DOWNINGTOWN<< To win football games you need to have a high level of intensity. It is a hard thing to describe and even harder thing to harness week after week. This season the Downingtown East Cougars played four rivalry games in a row.
Two games against Coatesville and Downingtown West, both losses, to close out the regular season. Then, just like the doctor ordered, the Cougars faced Coatesville and Downingtown West in the first two rounds of the District 1 6A playoffs.
The Cougars avenged those two regular season losses in style by defeating Coatesville 31-15 last week and Friday night at Kottmeyer Stadium, the Cougars downed their arch rivals from D West, 34-9, in emphatic fashion with Cougars running back Bo Horvath rushing for 275 yards and five touchdowns in a another amazing performance.
“I was really glad to see both Coatesville and West on our side of the bracket for the playoffs,” Horvath said. “It just really came down to who wanted to play football more and it was us. We avenged both those regular season losses and we wanted to play more so we came out on top.”
It is an arduous task to keep a team, no less a high school team at the level you need to be to defeat teams as talented as Coatesville and Downingtown West, no less twice in a four week span.
“It was all the kids,” Downingtown East head coach Mike Matta said. “After we lost those two games at the end i felt I let the kids down. I felt terrible. Then, we go into the playoffs and the kids told me we were going to beat Coatesville. They are a very tough team and they have a lot of composure that is for sure.”
Downingtown East quarterback Jamy Jenkins who had a big touchdown pass in the win over Coatesville said that getting ready to go in the playoffs after two draining late season losses was a team effort.
“We just work very hard every day at getting better,” Jenkins said. “We just went back to work and the coaches got us going. We 100 percent through we could beat these two teams and it was something we all believed we could do. We showed what kind of team we are with these two wins.”
Downingtown East physically beat Coatesville and Downingtown West, outscoring those two opponents 75-24, in the two playoff wins. Besides the marvelous play of Horvath, the Cougars defense was rock solid against two very good offensive squads.
The toughest of the tough of the Cougars hard hitting defense is senior Mike Waite, and he said the Cougars were on a mission to avenge those two close losses.
“The two games against our rivals where the crowds are real big and all the noise did not go our way,” Waite said. “But, we were thrilled to see them in our side of the playoff bracket and we knew we could turn those losses around.
“It was a little bit like our revenge tour. We definitely wanted to play them again and get back t them and that is what we did, playing tough, physical, Downingtown football.”
Downingtown East now advances to play top seeded Garnet Valley in the district semifinals, the first time the Cougars have advanced this far since 2014.
Who wins that game is still unknown. But what is known is the Cougars will be sky high and are going to be a very tough out for any team in District 1 or the state of Pennsylvania.
After all, they play Downingtown football and that is always hard hitting, intense and tough.
