Twice as nice: CB West defeats rival CB East again to open District 1-6A playoffs
BUCKINGHAM >> Central Bucks West’s reward for closing the regular season with a gut-it-out win on arch-rival Central Bucks East’s home field?
Go do it again.
The No. 11 Bucks faced that task on Friday, facing the No. 6 Patriots for a second consecutive week only with much more at stake. With this week marking the start of the District 1 6A playoffs, only the winning team would get to keep playing so a game that never needs for incentive or motivation just had more on the line.
West did it again, using a dominant first half and taking East’s counter in the second as the Bucks topped the Patriots 42-26 to advance another week.
“It’s a rivalry game. We don’t like each other very much,” West defensive back Cooper Taylor said. “We had a great game plan, we came in and executed it and that’s all it’s about.”
Last week’s matchup – the first time in 53 years it was contested under stadium lights at CB East – saw the Bucks grind out a win on a late touchdown by Vinny Cherubini. The Patriots also lost their standout running back/middle linebacker Ethan Shine to an injury in the second half that left questions about his availability for the rematch.
East had Shine, who started on both sides of the ball and carried 20 times for 136 yards and two scores. West had plenty of motivation to not let his presence matter much in the outcome. From the second they won the pregame coin toss, the Bucks were aiming to impose their will on the field.
Quarterback Ganz Cooper, who again played at safety for CB West, felt his team hadn’t been good enough last week. A reminder, the Bucks won 21-14 last week.
“We still had some unfinished business,” Cooper, who rushed for two scores and threw for another, said. “The way we ended last week, we like putting a lot more points on the board. This week, we came out here with something to prove and wanting to show we were the better team.
“You’ve got to set the tone right away so when we saw we’d get the ball, we were all pretty excited.”
West took the ball right down the field, Cooper hitting Ryan Clemens for 28 yards as the big play, and scored when the quarterback went in from a yard out.
East looked like it might answer, Shine ripping off a 19-yard gain on his first touch, with the Patriots getting all the way down to the Bucks’ 16 before facing a 4th-and-1. The Patriots went for a direct snap but West walled up at the line of scrimmage and stuffed the hosts for a turnover on down.
Even a conversion on a fake punt on their next drive couldn’t build any momentum for the Patriots and they had a pivotal turnover in the final minutes of the first half, with a sack and fumble leading to a recovery by West’s Mike O’Hanlon. CB East also had a 44-yard field goal attempt clang off the upright just before halftime, sending the visiting Bucks back to the locker room up 28-0.
“The last two games, we’ve had eight trips to the red zone that ended either in a turnover or with no points and you’ve got to be able to score,” East coach John Donnelly said. “We played really well in the second half, much better, but we had dug ourselves an incredibly big hole.
“I’m proud of the fight and the grit the team showed in the second half but we made mistakes we had not made all year long in the first half.”
Cooper had some key runs late in the game, several on West’s nearly 7:30 long drive that ate up much of the fourth quarter, to close things out while completing some big passes in the first half. Eli Boehm ran well a usual, rushing for two scores and catching a third, accumulating 127 yards on 22 carries and Vinny Cherubini had 33 rushing yards, a touchdown and tough blocking.
The quarterback, who propped up Boehm’s running as giving him the lanes late in the game, also passed the credit to his guys up front for the offense’s hot start. Tight end Jack Williams, left tackle Hayden Mulligan, left guard Sam Heath, center Danny Gannon, right guard Christian Pudio and right tackle Carter Charran didn’t allow a sack and pushed the issue off the snap consistently.
“It was the line, if you ask me,” Cooper said. “The line had everything going. We could have done anything we wanted and it would have worked.”
Donnelly lamented an inability to stop the sweep plays that fuel West’s offense as well. The Bucks only led 7-0 at the end of the first quarter, but scored three touchdowns in the second and looked to be in total command of the game going to the break.
East didn’t go 8-2 in the regular season by accident and much like the visitors did to start the game, the host squad took the opening kick of the third quarter and went right down the field. Shine scored touchdowns on back-to-back drives to start the second half, the East defense mashing a stop in between for good measure while senior quarterback Pat Keller got going as well.
“They had eight guys in the box, so we had to take to the air a little bit and we want to be balanced to begin with,” Donnelly said. “We had a nice drive before the end of the half and don’t get points there, but you have to take what they give you. If they put eight in the box, you have to throw and I thought we did a good job getting to the perimeter and using the ‘C’ and ‘D’ gaps.”
Cooper and Taylor both felt the Bucks let up coming out of halftime. Taylor thought the team was a little too confident with what looked like a commanding lead while Cooper noted West didn’t have the same energy it had to start the game.
When Dean Blackwell picked off Cooper with 2:43 left in the third and East only trailing 28-12 at the time, it seemed like that flat start to the second half could have been disastrous. Instead, Taylor came through a much-needed play at a much-needed time.
Keller completed a pass over the middle, seemingly picking up a first down before Taylor came flying in with a heavy hit that jarred the ball loose and up, the deflection coming down to Jackson Estes for an interception. The Bucks scored four snaps later, taking advantage of the short field.
“It was huge,” Taylor said. “They had a couple touchdowns in a row and they had all the momentum. That was a game-changer.”
Cooper agreed.
“Great play by Coop, he’s a phenomenal player,” Cooper said. “After that, we got the energy back and we started rolling.”
Playing the biggest game of their season against their biggest rival twice in eight days wasn’t enough to slow down the Bucks. Up next for CB West is a home playoff game against No. 14 North Penn, who upset No. 3 Pennsbury 22-21.
Earlier this season, West ran all over the Knights so North Penn will come into War Memorial Field looking for redemption. That’s fine with West, which still feels it has to prove itself.
“We’re some dogs, I can tell you that,” Taylor said.
“I think we’ve always had this heart inside of us, it took a little while to bring it out,” Cooper said. “The loss to (CB) South really motivated us and even coming here, we still had something to prove and we wanted to show the heart we have in us.”
CB WEST 7 21 7 7 – 42
CB EAST 0 0 12 14 – 26
Scoring Plays
1st Quarter
CBW – Ganz Cooper 1 run (Ryan Clemens kick) 7:38
2nd Quarter
CBW – Cooper 6 pass to Eli Boehm (Clemens kick) 11:11
CBW – Eli Boehm 4 run (Clemens kick) 3:41
CBW – Vinny Cherubini 2 run (Clemens kick) 1:54
3rd Quarter
CBE – Ethan Shine 1 run (XP block) 9:25
CBE – Shine 1 run (2-point pass fail) 4:21
CBW – Boehm 2 run (Clemens kick) :20
4th Quarter
CBE – Pat Keller 19 pass to Matt LaBouliere (Jack Corrigan kick) 10:10
CBW – Cooper 1 run (Clemens kick) 2:43
CBE – Keller 10 pass to Joe Maeglin (Corrigan kick) 1:18
Team Stats
CBW CBE
First Downs 18 17
Rushes-Yards 44-205 28-145
Passing 6-8-1-1 15-25-2-1
Passing Yards 112 273
Total Yards 317 418
Fumbles-Lost 1-0 1-1
Penalties-Yards 6-46 6-58
Individual Stats
Rushing: CBW – Eli Boehm 23-127, Vinny Cherubini 12-33, Ganz Cooper 8-45, Conor McFadden 1-0; CBE – Ethan Shine 20-136, Declan Kelly 1-0, Pat Keller 6-4, Jack Donnelly 1-5
Passing: CBW – Cooper 6-8-112-1-1; CBE – Keller 14-25-2-1-273
Receiving: CBW – McFadden 3-62, Ryan Clemens 1-28, Jack Williams 1-16, Boehm 1-6; CBE – Donnelly 8-113, Matt LaBouliere 5-102, Luke Wilson 1-58
Interceptions: CBW – Jackson Estes; CBE – Dean Blackwell
