Second-half stumble dooms short-handed Radnor against W.C. East

WEST GOSHEN >> Tom Ryan knew his Radnor Raiders faced a huge challenge facing West Chester East in a nonleague game at Zimmerman Stadium Friday night.

“We were a little banged up,” Ryan, who was without starting quarterback Pat McDermott and running back Jack Horvath, who watched the game on crutches from the sidelines, McDermott wearing a boot on his left foot and Horvath with a boot on his right foot.

East head coach Dave Gueriera was counting on his Vikings to bounce back from their opening-night loss at Academy Park.

“We hung with them for three quarters,” Gueriera said of WCE’s trip to Knight Park last week.

Radnor couldn’t keep up with East during the third quarter Friday, yielding a pair of touchdowns as the Vikings (1-1) pulled away for a 23-0 victory in a game that was scoreless at halftime.

Senior JD Carroll hauled in a 41-yard scoring pass from quarterback JT Thompson on East’s first possession of the second half. Matt Erfle’s short TD run in the last minute of the third quarter doubled East’s lead.

Midway through the fourth quarter, after East’s defense had stopped a Radnor drive at the Vikings’ 5-yard line, junior Jared Cooper sprinted 95 yards for six more points.

“I was pleased with the effort on both sides of the ball,” Ryan said. “But we gave up some big plays, and we know there are things we’re going to have to clean up before we start playing our (Central) league games.

“We are getting some of our younger kids playing experience, and that will help them.”

Carroll, a 6-6, 225-pound tight end, hauled in four passes to account for 69 of Thompson’s 162 yards through the air.

“At halftime, we just told ourselves that it was time for our offense to get going,” said Carroll, who also played well at defensive end. “(Thompson) said to make sure we made our reads, and that’s how we got that touchdown (pass).

“Our defensive ends were doing a lot of work tonight, and we had four interceptions. That was a good team effort from the defense.”

Gueriera will take that kind of performance each week against the tough schedule of Ches-Mont League foes that the Vikings have ahead of them, beginning Friday with a cross-over contest against visiting West Chester Rustin.

“That’s quite a big rivalry game for us,” he said. “Each week will be a tough game.

“We’re just very happy to come out of this game with a good win. At halftime, we knew we would have to get our offense refocused because we knew we were getting the defensive effort we could count on.”

East’s rushing totals weren’t as good as they could have been because Thompson was sacked three times, once for 25 yards, and a pair of bad snaps cost the Vikings 25 yards. Cooper picked up 114 yards on 24 carries and Erfle, who also was in on plenty of tackles, added 50 yards on 15 rushes.

“I ran track to help with my speed,” Cooper said. “The blockers opened a big hole for me on that (scoring) play, and I was just trying to get (upfield).

“Then the receivers made some blocks and that was what I needed to take it all the way.”

Radnor tried 25 running plays, resulting in minus-9 yards. Sophomore quarterback Sean Mullarkey threw 34 passes, completing 16 for 145 yards. Four of his throws were picked off.

“We’ll be back to work next week trying to get better,” Ryan said.