ches-Mont, 3-0 overall) scored 27 unanswered points in the first quarter and racked up a 41-0 halftime edge while running just 14 offensive plays in the opening half. Joey Wileczek scored three touchdowns while Kyle Cichanowsky tallied two more and only played the first quarter. Wileczek took a Sun Valley punt 50 yards to score to make it a 20-0 Viking lead, and added two more rushing touchdowns in the second period to give West Chester East a 41-0 lead at halftime.
“It was not a real far punt,” Wileczek said. “I took it on the run and saw I had a big wall down the left side. So, I darted to the left and saw big Scott Cummings throw a great block to open things up and I used my speed to go all the way.
”It is sometime hard to keep our concentration with such a big lead but the coaches told us at halftime to finish the game strong,” Wileczek said. “Coach (Scott) Stephen played a lot of guys in the second half.”
Cichanowsky took the first offensive play the Vikings ran after Jack McAnally intercepted Johnny Eskridge at the Sun Valley 27 and darted through a big hole in the Vanguards’ (0-2, 0-3) right side to make it a 7-0 East lead just 87 seconds after the opening kick.
After Sun Valley went three and out and punted to the Vikings’ 38, Cichaowsky took another handoff and darted another 62 yards to score and make it a 13-0 game. That would be all for the Vikings’ superlative back, as his night ended after just five carries for 108 yards and three touchdowns.
“We know what Kyle can do because he has shown us so many times,” East head coach Scott Stephen said. “And Joey and John Wileczek are both backs we have a lot of confidence in. We have a number of guys that can carry the football for us. And getting out to a big lead like we did tonight it gave us a chance to use some guys and get them experience under the lights on Friday night.
“They work very hard Monday through Thursday and to see them get a whole half of football is very good for this program,” Stephen said. “We had an opportunity to do that tonight and they really played well for us in the second half.”
With East holding a commanding 41-0 lead at halftime, the Sun Valley offense started to churn up some yardage against the Vikings’ second team defense. Midway through the third quarter, Andrew Kmett rolled in from 20 yards out to make it a 41-7 game and the Vanguards scored just their second touchdown this season. Kmett ended the game with 19 carries for 98 yards and one touchdown.
“We are a really young team,” Sun Valley head coach Greg Bernhardt said. “We only have seven seniors on the roster and we started four sophomores tonight. At halftime we told the kids that next week starts now and they responded. They did not quit. But, I want to say that West Chester East is a very good football team and we got behind them early and things snowballed for us. But, I feel the kids responded well in the second half and we will keep on fighting and go on to next week.”
