O’Donnell-to-Lochetta pushes CB East past arch rival CB West
BUCKINGHAM >> They were neighbors for 13 years.
“Since I was four years old, I’ve been throwing to him,” Central Bucks East quarterback Evan O’Donnell said with a big smile, speaking of wide receiver Chris Lochetta. “Everything led up to this moment…”
O’Donnell hit a streaking Lochetta down the right sideline for a 29-yard touchdown with just 1 minute, 10 seconds to play, providing the winning score in Saturday’s annual East-West battle at packed Patriot Stadium.
“We probably dreamed about this exact moment since we first put on East helmets,” Lochetta said after the 27-20 victory, played in front of fans, family and alumni from both squads. “To win it like this is really special, something I’ll always remember.”
O’Donnell ran for a touchdown, threw the game-winner to Lochetta, and finished with 226 yards through the air. Lochetta caught seven balls for 114 yards, as East raised its overall record to 3-4 and improved to 1-2 in the Suburban One League Continental Conference.
The Bucks, getting strong rushing performances from Garrett Hitchens (107 yards, TD) and Joe Fay (77 yards, 2 TDs), dropped to 2-5 overall and 1-3 in the Continental.
“West played a great game. It was a great high school football game,” Pats coach John Donnelly said. “We’ve been a part of a lot of great high school football games this year. Unfortunately, we’ve been on the wrong side of it. So it was certainly a breath of fresh air for us to be on the right side of it.”
O’Donnell hit five different targets on the day, but his favorite and most prolific was Lochetta.
“I just saw him running downfield,” O’Donnell said of the winning score, “and I was like ‘I just gotta put this on the money.’”
“He dropped it right in there,” Donnelly said. “They’re the best of friends and have an incredible chemistry with each other.
“Chris got a great release and just beat his guy, and Evan dropped it right where it needed to be, and the rest is history — almost.”
West had one last chance.
The Bucks marched from their own 30-yard line all the way down to the East seven. But quarterback Gavin Grundahl’s pass bounced off the fingertips of a reaching Erik Ojert in the end zone as time expired.
“I’m so proud of the way our kids battled,” said Bucks coach Rob Rowan. “They’re such a resilient group. Every week, these guys show up with the desire to get better.
“We moved the ball well in the second half. I think in the second quarter, our defense got gassed a little bit. And we just couldn’t seem to make a play to get off the field.”
The Bucks took a 7-0 lead when Fay sprinted to the corner, getting the ball just inside the pylon for a six-yard touchdown run.
East tied it at seven apiece on a four-yard run by Jake Ventresca (75 yards, TD) and went ahead 10-7 on a 28-yard field goal by Mike Smigley. O’Donnell’s one-yard sneak extended the margin to 17-7.
Back came West.
The Bucks crept closer on a tackle-breaking, 20-yard touchdown run by Hitchens, making it 17-13, and then went up 20-17 when Fay broke free, racing away to a 50-yard score early in the fourth quarter.
The Patriots tied it up on a 27-yard field goal by Smigley with 4:09 to go, and after a West punt, East got the ball back at its own 44 with two minutes to play.
A pass interference call against the Bucks moved the ball to the West 41, and then Ventresca gained seven yards and then five. On 1st-and-10 at the 29, O’Donnell found Lochetta.
“We knew it was gonna be a fight,” O’Donnell said of the contest, as a sea of East white rocked one set of bleachers, West gold shaking the other. “It always is. It’s always close. We just wanted to play the best game that we could.
“The atmosphere was crazy. The student section showed out. Our sideline really got into it. Just to perform in front of that many people is great.”
The postseason is still a possibility for the Pats.
“Now we have to treat every game like this game,” Lochetta said. “We have to keep winning and make the playoffs. So next week at CB South, for the ‘CB Cup,’ we gotta give it everything we got.”
