Coatesville’s hot offense keeps rolling in win over WC East

CALN >> The Coatesville Red Raiders came into Friday night red hot, especially on offense.

Despite the first cold, rainy night of the season, that didn’t change.

Coatesville’s explosive offense did its usual thing again Friday night, rolling to a 34-14 Ches-Mont League National Division win over West Chester East.

The biggest thing is we were able to put [34 points] on the scoreboard and we were sloppy,” said Coatesville head coach Matt Ortega. “I felt like this was one of our sloppier games in the last two weeks.”

Coatesville defended its home field Friday night, allowing West Chester East to score points only on its first drive of the game, and one of the last, after the result was assured.

The Vikings opened the game on the front foot, marching 54 yards down the field to score when quarterback Jonathan Thompson floated a 21-yard pass to Alex Hirsch to cap the game’s first drive.

“We came out a little flat,” Ortega said. “We bounced back and came through some adversity and we can out with the win. But, once we got the score to 7-7 the kids felt comfortable and we were ready to go.”

It took a trick play to get Coatesville’s offense some momentum in the second quarter. Coatesville quarterback Ricky Ortega got the ball out of the shotgun at his own 42-yard line, then pitched the ball to Aaron Young on what looked to be an everyday pitch sweep. Only this time Ortega took off down the field and Young hit him with a 40-yard pass. The play set them up near the goal line, and a couple of plays away from Aaron Young running in a 7-yard touchdown.

“We had that play in for two weeks and have been waiting for the right time to call it,” said Ricky Ortega. “It was third and long and we needed a big play. It got everyone hyped and helped our team out.”

Aaron Young once again lead the Red Raiders offense, a week after rushing the ball 26 times for 324 yards and five touchdowns against Downingtown West.

Young scored four rushing touchdowns against the Vikings, carrying 13 times for 145 yards. He had rushing touchdowns from 7, 2, 5 and 51 yards out. Young didn’t return to the game after his rushing touchdown in the third quarter, and was seen after the game in a golf cart.

No injury update was given after the game.

West Chester East struggled to move the ball after that first successful drive of the night.

“We were playing with them in the first and I thought we looked good,” said West Chester East head coach Dave Gueriera. “What happened was the little things like bad snaps and missed assignments caught up to us.”

Running back Jared Cooper constantly met Coatesville’s defensive line as soon as the ball was snapped. He rushed for just 30 yards on 15 attempts.

“Our running back Coop is banged up from last week,” Gueriera said. “He should be fine for next week but he didn’t practice all this week.

“We kind of got forced into the pass game in the second half.”

Due to being down early in the game, the Vikings were forced to throw the ball in hopes of catching Coatesville before time expired. Thompson threw 16 completions on 33 attempts for 203 yards.

Coatesville will travel to rival Downingtown East next Friday for a clash that could decide the National Division, and may have big District 1 implications. The Red Raiders hope their offense can stay hot against the Cougars’ stingy defense.

“It’s going to be a great game,” coach Ortega said. “We just have to have a great week of practice and be ready for Friday night.”

West Chester East hosts Downingtown West Friday.

“I thought we were disciplined tonight but we lacked execution and focus,” Gueriera said. “That’s why we lost the game. I just hope that we can effectively run the ball next week.”