COATESVILLE, PA — The Coatesville offense had gone missing for a few weeks there. The Red Raiders were once a team steaming toward a District 1 Class 6A championship, then they went to a team that could not score, shutout in consecutive games after starting senior quarterback Matt Ortega Jr. went down with an injury.
It looks like Ortega Jr. is back, and with it is the Coatesville offense, which did enough on Friday night in a 14-0 victory over a very good Council Rock South team in the District 1 Class 6A quarterfinals at Coatesville.
The Red Raiders now advance to the district semifinals, where they will meet No. 1 Pennridge in one semifinal game next Friday at 7 p.m., with the winner advancing to the district championship against the winner of the North Penn-Neshaminy semifinal.
Coatesville (10-2) was powered by a pair of Andre Watson touchdowns, one for 40 yards with 7:17 left in the second quarter, and the clinching score, a 44-yard run with 3:26 to play. The victory doubled Coatesville’s victory of a year ago, when the Red Raiders went an uncharacteristic 5-5. The loss ended a highly successful turnaround season for Council Rock South, which finished 10-2 overall, which more than doubled its victory total after going 4-6 last year.
“When Matt went down, we learned through adversity to keep our heads straight and work with what we have and move forward,” said Watson, who rushed for a game-high 136 yards on 17 carries. “Council Rock South was a really good team. They sent a lot of people to try and stop our run game, and they did a good job at first, but we made some adjustments and got back to it.”
It helps running behind 6-foot-6, 300-pound left tackle Max Hiller, who had to catch a plane to Alabama Saturday morning for a recruiting trip to the Alabama-LSU game. Hiller played a terrific all-around game, offensively collapsing a whole side of the Golden Hawks’ defense, and defensively, taking away the middle of the field with his size and speed.
“Max is a great blocker, all of my offensive linemen are really good blockers,” Watson said. “Max took out the left side and I walked through the gap. Our offense is getting close to where we want it. We still have a lot to fix, but I think we will be good for down the road.”
Who is very good is Hiller, who had to be double teamed on defense, and whose mammoth sized served as a great road grader on offense.
“We need to talk more up front, which didn’t do as much this game, and it’s an easy fix,” Hiller said. “When Matt was out, we faced teams that loaded the box and made us one dimensional. What is good about our offense is we can do a lot of different things. I think a lot of teams saw us struggle on offense and began underestimating us.”
Council Rock South was switching their defensive fronts with even and odd fronts, trying to confuse the Red Raiders. Sometimes it worked, sometimes it did not.
“I feel good right now,” Ortega Jr. said. “My right ankle hurt, but I am playing through it. I feel confident. I was out three games and coming off last year, when we lost every game by seven, I was eager to come back and play. With Max in front of me, I can’t be scared. I feel we are set on offense and confident we can go deeper in the playoffs.”
On the Council Rock South side, Golden Hawks’ head coach C.J. Szydlik transformed a team that went 4-6 last year to a 10-2 team that reached the district quarterfinals this season.
The Hawks had trouble moving the ball, which was compounded by senior tailback Nate Szydlik, C.J.’s nephew, battling an injury the second half of the game.
“Coatesville was obviously humungous inside, so you obviously have to try and run to the outside, and they run you down with very good team speed,” C.J. Szydlik said. “It presented a lot of problems. They can match up with you man-to-man, and for us, that was a little bit of an Achilles heel. We were doing okay when we were running some of our basic sets early. When Nate went down, that was a dagger for us. You’re talking one of the best players in the state, and to the credit of the kids, they battled.
“This team had a great season. We’ve done a good job of football program here. We have a really good group of freshmen and sophomores here, and these seniors have a lot of things to be proud of, so we’ll be back.”
Scoring Summary
Council Rock South (10-2) 0 0 0 0-0
Coatesville (10-2) 0 7 0 7-14
2nd Quarter
C – Andre Watson 40 run (Logan Bernardo kick), 7:17
4th Quarter
C – Watson 44 run (Bernardo kick), 3:26
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.