DOWNINGTOWN — A smile creased Quinn Henicle’s face. The Downingtown West senior quarterback was well aware of the history between the Whippets and Ches-Mont League National Division rival Coatesville
The last time Downingtown West beat Coatesville was in 2019 when the Whippets’ seniors were in eighth grade. Because the game was canceled last year due to threats of violence, many of these seniors never previously faced Coatesville, including Old Dominion commit Henicle.
Call Friday night at Downingtown’s Walter E. Kottmeyer Stadium making up for lost time.
After struggling offensively in the first half, the Whippets came back to score in the third and fourth quarters to hand Coatesville a 21-14 defeat. Before that, the last time Downingtown West beat Coatesville was a Will Howard-led 48-36 Whippets’ victory in the District 1 Class 6A championship in November 2019.
This season, Downingtown West remains undefeated at 7-0 overall and 2-0 in the Ches-Mont National, while the Red Raiders fell to 5-2 and 0-1 in the Ches-Mont National.
“It’s a war against (Coatesville) and we knew that going in,” said Henicle, who completed 14 of 18 passes for 208 yards and a touchdown, with a fourth-quarter score that proved to be the game-winner. “We fought for this. We wanted it more. We learned we’re mentally tough. I waited my whole career to face them. I’m a two-year starter, so I never got a chance to play them last year. This feels great.”
The play of the game came when Henicle hit senior receiver Dean Hangey with a 33-yard sideline bomb with just over two minutes to play. The Whippets had their backs to their end zone on a third-and-nine at the West two, when Henicle found Hangey at the 35.
From there, West ran the clock down to 55 seconds left to play, forcing Coatesville into a panic. The Red Raiders committed three penalties for 15 yards and never found any cohesion to threaten West.
“I used to live in Coatesville and I know those guys and love all of them,” said West’s Kam Alex, who scored the first touchdown of the game. “Two years ago, we lost in the last seconds. Last year, from our perspective, we felt that they were running away from us, that they were scared of us. I kept motivating our guys to finish, finish, finish.
“This is amazing. I’m about to celebrate with the guys.”
With the West offense dragging, Henicle tied the score by hitting Jordan Barry in stride for a 60-yard TD pass with 49 seconds left in the third quarter. On the Whippets’ next drive, they banged out an exhaustive 10-play, 76-yard drive, with Henicle touching it off with a nine-yard TD run with 5:55 to play.
“Last year we didn’t get a chance to play, and two years ago, they hit a fade ball in the corner of the end zone with 13 seconds left to beat us,” West coach Mike Milano said. “These seniors really didn’t get a chance to play Coatesville twice, and for some of these seniors, this was their first time. Henicle played a great game.”
Milano and Henicle saw the corner bite on an earlier play, which set up the Barry touchdown. The 33-yard toss to Hangey was a call that came from sheer guts.
“That was huge to get us out of that hole,” Milano said. “I trusted Quinn and he put it up and gave Dean a chance to get it. We talk history, and these guys go way, way back with the Downingtown-Coatesville rivalry. I told them afterward that I was proud of them.”
Coatesville took a 14-7 lead into halftime. Neither team was able to do much offensively, with the Whippets picking up 98 yards of total offense to Coatesville’s 111 yards.
West scored on its first possession, traveling 67 yards over eight plays. The big play of the drive was West’s first play of the game, a 23-yard completion from Henicle to Jake Kucera. Henicle kept the drive alive with an eight-yard scramble on a fourth-and-three at the Coatesville 18. One play later, Alex zig-zagged his way into the end zone for a 7-0 West lead.
Coatesville responded by scoring on its next two drives. The Red Raiders tied it on a Damon Watson four-yard run, made possible by Matt Ortega Jr.’s 35-yard completion to Frank Miles.
On the next drive, Coatesville took advantage of a CJ Miller fumble recovery at the West 27, caused by a blind-side sack by Matt Luton. The Red Raiders took the lead when Ortega connected with James Jack Qwan for a 29-yard touchdown. The score came after a Red Raiders’ unsportsmanlike penalty, which put the Red Raiders in what appeared to be a second-and-26 fix. Ortega wiped that out by hitting Qwan.
There was a total of five combined unsportsmanlike or personal fouls between the two teams in the first half.
Early on, the difference was the Coatesville defense, which held West to a scant 30 yards of total offense the rest of the half after the Whippets’ opening drive. Miller, a 6-3, 340-pound freshman defensive tackle, caused a lot of havoc inside for West, which could not move the ball between the tackles, and by the pressure of Luton and senior linebacker Jon Rivera.
Miller, Luton, and Rivera combined for five tackles in losses for minus-17 yards in the first half.
By the second half, Coatesville was struggling.
“We had guys cramping up and guys playing different positions because guys were getting tired, and that showed with guys not getting lined up right,” Coatesville coach Matt Ortega Sr. said. “We have to come back Monday and bounce back from that. We have to move on to next week. We weren’t right in the second half on offense.”
Scoring Summary
Coatesville (5-2) 14 0 0 0-14
Downingtown West (7-0) 7 0 7 7-21
1st Quarter
DW – Kam Alex 10 run (Ben Mehan kick), 7:21
C – Damon Watson 4 run (Colin Shaeffer kick), 4:22
C – James Jack Qwan 29 pass from Matt Ortega Jr. (Shaeffer kick), 2:54
3rd Quarter
DW – Jordan Barry 60 pass from Quinn Henicle (Mehan kick), :49
4th Quarter
DW – Henicle 9 run (Mehan kick), 5:55
Joseph Santoliquito is a hall-of-fame, 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.
