Chi’s Reaves runs roughshod over West Chester East with five TDs

UPPER CHICHESTER — On the first day of October, the autumn wind was played by Chichester’s do-everything player Staring Reaves.

Reaves pillaged West Chester East for five touchdowns – two on the ground, two through the air, and another on an interception return for good measure. It was truly an amazing performance in the Eagles’ 41-6 victory over the Vikings.

“We were real confident coming into this. After two losses, all we had was motivation all week,” Reaves said. “We had a chip on our shoulder and we played our hearts out.”
Reaves finished the game with 50 yards rushing, 123 yards receiving, two interceptions and those five aforementioned touchdowns – one of which came off an electric, 84-yard interception return.

But it was Reaves’ offensive performance that stole the show.

When quizzed about how he managed to be so successful in jump ball situations on the night, the 5-9 receiver had a simple answer.

“I just try to get up and be an athlete,” Reaves said. “I wouldn’t have been able to do it without my offensive line, my teammates, and coaches.”

Eagles coach Ed Buck could not say enough good things about Reaves.

“He was incredible in all facets of the game. Everything we need, he does it well,” said Buck, whose team improved to 2-2.

It wasn’t only Reaves who excelled. Quarterback Idrees Holloman (158 yards passing) and running back Zyair Bush (62 yards rushing) teamed with the offensive line to put forth an excellent effort. Meanwhile, the Eagles’ defense did not allow the West Chester East offense to score. The Vikings’ only touchdown came on an interception return by Drew Steele.

Not to be outdone, Quadir Blackwell scored a defensive touchdown for the Eagles with a 45-yard fumble return.

“We’ve been preaching all year to get 11 guys to the ball and having someone ripping at the ball,” Buck said. “We’ve been waiting for that to happen and it really paid off today. Our defense was awesome.”

One of the underlying stories of the game for Chichester was the emergence of kicker A.J. Ricco, who jumped in for fellow Chichester soccer player Mazen Sayed, the Eagles’ regular kicker who is out with an injury. Ricco drilled three of his extra-point attempts and did extremely well on his kickoffs.

Moreover, Ricco also lateraled the ball on a broken-play PAT and was welcomed to the game of football by the Vikings defenders with a different kind of tackle than he is used to on the soccer pitch.

“He was literally off the street,” Buck joked. “It was Wednesday when he came to practice. I saw him kick a couple and he made them. Then he did a couple of kickoffs and he was booming them. To come out and do that after never playing football before is absolutely incredible.”

As for West Chester East, the Vikings will look to turn things around.
“We’ve got a great group of guys and that’s not going to waver,” said West Chester East coach Scott Stephen, whose team dropped to 0-6. “We told them that we believe in them and talked about the love that we have for them as a staff. That is not going to change. We just have to clean up some of our mistakes. We’ll watch film and continue to work to get better.”