It’s been quite a long time since the Ches-Mont League has been in the statewide spotlight. Ever since the late 1990s, the Suburban One League had staked its claim to ownership of District 1 AAAA hardware, with few exceptions sprinkled in, like a pair of Ridley championships in 2007 and 2009. Otherwise, it had been North Penn, Neshaminy, North Penn, or, in 2006, Pennsbury, who reigned the kings of District 1.
That’s not to diminish the teams in the Ches-Mont over that span – Downingtown East boasted a prolific passing attack fronted by Pat Devlin in 2005. Henderson, of West Chester, reached a District 1 AAAA title game and then, as a No. 16 seed, felled No. 1 Ridley in another playoff run. Coatesville also had found its stride under Matt Ortega and reached the District 1 AAAA quarterfinals in 2011.
But, from 1997-2011, all the Ches-Mont had to show for its postseason hardware was one solitary championship – a D1 AAA title won by Bayard Rustin in 2008. The Knights then rolled to an 11-win season the following year before bumping up to AAAA and reaching the D1 AAAA semis in 2010 opposite Neshaminy.
Now, Coatesville has withstood every challenge thrown its way en route to a chance to bring the Ches-Mont its second PIAA football championship.
The District 1 champion Red Raiders (13-2), fielding one of eastern Pennsylvania’s most explosive offensive units, will face WPIAL champion and two-time PIAA champion North Allegheny (15-0) Saturday evening in the PIAA AAAA championship game at Hersheypark Stadium, with kickoff slated for 6 p.m.
North Allegheny has never lost at Hersheypark Stadium in its history; Coatesville, conversely, has never played in Hershey for a football game in its history. But the postseason run for these Raiders has been all about a series of firsts. For starters, the team won its first District 1 championship since 1992 (a 20-year gap) and then claimed its first PIAA semifinals victory in school history one week later.
Coatesville is the 25th different AAAA program to play for a PIAA championship since 1988, and teams making their initial appearance in the “big game” own a combined overall record of 13-11. That includes Central Dauphin, which won its initial AAAA title game appearance in 2011. If Coatesville would win state gold Saturday, it would mark the classification’s second straight first-time champion, which hasn’t happened since Neshaminy, Parkland and North Penn each won their first PIAA titles in a span from 2001-03.
Additionally, if Coatesville were to hoist state gold Saturday, the Red Raiders would become the Ches-Mont’s first state football champion since 1996, when Downingtown Area, then unified, routed WPIAL champion Woodland Hills, 49-14, in Altoona. The 49 points still stand as a record for the most points scored by a AAAA state champion, matched in 2004 by Pittsburgh Central Catholic’s machine of a team which routed Neshaminy.
That Whippet team scored a District 1 record (and Ches-Mont single-season standard) 630 points in 14 games. Coatesville has ripped and rolled its way to 602 points, including 246 in its last five games. The Red Raiders’ 602 points are the second most points scored by any Ches-Mont team in a season and are easily a school record.
District 1 also marks sending consecutive AAAA reps to Hershey for the state football finals since 2003-04, with North Penn and Neshaminy, respectively. District 1 last won a PIAA football championship in 2004, when Lansdale Catholic, then a AA school and member of the Pioneer Athletic Conference, defeated Grove City. D1, which has won 10 state championships, last won a AAAA title in 2003. Seven of the region’s 10 titles have come in Class AAAA.
Head coach Matt Ortega is in his fourth season at Coatesville, joining the Red Raiders’ fold in 2009 after a five-year stint as head coach at York-William Penn High School. In his final season in York, Ortega helped guide the team to a 10-win season and the Bearcats boasted a prolific scoring team which averaged 44.2 points per game. Ortega is 35-13 overall at Coatesville entering Saturday’s contest and 72-31 in his career.
Ortega’s Red Raiders are averaging 40.1 points per game and haven’t lost since September, ripping off 11 consecutive victories since a 35-34 setback to Downingtown East. The Cougars boasted an offensive arsenal which averaged 35.5 points per game and featured Richmond recruit Kyle Lauletta at quarterback and Michigan State recruit Jay Harris at wide receiver. Over those past 11 victories, the Red Raiders’ average margin of victory has been 27.8 points.
Coatesville’s offensive arsenal has been just as explosive. Senior field general Emmitt Hunt is on the verge of becoming the school’s first career 3,000-yard passer for any single season. He’s completed 146-of-229 passes for 2,982 yards and 43 touchdowns, averaging 198.8 yards per game. Hunt’s 43 touchdown passes rank him among the top-13 single-season marks for scoring passes in state history. He’s presently tied with Kyle Smith, formerly of Lancaster Catholic, Mack Leftwich of North Allegheny and Brendan Nosovitch from Allentown Central Catholic, for eighth all-time.
Hunt has enjoyed the luxury of throwing to a pair of talented receivers in Chris Jones and Dre Boggs. Jones, the Raiders’ featured target, has hauled in 68 passes for 1,485 yards and 24 touchdowns. The 24 touchdown receptions ties Jones for the second-most touchdown receptions in a single season in state history and is only three TDs shy of tying the state record of 27 touchdown receptions set by Kevin Gulyas of Allentown Central Catholic in 2011. Boggs, meanwhile, has caught 33 passes for 811 yards and 12 touchdowns. He’s averaging 24.6 yards per reception and a touchdown every third catch.
Daquan Worley headlines a ground game which rolled up more than 270 yards in the semifinals against LaSalle. Worley has rushed for 1,599 yards and 20 touchdowns on 217 carries. Boggs, Jones and Hunt have also contributed to the Raiders’ ground game over the course of the season.
Fronting the Coatesville offensive unit is a line comprised of Titus Richards, Joe Phillips, Dylan Morgan, Collin Rayser and Andrew Baker, along with tight end Tyler Burke. Morgan, Phillips and Baker are seniors and Richards and Rayser are juniors.
Between its first string and reserves on defense, Coatesville allows an average of 19.3 points per game.
Can Coatesville bring District 1 its 11th PIAA football championship? Or will District 1 fall to 10-9 all-time in PIAA championship games?
Find out Saturday night.
45 Responses
wow NA is good. really good. Soup had the best analysis pre and post game. who were the other good west teams?
NA showed the state and the country why they are the #1 team in the state and top 10 Nationally Ranked. Hats off to CV for not giving up and making some very athletic plays. Both teams earned the right to play and if you take the game play by play, both teams made some NCAA coaches eyes open wide.
Please stop with the PCL school whom lost in the Easter Final. I don’t want to use that’s schools name to give it relevance because they lost earlier and now you have people on here stating they would have played better. Let me tell you PCL fans something. NOONE IN THE STATE WAS BEATING NA LAST NIGHT. So if you wanna say the score would have been closer than make your rediculous assumptions all you want. It doesn’t change the fact NA is by far the best team in PA for 2012 and they proved that where it counts, On The Field. Congrats to CV in being the Eastern Rep., they have great kids.
The way NA played last night, they would have embarrassed any team they played. They were a machine. Congrats to Coatesville for a great season and to NA for another state title.
NA did what was expected no more no less.I mentioned this before that the west was stacked top to bottom in 4A, the top 3 maybe 4 teams would have beat anyone out here in the east… down year out here for us. Great year for Cville!
@Jimbo
Didn’t LaSalle get beat 21-0 two years ago in the title game vs N.Allegheny? In case you have amnesia, they had 5 turnovers in that stinkfest and were shutout, which is only the second time in AAAA History that has happened. Way to represent SEPA.
You should thank Coatesville for sparing you the embarrasment of another beat down in the final.
Merry XMAS
@Jimbo, SEPA, et al :
We’ll never know exactly how bad North Allegheny would have destroyed LaSalle, and do you know why?
C’ville: 42
LaSalle: 35
That’s why.
Agree SEPA Guru, LS was obviously the better team without the injuries. I know one thing, LS would not have embarassed SEPA in Hershey.
@Mike, all your hot air aside, fact is that D1 can’t compete4 with D12.
Didn’t you District 1 guys realize the mighty PCL is not allowed to lose it either was injuries, or officials. There is no way they actually got beat by Coatsville. How many Millions of people are in that area? And the PCL only has 4 good teams in 3 different classes? With all those Millions of people all the good football players just happened to end up at 4 schools?
SEPAGuru…you need to stop with the Lasalle lost 3 two way starters. if the refs were not so bad with calls, cville had 3 td’s called back it would not have even been close, and they did that with them guys in there. Cville coaches got conservitive near the end and almost cost them the game, if it was me i would have kept scoring because everyone was saying we woulnd’t put 50 up on Lasalle, we should have had 60. So take it like it is, Lasalle just got beat by a better team.
SEPA guru… sour grapes. Look ahead, not behind.
Blah blah blah… For every two-way player LaSalle lost, there were 5 b.s. calls or blatant no-calls that hurt Coatesville. Are people really still bitter about that game?
Coatesville would not have even made it to the final if Lasalle had not lost 3 two-way players and 6 out of 22 starting positions during the Eastern final. Just a thought.
Looking forward to an entertaining, exciting game! Hopefully that’s what we get.
North Allegheny never lost at Hershey, but neither has Coatesville.
North Allegheny has a strong offensive team with many records, but so does Coatesville.
Get the butterflies out early, don’t let the emotions get too high, keep even, hit hard and play smart. Make your reads, keep team focus on the game that you play best.
Support each other like family to the end and everything will turn out just fine.
Explorers were you at the eastern final? Lasalle couldnt handle the C’ville O line and all week it was great D is gonna stop the great o all i seen was the O and very little of the D. Sorry the guys went out after big hits but it was a big game give Coatesville credit and move on they had a lot to overcome but handled Lasalle pretty well !
Coatsville can certainly win the game. Any team can win 1 game. NA will definitely be the toughest opponent that Coatsville will face. NA is certainly not unbeatable. Last year they were a heavy favorite and lost to Central Dauphin. In the end Coatsville will have to play their best game of the year to win. Hopfully they can bring some gold back to D1.
In response to the other Joe that commented about LaSalle recruiting. I am sorry but you are incorrect. LaSalle does not recruit. That is a fact. If LaSalle did recruit, they would be even better. Every good CYO or CAL kid wants to go to LaSalle or Prep. It is automatic. Plus you have top notch coaching.
But this is C’ville time. I find it hard to believe that Soup says Gateway and NA have better speed than C’ville. C’ville must Stop dumb penalties and complaining about Refs. Use speed, discipline and smart decisions. And do not leave the door open like you did for LaSalle! Both teams have the horses, but which has the coaching?? That may be the difference.
It’s hard to get a grip on what’s going to happen on Saturday, I’ve seen both teams play on video, but not live — has anyone posting seen both play live this year??? — And if so, I’d like to hear your opinion. One can’t deny NA’s ability on defense (and offense too), but most of the pundits said C’ville wouldn’t score much against Neshaminy and LaSalle (and if not for bad calls, C’ville had at least 56 on LaSalle). Moreover, I watched NA play Woodland Hills on video and if not for a number of turnovers it looked like NA was outplayed (and not as fast) — and Wooodland Hills played a lot like C’ville — but not sure as good at QB. Anyway, any thoughts?
Predictions Please???? Any blow out??? Or OT games???
Raider Fan – You are correct and I do not hide… I picked LaSalle to win big. I tip my hat to Cville, no excuses here.As I mentioned before they are a real good squad… I think they will def. show up to play & represent the East but in the end will lose to NA.
@Josh
Amen to rayzanna’s thank you, and I will add mine as well. Great website all year long for high school football. Thanks to you folks I am able to rough out my game viewing schedule in June or July now. Keep up the fine work, all of the crew!
Ray,
Thank Dave Mika for this site. He’s the owner of Eastern/Western PA Football & has been so since the late ’90s (if my memory serves me correctly). Dave graciously took me on as a writer for the site in 2006, and the rest, as they say, is history. Glad you like the product we’ve been turning out. It gets better and better and more complete each and every year.
Should be a great game. One thing that will help is people underestimating Coatesville. I predict Coatesville 48 Na 45
Well soup and Jimbo. guess CVILLE will find out. can’t call and cancel the game. nobody gave them a chance against LaSalle. matter of fact you guys predicted Cville would get blownout in that game. something to be said about MOJO. Cville has it right now. sometimes thats all you need. Hope its a good game. GO CVILLE.
Josh,
Id like to thank you and E/Wpafootball.com for this website. Not sure how the site was created, but I have been following the site since 2006. Being a huge high school football junky that I am this site has provided valuable info year to year.
Thanks again
rayzanna
@Clark NA played a weak schedule? NA played a much tougher schedule than anyone could playoffs included. Distrcit 7, 1, 3, and 11 are the best top to bottom. Sure District 12 has the best teams but top to bottom they stink. District 12 has 2 Good 4A Teams, 1 Good 3A team, and 2 Good 2 A Teams out of a population of how many millions? But anyway back to the point District 7 is hands down the best 4A district in PA and the WPIAL is a meat grinder.
Coatesville is too undisciplined to beat NA; it starts with their coaching staff and filters down through the team.
Too many penalties, too many mistakes will be their downfall.
Walker’s team will be disciplined and maintain composure.
NA by 10+
Joe-NA has a QB w/ the same numbers as Hunt but he is real mobile, can run it well. NA can ground and pound or sling it around. Their top back was hurt mid season and is back to form the last few games. The D is the difference maker; they have shut down everyone including Gateway( better speed than Cville) to 3 points when Gateway has 5 maybe 7 legit D1 players and a QB going to Az… NA wins… Their coach Walker has been here too many times w/ Pgh CC & NA. No disrespect to Cville, they are a real good club but Defense always wins big games, not just kids playing but schemes, game planning are huge here.
Dan – you are right. CB West put up that 56-point game in 1998. Can’t believe I forgot that. Good catch on your part!
Everybody is saying about Lasalle having 3 of their best players out in that game, you mean to tell me with all the kids on the sideline nobody else knows how to play football [ COME ON ]. Now for it beening a close game thats not true Coatesville should of had alot more then 42 and Lasalle should not of had 35. Coatesville did not beat Lasalle they beat the CHEATING REFS , dont know if anybody on here knows this but [3] of the refs are being looked at by the PIAA for that game. The game was one sided and everybody who was there knows that. Lets talk about NA all season long they played weak teams and then they show up in playoofs with another weak playoff brk. So come saturday we will see how good you really are NA and good luck . LETS GO COATESVILLE AND BRING HOME THE GOLD . Thanks for all the hard work you guys have done this year 2012.. RED RAIDER FAN AND GRAD OF 1996 FOREVER //////// ..
In terms of most points scored by a AAAA state champion in the title game, I think CB West put up 56 on District 7’s New Castle in the late 1990’s.
Ok points well taken. What is report on NA and what is C’ville plan to stop them? We hear little of the west, what kind of team are they?
Coming from Neshaminy, I never thought I would say this…”Best of Luck Coatesville”!!! Take down North Allegheny and represent D-1 proud! You deserve it.
Quit talking about La Salle. La Salle is in your rearview mirror. Good luck to the Red Raiders!! Bring home the Gold for the East.
For anyone who doesn’t know, Lasalle is in a league who can openly recruit and anyone who says this doesn’t happen is lying. I’m a middle school teacher outside of philly and see these teams at the CYO and middle school games. LaSalle puts an all star team of the philly area every year. In the past you could get profiles of the players and barly any of the players live within the district boundaries of that area. Truth br told if a school of that standard came calling I would send my kid in a second, the connections and opportunities are far greater than a public school can give. Regardless they shouldn’t be in the PIAA
@Scott…thank you for proving my point…as you said from the beginning of the 2nd qtr until 10 mins to go in the game LaSalle had no answer for Coatesville’s offens….Let’s see…who was off the field……Coleman, Spiteri, Eife….It wasn’t like Coatesville put up 21 in the first qtr when all three were in there…They didn’t do much….Spiteri has been a difference maker in LaSalle’s defense all season…Just ask the Prep..and Frankford…and Parkland…..not the same defense when he’s not in there. Parkland’s only score came while he was given a rest in the 4th qtr.
C’ville is the the final, LaSalle is not.
End of story
SORRY FOR THE MIS SPELLING THIS KEY BOARD SUCK!!!
Well said. @Joe You must not have been @ the game and witnessed the worst officals ANY gamr has ever seen!! The score could have easily been 60-20.I’ll give La Salle credit but only for being a good Non publis leag team. This game on sat night is going to be the best BOTH team have ever seen. And yes we have more weapon D1 recruit #9 Tyler Burke. See You there if you show face. Injurys are part of the learn to overcome.
@ Rollie Cliffo Thanks
How had Coatesville not played anyone before LaSalle? Hahaha, that is funny. They played 5 playoff teams in the regular season alone. I realize and understand that LaSalle is a quality team (as does anyone who follows HS football in the area) but this really sounds like sour grapes. I am a fan of a Coatesville rival but have to admit what a special season they are having and was very impressed to see them play live a few times. I hope all the LaSalle guys are not too hurt and get better (I know Sean Coleman is a great lax player as well) but injuries happen and cannot be always used as an excuse for losing. I agree Coatesville will have their hands full with NA but you would expect that from the Western champ and the state finals.
No disrespect to LaSalle because its obvious they have one heck of a football program going on down there. You don’t make it to 4 straight State semifinals by accident.
On the other hand the score of the Coatesville game was alot closer then it actually was. From the start of the 2nd QT until the 10 minutes left to go in the game LaSalle had NO answer for the Coatesville offense. They scored at will aganist them, thus the 41-21 lead early in the 4th QT. From that point on Coatesville might have run 8-10 offensive plays over 3 possisions and only one that I can remember was a pass play.
It’s quite obvious the Cville staff went into a shell with the playcalling and it almost cost them the game once they got the big lead. Once again credit to LaSalle for not quitting and playing an entire game. But Coatesville easily could have dropped 50-60pts on LaSalle if they had kept. But since we are playing the injury blame game, rumor had it that Worley had the flu leading up to the game. Who knows what he could have down if completely healthy.
Injuries happen and all 3 happened on tough hits. These kids have taken tough hits all year so it’s just bad luck. To say that it didn’t make a difference essentially losing 6 starters in a 6 minute span with 3/4 of the game left to play is being blind. Maybe LaSalle wins if they don’t get hurt, but they did and Coatesville won. It doesn’t take anything away from what Coatesville has accomplished and they deserve the trip to Hershey, but the injuries DID affect the game.
You guys make too much of this “3 LaSalle players” thing. Why weren’t they in there in the 1st place? Because Coatesville played tough, hard-nosed football. Its not like a pixie sprinkled dust on them and they left the game.
C’ville will have their hands full. Do not play like you did against Lasalle. Really, if Lasalle did not have 3 two-way starters injured in 1st Q, LASALLE WINS THAT GAME. They were Lasalle’s best players!
Yet they almost tied the game in the last minute missing their best guys! C’ville won but you have to respect Lasalle.
You cannot do that against NA and expect to win.
C’ville needs to stop the flags. Play smarter. Discipline. Offense has to keep on scoring but defense cannot let it down like in Lasalle game. Remember, C’ville was untested prior to Lasalle. Did they learn something from it? #13, #2 and #4 need to have outstanding game! But do they have any other weapons?