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DOWNINGTOWN >> Downingtown East continued its blitz through the District 1 Class 6A playoffs Friday night at Kottmeyer Stadium as the host Cougars blanked Perkiomen Valley, 35-0, in the quarterfinals.
Downingtown East will now face rival Downingtown West next Friday in the semifinals at Kottmeyer Stadium. The Cougars downed the Whippets, 35-7, in Week Nine of the regular season.
East (11-0) rolled up 340 yards on the ground ‑ 251 of them from senior Ayden Harris, who carried the ball 41 times on the night. He capped off a nine-play, 69-yard drive with a one-yard scoring plunge to make the score 7-0 early in the first period. Owen Lammy went on a 22-yard scoring run late in the second period to give the Cougars a somewhat closer than expected 14-0 lead over the game Vikings (9-3) at halftime.
“We started a little slow and they did some things well,” Cougars head coach Michael Matta said. “We could not block the middle linebacker and number 77 (Cole Euker) played one heck of a game. But we went in at halftime and changed some things up like some blocking sets and we started to get going on the ground. We really played well, I thought, in the second half and things worked out for us tonight.”
Things certainly worked out for the Cougars as they scored 21 unanswered points in the third to put the game into the mercy rule. The defense intercepted quarterback Pat MacDonald three times on the night and held the Vikings offense to just five first downs and 74 total yards.
One of the biggest contributors to the defense was senior Felix Mason, who recorded three sacks and was causing havoc all night in the Vikings’ backfield. Mason’s three sacks were the key to stopping the Vikings’ drives.
“My defensive coach (Brandon Noble) does such a good job preparing me to play and putting me in the right spots to make plays,” Mason said. “I would not be able to play the way I did tonight without him. He is just a great coach and I owe it all to him. We just go out there and have fun and yell and scream and get after people.”
The Cougars took the second-half kickoff and went 71 yards to score with Harris leading the way. The back was carrying defenders with him as he led the offense to 24 first downs. Harris capped off two scoring drives with runs of three and five yards to give East a 28-0 lead and control of the game midway through the third.
To the Vikings’ credit, they kept fighting. They put two first downs together, but Drew Virelli picked off MacDonald and rambled 35 yards to the end zone to put the game into the mercy rule with 3:26 to play in the third.
The Cougars then punctuated the victory by holding the Vikings out of the end zone with a tremendous goalline stand early in the fourth. The Vikings were stuffed four times from the six-yard line as the Cougars preserved the shutout.
“Not many teams have held them to a two-score advantage at halftime,” PV coach Rob Heist said. “Their defense is one of the best I have seen and coach Noble does a great job with their kids. They play with the personality of their head coach and I wish them the best the rest of the way through the playoffs. We gave them a short field late in the first half with an interception and that hurt us, but I was proud of the way my kids fought all night.”
