Downingtown West’s Gainer twins bring toughness to a tested secondary

DOWNINGTOWN — Late in their junior years, Marcus and Terrence Gainer got disciplined for fighting in school on the same day.

It sounds like one of those freakish twin coincidences that tend to happen except for one minor detail: they were fighting each other.

“A little brotherly love,” Marcus Gainer explained. “They said it was the most evenly match fight anyone has ever seen. It was like mirrors.”

Terrence admitted it could have waited until they got home, but sometimes that brotherly hardwiring is too strong to resist.

“It was just a day,” Terrence said, with a wry smile. “Marcus probably did bad on a test so it just wasn’t his day so I messed with him. He just got mad. He’s not afraid of me, I’m not afraid of him.”

It’s one of those laugh-about-it-now situations, but Downingtown West is happy to have a set of twin cornerbacks who aren’t afraid of conflict.

“The first word that comes to mind is toughness,” West coach Mike Milano said. “And they can run, so we’ve been able to play a lot of man-to-man coverage because of their skill set. And lastly, they’re just really great kids. They’re here every day, they work really hard, everyone on the team loves them.”

A role in the secondary isn’t for the faint of heart. Especially at West, where the offense stacks touchdowns like pancakes, and opponents turn to the air to play catchup. 

When Terrence was asked why he likes the gig, Milano chimed in: “Because no one else wants the job.”

Terrence concurred. 

“That’s right,” he said. “It’s one-on-one, it’s all up to you. It’s one-one-one, on your island. The best man wins and I like that.”

The onus was on the secondary in the District 1-6A final against Coatesville a week ago, and while Ricky Ortega passed for 348 yards and four scores of 40 yards or more, he had 20 incompletions and Coatesville’s passing game was out of sync much of the night.

Of the 16 times Marcus and Terrence’s receivers were targeted against the Red Raiders, just two were completed for 28 yards.

“I looked forward the whole week leading up to that,” Marcus said. “I couldn’t sleep. I just couldn’t wait.”

Standing in the way of the Whippets for a spot in the state championship game is Central Dauphin, the District 3 champ. The Rams are built on their run game, but play out of the shotgun, spread formation, and will test West down the field.

The Whippets got some depth last week when senior Jackson Luneburg made his debut after an offseason injury, adding to the mix with fellow senior Tyriq Lewis and junior Julian Williams.

“There’s a lot of veteran leadership back there without a doubt,” Milano said.

For Marcus, though, having that bond with his brother across the field is just as key.

“It’s incredible,” Marcus said. “Every time I look across the field I see my brother lining up across from the receiver, taking on the challenge just like me. It’s like nothing else.”

The Gainer brothers didn’t play football until seventh grade, after the family moved up from Maryland. Right away, they fell in love with the sport.

They’re also sprinters on the track team, teaming up with Williams and Spencer Mochulski (who must be the fastest placekicker in the area) on the 4×100 relay.

Marcus concedes Terrence is faster, but along with pushing each other athletically, the duo feeds off each other’s success.

“I miss a lot of what he does, but I’ll look at it on the film later and I’ll jump up and get crazy,” Terrence said. 

West’s defense gave up 180 points in 10 regular season games, but has surrendered 136 points in four postseason duels. With the Whippets scoring 50 points a game in the playoffs, getting in track meets may not be ideal, but they’re certainly comfortable in them.

“We’ve been able to score points so teams that typically don’t want to throw a lot are throwing a lot,” Milano said. “We’ve been pretty consistent against the run. There’s an outlier or two, and that’s been our deal. We want to shut down the run game and make teams one-dimensional. As a result we get some of that stuff on the back end.”

It must be reassuring for Milano that he has a set of twins back there who know how to take a punch, and keep coming back for more.