Person, Downingtown East run all over Archbishop Ryan in opener

DOWNINGTOWN >> The Downingtown East football team is always at or very near the top of the District 1 heap.

Friday night at Kottmeyer Stadium, in the 2019 season opener, the Cougars did precious little to dispel that claim as they played a near flawless game, in handling Archbishop Ryan, 42-12, in a non-league game. 

Downingtown East only punted once and committed just one penalty for five yards.

Downingtown East (1-0) jumped out to a 35-6 halftime advantage and coasted from there as East head coach Mike matta played his reserves the entire second half, making the final score semipalatable for the visiting Raiders (0-1). Archbishop Ryan totaled only 127 yards of total offense for the night, and most of that came in the second half against the East reserves.

“We did a whole lot of good things tonight,” Matta said. “We ran the ball really well and our defense, which is a work in progress, did some good things, but we can always get better. The best thing about tonight was the chance to get a whole lot of guys some playing time. And they got some very valuable experience tonight.”

Ryan took the opening kickoff, and you could see it would be a long night for the Raiders. Ryan had four three and outs in the first frame and the Cougars converted on three of them. Senior quarterback Drew PErson, after a 22-yard run by Spencer Uggla, went in from a yard out to make it a 7-0 game after two minutes of play.

Then, Person did his thing as after a Raider punt, on the second play of the drive, Person hit a streaking Luke Connolly for a 57-yard touchdown pass, and it was a 14-0 game and things were unraveling for the Raiders.

“This was really a great way to start the season,” Person said. “I mean, on the deep ball to Luke I had about six seconds back in the pocket to wait for somebody to break free. We have a real strong offensive line and that is where it all starts for us. Those guys are amazing.”

Person struck again four minutes later when after a short Ryan punt, he directed a four-play scoring drive and completed it with an easy five-yard touchdown toss to Connor Noble to make it a 21-0 game.

With Downingtown East controlling both lines of scrimmage and the Cougar defense getting a big game from Justin Townsend, Stanley Bryant and friends, it was a surprise that the Raiders were able to move the ball at all. But, Ryan went on a 10-play drive to score midway through the second period and made it a 21-6 game when Luke Collier took a 15-yard touchdown pass from Cole Lowe.

That would be it for the Ryan offense for the night until they scored with 32 seconds to play in garbage time, but the first Raider score just seemed to anger the Cougars, who came right back to score two more times in the second period to make it a 35-6 game at halftime.

Spencer Uggla took a pitch from Person and darted like a shot around the right side for a 23-yard touchdown run after an another three-and-out from the Raider offense. Josh Asante finished another Downingtown East scoring drive with a beautiful 39-yard touchdown run, and the Raiders tapped out, as the Cougars played their reserves the entire second half.

“We are being doubted by some people this season,” Uggla said. “But we are the same every year. We start work in the weight room on January 2 and we take it seriously and we are a strong team and we take pride in the program and we take pride that we did this every year.”

Person threw an interception at the end of the first half to John Mastranangelo down at the Archbishop Ryan four-yard line, and the senior talked about his mistake.

“I have to step into my passes,” Person said. “But, I did not do that this time and it really cost us. You can’t turn the ball over.”

The second half was mostly Downingtown East running between the tackles as the Cougars’ second team more than held its own with the Raiders starters and Downingtown East came away with a very impressive 42-12 victory.

“It was a good way to start but we have to clean some stuff up and we will be back at it tomorrow morning.” Matta said.