Nobody can accuse Downingtown East Cougars of not playing teams from other parts of the state. They played and defeated teams from two different districts in two weeks, Pennridge (2020 District 1 6A runner up), and District 6 power State College last week.
You can add four-time District 2 champion Delaware Valley to that list, as the Cougars laid a 39-14 beating on the Warriors from the Scranton Area.
The normal bruising running game is still the calling card for Downingtown East, but opposing defenses can not put nine in the box against the Cougars anymore. As Delaware Valley learned the hard way, the Cougars have a quarterback in Jay Jenkins who can throw the ball. Jenkins threw for 320 yards and three touchdowns on the night. Jenkins’ 17 completions went to five different receivers.
Things went back and forth in the first quarter, as the teams traded touchdowns on their first three possessions. A Paul Weinrich nine-yard run was sandwiched between a 21-yard pass from Jay Jenkins to CJ Leo and a Bo Horvath 30-yard run. Two botched extra points by Downingtown East led to them only being ahead 12-7.
The Cougars expanded their lead to 18-7 into halftime when Bo Horvath scored from two yards out.
Coming out of halftime, Downingtown East was able to continue their onslaught, when Jenkins hit Mike Giardino on a 45-yard pass, Horvath scored his third touchdown (10 yards) on the night, and a 14-yard pass from Jenkins to Bousum, made the score 39-7. Justin Kalitsnik closed out the scoring on a two-yard run.
After the game, Mike Matta stated,” Our passing was something we worked on all offseason, and we took advantage of that tonight. There’s a lot that can be cleaned up. After the first drive, our defense played well.”
Offensively, there were plenty of fireworks for Downingtown East tonight, as they rolled to 520 yards of offense on 59 plays. Jay Jenkins threw for 320 yards and three scores, Bo Horvath ran for 176 yards and three touchdowns, Mike Giardino had 168 yards on eight catches.
