Cougars remain perfect
DOWNINGTOWN- Both Bishop Shanahan and Downingtown East came into Friday nights Ches-Mont National Division clash with unblemished records. After 48 tough minutes of football, host Downingtown East, who jetted out to an early 21-0 lead, held off a Bishop Shanahan charge to take home a 28-13 victory, dealing the Eagles their first loss the season.
For Downingtown East (1-0 Ches-Mont, 4-0 overall) running back Bo Horvath was an ironman, rushing the football 36 times for 224 yards and a touchdown. Whenever the Cougars needed a first down the ball went to Horvath and he delivered.
“I like the work of running the ball a lot,” Horvath said. “And with our star running back Josh Asante out with an injury it is tough because with both of us you have fresher legs but I really like the work. We came out strong early and then they stacked the box on us and at halftime we made some adjustments to go weak side a lot and we ran our offense.”
The Cougars took the opening kickoff and went on a 10 play drive with quarterback Jamy Jenkins hitting Louis Rossetti for a four yard touchdown pass and a 7-0 lead. After the Cougar defense forced an Eagles (0-1, 3-1) three and out, a bad Bishop Shanahan punt set up Downingtown East in good shape, deep in Eagles territory.
Jenkins, on the fourth play of the drive went the final two yards and the Cougars had an early 14-0 lead. Three minutes later, Jenkins went in on a quarterback sneak and it was a 21-0 Downingtown East lead and it looked like a blowout was brewing at Kottmeyer Stadium.
But the Eagles came back as superlative senior quarterback Cooper Jordan went straight up the middle of the Cougar defense 65 yards untouched, to score and at halftime it was a 21-7 Downingtown East advantage. Jordan was fantastic in the losing effort, throwing for 251 yards and gaining 88 yards on nine rushes.
Jordan worked a little more of his magic in the third period when he finished a long Bishop Shanahan drive with a pretty 20 yard touchdown pass in the corner of the end zone to Greg Lewis. The Eagles went for two points but Jordan was stopped just short of the end zone and the Cougars had a 21-13 lead.
“Cooper is a fantastic athlete and playmaker,” Bishop Shanahan head coach Paul Meyers said. “He was in on defense in the secondary, he was on our kickoff team and he played a great game. I can’t say enough about him. He is our superstar.”
Downingtown East restored some order to the game going on a 46 yard touchdown drive with Horvath going the final yard to score and it was a 28-13 Cougar lead after three periods.
The fourth period was scoreless but Bishop Shanahan had its chances to close the gap. Jordan’s pass into the end zone was picked off by AJ. Lehman to stop an Eagles scoring chance and later in the fourth period, Jordan had the ball knocked out of his hands and the Cougars recovered and Downingtown East held on to remain perfect and they handed Bishop Shanahan its first loss of the season.
“We played really well after the first period,” Meyers said. “Once the kids realized we could play with them we did okay but you can’t start like that against a good team like them. And we had too many penalties and turnovers to win.”
Downingtown East head coach Mike Matta did not seem overly thrilled with his team and its performance but he was looking ahead to next week’s game against West Chester Rustin.
“We could not get any rhythm going on offense,” Matta said. “But credit them, they played well. I will know more when I look a the film. We have a red letter game next week against a team that beat us pretty good last year so we will see where we are.”
Downingtown East 28, Bishop Shanahan 13.
Bishop Shanahan 0 7 6 0-13
Downingtown East 21 0 7 0-28
Scoring
D-Rossetti 4 pass from Jenkins (Marks kick)
D-Jenkins 2 run (Marks kick)
D-Jenkins 1 run (Marks kick)
Second Period
BS-Jordan 65 run (Domsohn kick)
Third Period
BS-Lewis 20 pass from Jordan (run failed)
D-Horvath 1 run (Marks kick)
Team Totals
BS D
First downs 14 17
Yards rushing 111 232
Yards passing 251 104
Total yards 362 336
Passing 19-37-1 6-17-0
Fumbles-lost 4-2 3-2
Punts-avg 5-27.5 4-34.0
Penalties-yds 8-86 7-65
Individual Statistics
Rushing: BS: Jordan 9-88, TD; whitehall 6-13; McGrory 5-10. DE: Horvath 36-224, TD; Lammy 1-4; Leo 1 (-8); Jenkins 8-12, 2TD’s.
Passing: BS: Jordan 19-37-251, TD. DE: Jenkins 6-17-104.
Receiving: BS: Kapcynski 6-104; Whitehill 2-8; W.Jordan 1-7; Barbadora 1-4; Lewis 2-23, TD; Wa.Jordan 2-27; McGrory 3-46; Gallagher 2-32. DE: Leo 3-45; Bousum 1-27; Lammy 1-28; Rossetti 1-4, TD.
Sacks: BS: None. DE: Lehman.
Interceptions: BS: None. DE: Lehman.
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