In an effort to prove that last season’s 4-6 record was nothing more than a hiccup in the fairly new tradition of Downingtown East football, the Cougars had a lot to prove against the Frankford Pioneers tonight in their season opener. Last season was the first time since the inaugural (2003 when they went 5-7) season of Cougar football, that they had a losing season.
The Cougars wanted to get the monkey off their back, and boy did they ever. Calling their 45-6 rout of Frankford is an understatement. The Cougars’ longest touchdown drive of the night was 52 yards, and only needed 219 yards of offense to jump out to a 45-0 halftime lead. About the only positives that Frankford could take away from tonight’s game- were that they were to avert a shutout, and one of the top juniors in the state of Pennsylvania in Cary Angeline was held to 1 catch (15 yards) on 2 targets.
The game got off to a bit of an ominous start for Downingtown East, as Tommy Hockenjos lost a fumble after a completed pass from Andrew Hudson. It took all of 5 plays for the Cougars to get the ball back on an interception, and forcing Frankford to abandon their passing game for the night. Jack Kincade put Downingtown East on the board with a 3 yard run. After a Pioneer three and out, Nik Aivado doubled the lead to 14-0 on 6 yard run.
Following yet another Frankford 3 and out, and the teams trading turnovers, Drew Brennan kicked a 35 yard field goal to make the lead 17-0 in East’s favor.
From that point on, the game got away from Frankford…. Badly. A short punt gave Downingtown East a 41 yard field- two plays later, it was 24-0 on an Aivado 30 yard run. Another 3 and out by Frankford- 5 plays and 52 yards later, and Hudson hit Keith Conner for a 27 yard touchdown to make it 31-0. Adam Behrndt recovered a blocked punt for a touchdown (38-0) to make the second half mercy rule a distinct possibility, then Jack Kincade scored from 8 yards out to solidify the fact that there would be a mercy rule.
Mikey Morrell did score on a 3 yard run, with the extra point being blocked.
After the game, it was obvious that East’s coach Mike Matta was pleased with his team’s performance. He stated their defense took advantage of many opportunities (2 turnovers led to 10 points, and special teams led to 7), got a lot of young kids to play. He wanted to re-establish the defense, and have kids fly around to the ball. The kids were dying to play, and get the bad taste of last season out of their mouths, Brennan’s kicking has improved. Last year, they never got that “complete” game, and tonight they played as a team. Frankford has a lot of athletes who place in space, and our defensive line’s aggressiveness led them into a lot of procedure penalties.
SCORING SUMMARY-
Downingtown East- 14-31-00-00- 45
Frankford High Sch- 00-00-6-00- 6
DE- Kincade 3 run (Brennan kick)
DE- Aivado 7 run (Brennan kick)
DE- Brennan 35 FG
DE- Aivado 30 run (Brennan kick)
DE- Conner 27 pass from Hudson (Brennan kick)
DE- Behrndt recovered blocked punt in end zone (Brennan kick)
DE- Kincade 8 run (Brennan kick)
F- Morrell 3 run (kick blocked)
First Downs
DE- 10
F- 11
Punts-
DE- 28 yard avg (2 punts)
F- 25.5 (4 punts)
Fumbles (lost)
DE- 3 (3 lost)
F- 4 (3 lost)
Penalties
DE- 5 (35 yards)
F- 7 (35 yards)
Passing
DE- Hudson 6-7-104 yards-1 td, Walsh 0-2
F- Morrell 2-4- 24 yards- 1 int
Receiving
DE- Angeline 1-15, Hockenjos 1-24, Chisena 2-23, Hanford 1-14, Conner 1-27 (td)
F- Reed 1-4, Lee 1-20
Rushing
DE- Hudson 2-14, Kincade 11-48 (2td), Hockenjos 3-16, Aivado 2-37 (2td), Walsh 1-0, Liauditis 5-10, Crowley 1-3, Mullin 4-0. Total 29-133
F- Morrell 6-17, Allen 7-21, Hyland 13-31, Simmons 6-27, Womack 13-34, Graham 2-18. Total 47-148.
Total Yards
DE- 237
F- 172
