DOWNINGTOWN — The call rang out, “49 main, 49 main,” from the Downingtown East offense. The Downingtown West defenders knew just what the Cougars were going to do before the snap. A West defender even yelled, “they’re running left, they’re running left.”
And that’s what East did Friday night against rival West in the second round of the PIAA District 1 Class 6A playoffs at Downingtown’s Kottmeyer Stadium.
Led by senior tailback Bo Horvath’s career-high 275 yards rushing and five touchdowns on 37 carries, the Cougars ripped through West, 34-9, to advance to the semifinal round of the District 1 6A playoffs.
The No. 12 seed, East (9-3) will play defending District 1 Class 6A champion and No. 1 seed Garnet Valley, a 30-27 overtime winner over Spring-Ford, next Friday at Garnet Valley at 7 p.m.
East is peaking at the right time.
The Cougars’ three losses came by a combined eight points to three teams that had a combined 29-1 record. East ran through a gauntlet of Coatesville and West to close the regular season, and then Ches-Mont League rivals Coatesville and West again in the District 1 playoffs.
It’s also happening because of Horvath the human hammer, who rushed for 255 yards in the Cougars’ 31-15 upset over No. 5 seed Coatesville last week.
“We got a huge education from the first time we played West and Horvath is just ‘a dude,’ he’s the biggest dude in the world,” East coach Mike Matta said about his star tailback. “He’s among the top 10 lacrosse players in the country and in his freshman and sophomore years he was district wrestling champion.
“We run power tackle and isos, down, down, kick that’s all we run. We don’t do anything special. We got out coached the first game (against West). We did not coach a good game. They did a better job than we did. We weren’t going to allow that to happen again. We gained a lot of confidence when we played Coatesville (in the opening round of the playoffs last week).
“The kids weren’t like, ‘Oh God, we gotta play Coatesville again.’ No, the kids were like, ‘Yes, we get to play Coatesville.’ That was the difference.”
The Whippets (9-2) saw a highly successful season come to an end.
“We knew everyone was super angry over losing to West (31-28) the first time,” said Horvath, who’s committed to Lehigh on a lacrosse scholarship. “We used our will against them. They knew what we were going to do and we still did it. We don’t care. Nothing was a secret between us. This is how Downingtown (East) football plays. We’ll tell where we’re running the ball and we’ll run it right there. We don’t care at all. It feels great, honestly, empowering our will.
“We had Coatesville, Downingtown West, and Coatesville, Downingtown West again (in the district playoffs), and we wanted it more than all of them. We worked harder and everything. This feels great. I’m just happy for the guys and want to keep playing football with my brothers.”
By halftime, Horvath scored four touchdowns on runs of 1, 1, 41 and 46. He toted the ball 21 times for 183 yards behind center Ryan Konchek, tackles Adham Abouraya and Aidan Flaherty, and guards Ryan Moses and Luke Fowler. The only senior is Fowler, Abouraya, Flaherty, Moses and Koncheck are all juniors.
“We just ran power offense,” Konchek said. “We beat them off the ball every play and pushed them all over the field. They called the plays out when we were on the ball and we pushed them around. West called our plays out and we just ran it. They guy on me said, ‘they’re running this way, they’re running this way,’ meaning left. They couldn’t stop it. Credit goes to all of the my offensive linemates.”
The Cougars scored on four of their first five possessions. East bolted out to a 13-0 on its first two drives, led by Horvath. He pounded the West defense on eight of the first nine plays of the game for all 50 yards on East’s yardage, ending in a one-yard scoring plunge.
On the second drive, Horvath touched the ball five of the Cougars’ eight plays, which also ended in a Horvath one-yard TD.
After that, Horvath went the long-distance route, bolting through the middle of the West defense for a 41-yard touchdown and a 46-yard score. Horvath opened the scoring in the second half on a nine-yard run and that pretty much sealed the game.
“They outplayed us,” West coach Mike Milano said. “That kid (Horvath) is a great back and they played goal-line offense and kicked out butts. It was as basic as that. They out-prepared us, they out-coached us, they had a better scheme than us in both sides of the ball.
“They were better than us. But this senior class to me I’ll miss. Those seniors got us out of the ashes. They were the COVID class that could only play four games as sophomores, and we went 2-2. Last year, we had a tragedy, and we lost to East and Coatesville when they were juniors. This senior group was special. They dug us out of the darkness and we’re into the light again because of them.”
Scoring Summary
Downingtown East (9-3) 13 14 7 0-34
Downingtown West (9-2) 0 3 6 0-9
1st Quarter
DE – Bo Horvath 1 run (kick failed), 9:35
DE – Horvath 1 run (James Blake kick), 5:09
2nd Quarter
DE – Horvath 41 run (Blake kick), 4:05
DW – Ben Mehan 23 FG, 11:15
DE – Horvath 46 run (Blake kick), 1:15
3rd Quarter
DE – Horvath 9 run (Blake kick), 5:12
DW– John Mulville 8 run (run failed), :00
Joseph Santoliquito is an award-winning sportswriter who has been covering high school football since 1992 and is the president of the Boxing Writers Association of America. He can be followed on Twitter @JSantoliquito. Follow EasternPAFootball.com on Twitter @EPAFootball.
