Downingtown East downs Academy Park
DOWNINGTOWN >> Saturday night at Kottmeyer Stadium, Downingtown East continued its winning ways with a hard fought 25-20 nonleague win over a tough Academy Park squad to go 6-1 on the season.
Downingtown East (6-1) rushed for 253 yards, 186 of them by senior Bo Horvath, who carried the load with 28 carries. Horvath also got two big safeties in the third period when the Knights (4-2) were beset with bad snaps on punt attempts. Those two safeties helped D-East gain control of a game that was 14-12 in favor of the host Cougars at halftime.
“I really like carrying the load and I felt good out here tonight,” Horvath said. “They were a very physical team and I took some big blows to my legs but we got it done. And it was good to have Josh Asante back from injury to get some reps so I could get a breather. This was a good win for us and we were ready to play tonight.”
The two teams traded touchdowns in the first half but the lack of a Academy Park kicking game hurt the Knights as they trailed 14-12 at halftime due to two missed extra point tries.
In the third period, the Cougars forced a Knights punt but the snap was high and the resulting safety gave Downingtown East a 16-12 lead.
After the Academy Park kickoff, the Cougars used the short field to strike fast, with Horvath going 42 yards on the left side for a touchdown and a 23-12 Cougar advantage.
After the Downingtown East defense forced another Knights three and out, punt misfortunes cost the Knights two more points as another bad snap led to a Cougar safety and Downingtown East had a 25-12 lead after three periods.
“We had two bad snaps and at least they were safeties instead of touchdowns,” Academy Park assistant coach Davis Vosheki said. “But, I am super proud of these kids. We played a really good football team tonight and except for a few mistakes I thought we played very well. Real proud of the kids tonight.”
Academy Park took the ball at the start of the fourth period, and behind the running of Terrence Oliver went on a 94-yard, 12-play drive that took 6:23 off the clock and ended up with Kahlil Greenwood going in from nine yards out. After the successful two point conversion, it was a 25-20 game midway through the fourth period.
Downingtown East then took the ensuing kickoff and held onto the football to chew up clock. On a fourth down play, the Knights jumped off side and the Cougars had one of their 21 first downs. On a third and eight play, the Cougars’ Mike Giordino took a 33-yard pass reception down to the Knights 26 yard line with under three minutes to play.
The Cougars used the running of Horvath to get the ball down to the Knights 10 yard line, where they faced a fourth and six with 1:12 to play in the fourth period. The Knights once again jumped offside to make it a fourth and one play. This time Academy Park stopped Horvath cold and the Knights took over at their own 10 yard line with just 1:09 left in the fourth period.
Down by five points with the clock running out, Academy Park quarterback Darrell Fields went deep but the Cougars AJ Lehman picked off the pass. The Cougars took a knee and exhaled with a 25-20 win.
“Academy Park is a good team but we had some mistakes we have to clean up,” Downingtown East head coach Mike Matta said. “It was a little like our game against Bishop Shanahan where we left some points on the field. We got stopped two times in the red zone or we would have had 14 more points. We need to cut out those mistakes if we are going to be the team we want to be.”
