Downingtown East third-quarter rally gives Cougars big win over Shanahan – Daily Local

By Bruce Adams

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DOWNINGTOWN — Downingtown East exploded for five touchdowns in an 8 1/2 minute stretch in the second half to defeat host Bishop Shanahan, 63-28, on Friday evening.

In the first half, both teams lit up the score like a pinball, and went into the locker room with the score tied 28-28 at halftime.

But, the Cougars (5-3) took over in the third quarter, scoring four touchdowns.

“I think it was our senior management — our seniors refused to lose the game,” Downingtown East head coach Mike Matta said. “We got some turnovers (in the third quarter) and our special teams were good all game. It was a total team effort, but a lot of it had to do with the senior leadership, all the seniors, but most importantly (quarterback) Mason Ippolito, (middle linebacker) Jack Griffiths and (free safety) Joe Morrin , really they refused to lose, they didn’t beat people up, they didn’t yell at people, they just said, ‘Hey, we’re not losing this game, let’s fix it.'”

Early in the game, the Cougars dominated, scoring on their first two drives, both times after holding Shanahan to a three-and-out. D-East’s first drive covered 63 yards in seven plays, capped by a 33-yard run by Alex Rios. The second drive ended with a 20-yarder to the left by Michael Brown to give the visitors a 14-0 lead just 7 1/2 minutes into the game.

But then the Eagles, who entered this contest with a 7-1 record and a No. 2 ranking in the PIAA District 1 4A rankings, made a comeback. Shanahan junior quarterback Anthony Aquila ran for 22 yards, then hit junior wide receiver Aiden Civitella for 30 yards to the Cougars’ 2-yard line. Two plays later, Aquila hit senior running back Julian Haylock up the middle with a 4-yard TD pass.

Then, early in the second quarter, Aquila hit Civitella for 31 and 12 yards to get down to the visitors’ 10-yard line. Two plays later, Aquila hit Haylock with another 4-yard touchdown run to tie the score at 14-14.

Downingtown East quickly regained the lead. Ben Petrillo returned a Shanahan fumble 75 yards for a touchdown to give the visitors a 21-14 lead.

Shanahan came right back with an eight-play, 73-yard TD. The big plays were an 18-yard completion to Civitella, a 25-yard run by junior running back Nate Bracken, and the capper, a 3-yard TD pass to Haylock from Aquila. It was Haylock’s third touchdown reception in the first half, all on passes of less than five yards.

Two plays later, Shanahan junior defensive end Owen McGrory intercepted a Downingtown East pass and returned it to the Cougars’ 29-yard line. Three plays later, Aquila threw a pass over the head of a D-East defender and into the hands of Civitella, who raced into the end zone for a 32-yard TD and a 28-21 lead with 4:02 left before halftime.

In the closing minutes of the second quarter, Downingtown East finished with a 15-play, 60-yard drive, culminating in a 9-yard touchdown pass from Ippolito to Zach Lindsay in the front left corner of the end zone with just 12.4 seconds to go. and no Cougar timeouts remain.

In the third quarter, the Cougars got rolling and turned some Shanahan turnovers into scores.

Matta said, “Shanahan is a very good football team, a very well-coached team. Paul (Meyers) does a great job, and they have a couple of players that we were worried about, their quarterback, No. 10 (Aquila) and No. 7 (Civitella) is pretty smart, and they played well against us (in the first half) – we fought back. We made a couple of mistakes and were a little nervous, but we were able to go into the half and do it some adjustments, calm down our kids and we said, “The season is on the line, what are you going to do?” and that’s what they did (in the second half).

The Cougars started the third quarter with another long drive, this time 54 yards in 13 plays for a touchdown, ending with Ippolito plunging in from the 1-yard line to put his team ahead 35- 28 with 7:32 left in the third period. .

Shanahan went three-and-out, then Ippolito hit a wide open Nick Keenan for a 41-yard touchdown pass to give the visitors a 42-28 lead.

Matta said, “Up in the press box, we had two young coaches that used to play here (Trey Lauletta and Ethan Harris), one was a former quarterback, one was a former wide receiver, and they said, ‘Hey, if they come back with that (defensive) look, that’s a safety trap,’ so we took advantage of that.”

Three plays later, a Shanahan fumble gave the Cougars the ball at the Eagles’ 27-yard line, and the visitors soon drove a touchdown, with freshman Jules Robinson scoring on a 14-yard run up the middle to put the 49-28.

Four plays later, the Cougars’ Logan Litwinko intercepted a pass at midfield. Downingtown East then ran eight straight plays, the last a 10-yard drive by Robinson for his second touchdown of the night.

Just three plays later, another Eagles fumble gave East the ball at the hosts’ 27-yard line. The Cougars ran Rios on three straight plays, the third time for a 19-yard touchdown through a hole up the middle. That gave East a 63-28 lead with 10:52 left, and started the clock running for the rest of the game.

Bishop Shanahan head coach Paul Meyers said, “We kept fighting and fighting, but we turned the ball over four times in the third quarter against a good team like that, it’s over. We just couldn’t recover. Four turnovers killed it. Give Downingtown East credit — they came out and did what they had to do, made adjustments at halftime.”

Matta said: “We got behind them (in the third quarter), it was rewarding to see (our players) get rewarded for their effort. But Shanahan gets a lot of credit, they played well, it wasn’t that we played bad in the first half, they played well”.

Downingtown East 63, Bishop Shanahan 28

Downingtown East 14 14 28 7 – 63

Bishop Shanahan 7 21 0 0 – 28

First quarter score:

DE – Rios, 33, run (Hornack kick)

DE – Brown, 20, run (Hornack kick)

BS – Haylock, 4, Aquila pass (Debellis kick)

Second quarter score:

BS – Haylock, 4, Aquila pass (Debellis kick)

DE – Petrillo, 75, kick-off (Hornack kick)

BS – Haylock, 3, Aquila pass (Debellis kick)

BS – Civitella, 32, pass from Aquila (kick from Debellis)

DE – Lindsay, 9, pass from Ippolito (kick from Hornack)

Third Quarter Score:

DE – Ippolito, 1, run (Hornack kick)

DE – Keenan, 41, pass from Ippolito (kick from Hornack)

DE – Robinson, 14, run (Hornack kick)

DE – Robinson, 10, run (Hornack kick)

Fourth Quarter Score:

DE – Rios, 19, run (Hornack kick)

TEAM STATISTICS

OF BS

First downs 24 11

Passing yards 53-284 24-70

Comp-att-int 7-9-1 15-20-1

Passing yards 101 169

Total yards 385 239

Points-Avg. 2-34.5 5-32.2

Fumbles – lost 0-0 2-2

Penalties-yards 6-65 4-16

INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS

Career: DE – Rios 26-127 2 TD, Brown 11-100 TD, Ippolito 7-13 TD, Robinson 7-42 2 TD, Pollock 2-2, Totals 53-284. BS – Haylock 7-minus 2, Bracken 5-30, Aquila 10-41, Wagner 2-1, Totals 24-70.

Passing: DE – Ippolito 7-9-1, 101 yards, 2 TDs. BS – Aquila 15-20-1, 169 yards, 4 TDs.

Receiving: DE – Keenan 2-50 TD, Lindsay 4-43 TD, Fuchs 1-8, Totals 7-101. BS – Haylock 6-20 3 TDs, Civitella 6-125 TD, Bracken 1-6, Whelan 1-16, Conte 1-2, Totals 15-169.

Interceptions: DE – Litwinko; BS – McGrory.

Sacks: BS – Snook.

Originally Posted: October 19, 2024 at 12:01 p.m