ALTOONA – Keanu Reeves would have been proud. This night in Altoonas’ Mansion Park a team of replacements proved they weren’t just the second choice, they showed they should have been the first choice when it comes to picking all stars. Led by defensive linemen Mike Tucker of Downingtown East and Josh Coulter of Downingtown West, the East “replacements” dominated the division 1 heavy team of the West 33-7 with a heavy dose of defense to the tune of a 354 – 64 yardage mismatch. The West was held to negative yardage until late in the 4th quarter.
“All week long the west team was talkin smack about us because of all their division 1 recruits. We wanted to “represent” for the east and we did” was what East coach Mike Milano of Downingtown West HS had to say about his team. “Like 15 of the 34 players and a couple coaches are not from the original roster so the kids just started calling themselves the replacements and it stuck all week”.
The East Defense started the scoring when Coulter hit Selinsgrove qb Cory Briggs in the enzone jarring the ball loose and Bishop McDevitts Ryan Kuntz recovered for the first score of the game. “We just wanted to show them we were faster and stronger” said Coulter.
The lone highlight for the West came on their next defensive stand as Colgate bound Dan Cason juggled a pass from Downingtown West qb Brett Gillespie and Jesse Della Valle of Shaler took the ball away scrambling 75 yards for the score. The pat made the score 7-7 with 2:53 left in the first quarter.
The Replacements took over from there and in the second quarter got a couple touchdown passes from Cason to make up for his error in the opening quarter. The first a 59 yard score from Gillespie and second an 8 yarder from Kyle Smith of Lancaster Catholic. At the half the Eastern Replacements held a 27-7 advantage in scoring following an 8 yard run from Darius Webb of Freedom High School. “I give all the credit to the offensive line. Without them guys like me wouldn’t do anything” said Webb, whose father Vince rented a bus and brought 85 of his closest friends dressed in matching t-shirts that sported a picture of Darius in previous game action with the saying “they call it, I haul it, they move em and I groove em” to watch his son play in the game. “We had a great tailgate and time here today, I’m just proud of D Webb” said father Vince. Webb also scored the games last td on a 25 yard scamper in the 3rd quarter.
“This was a fun week, a LOT of fun said East running back Joe Difebo of Wallenpaupack HS. “It was strange at first, the first meeting nobody knew each other then 5 minutes later it was like we were all best friends. We gelled instantly”.
Mike Tucker, who had 4 sacks and nearly 2 more, said “the host families were incredible and all the sponsors treated them very well. It was fun playing on a team with players from our district rival teams.”
Cory Briggs of the West team would “like to have seen a different outcome, however, the whole experience was incredible. It was a little weird being from Selinsgrove and playing with kids mostly from western PA but it worked out. I made a lot of friends this week”.
STATS
scoring
West 7 0 0 0 – 7
East 7 20 6 0 – 33
First quarter
E-Kuntz recovered fumble in end zone (Webster kick), 7:39.
W-Della Valle 75 interception return (MacZura kick), 2:53.
Second quarter
E-Cason 59 pass from Gillespie (Webster kick), 11:05.
E-Cason 8 pass from Smith (kick failed), 7:02.
E-Webb 19 run (Webster kick), 3:08.
Third quarter
E-Webb 25 run (kick failed), :55.
INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS
RUSHING: West-Howard 8-30, Lewis 1-17, Bey 6-14, Hagan 2-4, Ifill 2-(-10), Bliss 6-(-15), Briggs 13-(-23). East-R. White 7-82, Webb 5-70, DeFebo 10-44, Gruber 1-2, Brewer 1-2, K. White 1-2, Gillespie 1-(-2), Smith 5-(-8).
PASSING: West-Briggs 1-10-0-11, Bliss 1-5-0-36. East-Gillespie 2-9-2-56, Smith 5-10-1-85, Brewer 1-1-0-3.
RECEIVING: West-Bey 1-36, Simmen 1-11. East-Gruber 3-45, Cason 2-61, Brewer 1-39, Smith 1-3, Webb 1-(-3).
INTERCEPTIONS: West-Della Valle 2-75, Bey 1-0.
TOTAL YARDAGE: 64 354
