Pelkisson dominates in Dtown West’s romp of Garnet Valley

DOWNINGTOWN — In a marquee matchup between two perennial District 1 Class 6A powers, Downingtown West got the upper hand on Garnet Valley Saturday night, handing the Jaguars a season-opening rout of a loss.

The Whippets scored 21 unanswered points in the first half en route to a 42-19 victory over the visiting Jags.

Garnet Valley’s always formidable veer option was consistently penetrated by the Downingtown West defense.

“The kids really did a great job handling (it),” Downingtown West head coach Mike Milano said. “It is like playing the academy schools. You need so much discipline and a lot of eye discipline, and our kids did it with three 10th graders at linebacker due to injuries. My seven seniors who played as sophomores got in their ear and told them what varsity football is all about. I could not be prouder of my kids tonight.”

Garnet Valley got a break early in the game when Whippets quarterback Will Howard fumbled a snap at his own 1-yard line that was recovered by the Jaguars. One play later, Jake Morin bused in from a yard out and Garnet Valley had a quick 7-0 lead.

Things collapsed from there for the Jaguars. Downingtown West rolled off three touchdowns in a row as Tyriq Lewis broke through the line on a fourth and one play and went 61 yards to tie the game at 7-7. Lewis carried the ball 12 times for 100 yards and a touchdown.

Howard pitched the ball to Sean Pelkisson who rambled 22 yards around the left side to make it a 14-7 Whippet advantage. Pelkisson then took a five-yard pass from Howard after a Garnet Valley three and out and a Whippets march down field, Pelkisson’s short touchdown catch making it a 21-7 Whippets lead at halftime.

Pelkisson is one of the best defensive lineman in the district and he and Max Hale blew up a ton of Garnet Valley running plays. But Pelkisson said he likes to play both sides of the ball.

“I really like playing offense and catching the ball and running with it,” Pelkisson said. “And we controlled the line of scrimmage tonight because we have been preparing for the offense since January. they do so many things it is tough to defend but tonight we handled them.”

Howard, who completed nine of 18 passes for 154 yards and two scores, once again hit Pelkisson with an 11-yard pass in the left flat and the rout was on at 28-7 midway through the third period.

Garnet Valley tried to fight back, marching 80 yards via 17 plays, a drive culminating on a Ryan Gallagher five-yard scoring pass to Steven Craig to cut the lead to 28-13.

But on the ensuing kickoff, Julian Williams took it 91 yards to the house, restoring the Downingtown West momentum. Williams went untouched as he made a quick cut to the right and then darted to the left to go up the middle for the electrifying return.

Garnet Valley couldn’t recover from that.

“We knew we were playing a great team tonight,” Garnet Valley coach Mike Ricci said. “They are real good on offense, defense and special teams and they are coached very well. We knew we would have to play mistake-free football and we did not do that. But we saw the kids do some good things and things we can correct and build on.”

Downingtown West piled up 320 total yards of offense and Tyriq Lewis rushed for 100 yards and a touchdown.

“We knew we were playing a great team tonight,” Lewis said. “But when we were sophomores we were told we were the best sophomore class and now we are seniors and we want to prove those people they were right.”