Downingtown West rolls over Avon Grove 55-0

DOWNINGTOWN >> Friday night at Kottmeyer Stadium the Downingtown West football team opened up Ches-Mont National Division play with a very impressive 55-0 shutout over Avon Grove.

The host Whippets piled up 461 yards of total offense and the West defense held the Red Devils to just 113 yards of total offense in the one-sided affair.

John Mulville led the way for the Whippets (1-0 Ches-Mont, 3-1 overall) as he rushed for 144 yards on 15 carries and he also added two touchdowns. Mulville was running behind the huge and physical West offensive line, led by West Virginia University commit Cooper Young.

“We just wanted to come and run the ball and lay on Avon Grove,” Young said. “And getting Mulville back from injury was a big plus for us — and our quarterback Quinn (Henicle) really runs a good game. We have been having trouble finishing games and it may have been conditioning, so this week we really worked on it and it showed tonight.”

“I thought we played well tonight. Obviously we were favored coming into the game but I felt we did what we had to do. The league is probably going to come down to our games with Downingtown East and Coatesville, so we cannot slip up before those games and we are going to have to be ready for those games.

Avon Grove actually controlled the play in the first period as the Red Devils (0-1, 1-3) went on a long six-minute drive that was stopped when Kam Alex sacked Avon Grove quarterback Frank Hoogerwerff for a big loss on a third down play. Adam Oknowicz then missed a 38-yard field goal, and that was the last Red Devils threat of the night.

“Give Avon Grove credit,” Downingtown West head coach Mike Milano said. “They came out in the first period and ran old-fashioned wing-T and they were picking up yardage with the sweeps. They played hard and I think we only had a few plays of offense in the first period.”

With West holding a 7-0 lead after one period — on a 70-yard punt return by Dean Hangey — the Whippets offense exploded for 21 unanswered points in the second. Jake Kucera broke free over the middle and Henicle hit him stride for a 76-yard touchdown pass and a 14-0 Downingtown West lead.

The Whippets were not done, however, as Mullville capped off a 10-play drive with a four-yard scoring run around the left side for a 21-0 Whippets advantage. Henicle capped off a 53-yard scoring drive with 39 seconds left in the first half, by going in from a yard out and at halftime it was 28-0.

“I have a lot of very good skill players,” Milano said. “And they made plays tonight when we got untracked and we had a very good second period.”

The Whippets took the second half kickoff and went on another long scoring drive that ended when Henicle found the end zone for a nine-yard touchdown run and a 34-0 lead.

Mulville put the game into the mercy rule when he went 39 yards untouched down the right sideline for a 41-0 lead with 6:22 left in the third period.

Milano cleared his bench after the Mulville score, and the Whippets and Red Devils second teamers got some valuable playing time the rest of the way.

“We are still trying to define ourselves,” Milano said. “We thought we found out some things about us last week and tonight our defense played very well. They play very fast and they play hard.”

Downingtown West 55, Avon Grove 0

Avon Grove                                      0 0 0 0 — 0

Downingtown West                       7 21 13 14 — 55

                         Scoring

D — Hangey 70 punt return (Mehan kick)

                        Second Period

D — Kucera 76 pass from Henicle (Mehan kick)

D — Mulville 4 run (Mehan kick)

D — Henicle 1 run (Mehan kick)

                         Third Period

D — Henicle 9 run (kick failed)

D — Mulville 39 run (Mehan kick)

                       Fourth Period

D — Garrity 5 run (Mehan kick)

D — Burke 5 run (Mehan kick)

                             Team Totals

                      AG              DW

First downs     6                 18

Yards rushing 79               321

Yards passing 34              140

Total yards      113            461

Passing          3-6-0         3-5-1

Fumbles-lost    1-1            1-0

Penalties-yds   4-30         9-85

Punts-avg       5-31.5        0-0

                         Individual Statistics

Rushing — AG: Binstead 14-41; Watson 9-40; Sabestro 2-0; Webb 3-15; Hoogerwerff 7- (30); Olander 2-6; McKeown 1-7. DW: Mulville 15-144, 2TD’s; Kucera 2-12; Hayford 6-33; Garrity 3-18, TD; Brown 1-6; Henicle 3-11, 2TD’s; Burke 4-25, TD; Dunn 7-57; Alex 2-15.

Passing — AG: Hoogerwerff 2-4-36; Ham 1-2-(-2). DW: Henicle 3-5-140, TD.

Receiving — AG: Brown 1 (-2); Czerpak 1-38; T-Toe 1-0. DW: Kucera 1-76, TD; Cambell 1-58; Hayford 1-6.

Sacks — AG: None. DW: Alex 2, Hangey, Damson.

Interceptions — AG: Dosenbach.