Opponents: LaSalle Explorers: 12-1, D12 Champ, Coatesville Red Raiders: 12-2, D1 Champ
At Stake: AAAA Eastern. Pa., State Championship
Coaches: Drew Gordon for LaSalle/ 7th year and Matt Ortega, Coatesville/3rd year.
Common Opponents: Coatesville lost to Malvern in week 2, 19-14 and LaSalle defeated Malvern 38-6 in week 4
Weather Forecast: high 30’s brisk
Venue/Time: Walt Kottmeyer Stadium, Downingtown, Pa., Friday, December 7, 7:00 PM. Kottmeyer is a District 1 venue and Coatesville has played there twice this year including last week’s title game. Coatesville is within 15 minutes of Downingtown. LaSalle is almost an hour away
How They Got There: Coatesville won the District 1 championship averaging over 50 points a game throughout the playoffs. They could easily be 14-0 and lost both their games at the end vs. Downingtown East and Malvern. LaSalle comes off an emotional PCL championship victory three weeks back vs. undefeated St. Joe’s Prep and Frankford.
Offense: LaSalle has more offensive weapons but Coatesville has more game breakers. Coatesville has the most potent spread offense seen in these parts in years. Quarterback Emmitt Hunt is SEPA’s leading passer and has amassed 2,700 passing yards and 40 touchdowns and only one interception. His main targets are Chris Jones and Dre Boggs. Combined they have 35 touchdowns and both are serious threats to take it to the house at any time. Their main RB is Daquan Worley who has over 1,500 yards and 17 touchdowns and has a number of long touchdown runs as well. This foursome is the most feared in all of SEPA. After a week two loss to Malvern, offensive coordinator Nick Felus more of a spread offense where they have been much more proficient.
LaSalle offensive coordinator Brett Gordon runs many different offensive formations. Outside of the regular season game versus St. Joe’s, they have never scored less than three touchdowns per game. Chris Kane is under center and has thrown for 2,300 yards and 28 touchdowns. His main threat is three year starter Sean Coleman who has 15 TD’s. The bigger the game, the better Coleman plays. Sophomore Jimmy Herron is the other main wide out and he also runs an assortment of plays out of the shotgun formation and has 14 TD’s. The running attack is split amongst Jarred Herrmann, Mike Eife and Jordan Meachum. Eife is more ground and pound, Meachum a burner and Herrmann is a very reliable receiver out of the backfield.
Offensive Line: Coatesville lines up Titus Richards, Dylan Morgan, Joe Phillips, Andrew Baker Colin Raysor and Tight End Tyler Burke in front of Hunt. Hunt had plenty of time to throw in the last two weeks via their pass protection. The drive blocking this group provides (especially to its right) allowed Worley to break thru to the second level. This group will need to give Hunt some time to throw because of the athleticism and quickness of LaSalle’s front four or five.
LaSalle has more depth and size in their line, rotating Tom Spiteri, Pat Hoffman, Dave Losier, Connor Resch, Bill Frusco and Luke Persichetti. Last week’s starting center Tom Geppert will not play after suffering a knee injury last week. This group is an excellent “point of attack” line and play very well as a group in pass protection for Kane.
Defense: LaSalle gives up an average of 12 points a game under coordinator John Steinmetz revolving door of substitutions both on the line and the defensive backfield. Last year’s leading tackler, Spiteri is healthy and now going both ways patrolling the defensive line with Andrew Carlone, Pat Hoffman, Bill Frusco, Losier, Eife, Ryan Coonahan and Naji up front. Nagi had six sacks in the Parkland game but Coatesville will have TE Burke (who normally lines up on the right) staying in to block him. Their back seven are a very athletic, playmaking group including Dad Poquie, Zaire Franklin, Coleman, Herron, Cris Rocco and Mike Koller. Franklin is a big hitter getting D1 looks. Gordon’s major concern during the season was poor tackling. The team did a much better job in both departments in the last month.
Coatesville’s front includes Mike Boykin (11 sacks), Richards, Morgan, Phillips and Baker. Their back seven is a very athletic group in Burke, Steve Pawling, Worley, Jason Totoram, Isaih Flamer and Jay Stocker. Defensive coordinator Tim Lucci mixed in four and five man fronts in their game versus Spring-Ford and kept both of their 1,000 yard rushers (Jarred Jones and Yousef Lundi) to less than 60 yards on the ground combined. Burke is always on the field and is in on a majority of the tackles.
Special Teams: LaSalle has one of the best kickers in SEPA in University of Pitt commit Ryan Winslow. He can handle 40 yard attempts and can punt for over 40 yards when needed. Coleman handles the returns and has made big returns out of nothing.
Coatesville has Boggs and Jones handling most of the returns and both are game breakers with multiple returns for touchdowns. Jon Bollenback handles the kicking duties and although not as big a leg as Winslow, has extreme accuracy on short to medium distance field goals.
Intangibles: LaSalle’s defense hasn’t seen as explosive an offense as Coatesville, but Coatesville will not have seen as good a defense as LaSalle. Steinmetz called a gem of a game last week versus Parkland by mixing in different zone and man coverages. Parkland only threw three times in their District title win versus Delaware Valley but planned to pass a lot more last week. LaSalle had a better plan and very quick athletes throughout their defense to stymie anything Parkland tried. Their defensive line is surprisingly quick and contains the edge better than most teams.
Coatesville has three sensational play makers that have the ability to make something out of nothing (Worley, Boggs and Jones). On this side of the ball it will come down to how many times these three can overtake LaSalle’s LB’s and DB’s once they pass the first level. Hunt, for his part will not have as much time in the pocket and will probably rely more on quick timing patterns.
LaSalle will move the ball offensively on Coatesville especially in the air. Coatesville has committed a number of penalties the last couple weeks and that could hurt them in this game, especially with a disciplined Explorer team coming in. The Coatesville team that lost to Malvern is a completely different team now. Clear weather and no wind should benefit Coatesville more. Steinmetz may opt to blitz Hunt up the middle while attempting to contain the edge.
Ted Silary has contributed to this story
42 Responses
Despite the loopsided officiating the better team won last night. Hard hitting defense and a very speedy offense rocked LaSalle last night!
Can anyone say Chocolate Town!!!
Now maybe the state will see how dominant this Coatesville team is! The Coatesville fans have known since week four how special this team really is. This is a tough physical team with a lot of speed, that combination can be very scary. Coatesville had never seen a team like this and I believe this has started a new chapter in Coatesville Football.
Chocolate Bowl Coatesville 35 Wilson 28
I didn’t see the discipline in LaSalle last night as mentioned in the above article. They were pretty chippy early on in the game. Maybe that was part of the strategy. going into the game.
The refers were suspect. That’s all I’m going to say about them.
Early in the game it was hard to tell this was the same C’ville team as during the season. They recovered & played a good game.
C’ville’s first two drives of the second half was a pretty impressive display of ball control which really ate up the clock. That was an unexpected pleasure to watch.
I think the better team won, but it wasn’t in the way that you would have expected.
Biased towards LaSalle? LaSalle was called for 14 penalties. I’m glad Coatesville won but don’t be whining about the refs.
Coatesville won tonight despite very suspect officiating from the start. At some point we were laughing at what they were coming up with next. Not saying that they were biased towards LaSalle/PCL, but they certainly weren’t biased twoards Coatesville, I can tell you that! The near-collapse/comeback kept it a nail-biter, but the better team won.
what do you think at da ville now jimbo
Poor game thanks to the Refs. Worst officiating I have ever witnessed. Those guys should be ashamed. Oh yeah see you in Hershey.
Didn’t know they were playing in a dome. Wow were you a dropped pass on the 10 away from lokking really silly turk. Should really wait till the final whistle before you start raising the roof.
@ Jive Turkey, Sincerly Jive Turkey
Coatesville Red Raiders straight up raise the roof.
This comment thread just gave me a huge laugh, so, thank you all for that. 64-3 LaSalle? 47-0 Coatesville? Bunch of smack-talkers! It’s great.
Having seen Coatesville play about 5 times this year, including both times at Kottmeyer Stadium, I agree that there hasn’t been a team like this in SEPA in a long time and that they continue to get better. I’ve seen LaSalle play this year a few times, including against Parkland. They look great. Coatesville is more impressive. I’m prepared to eat crow as LaSalle does carry with them a lot of experience, but if they don’t pressure Hunt early and often, force turnovers, and get an early lead themselves, they lose tonight.
I don’t predict scores, but I do think Coatesville wins.
Jarrico,
The preview was written on tuesday night and the extended forecast at that time did not have rain. Actually as of last night the rain wasn’t due till late Friday. Now that has changed as well
LaSalle put 5 guys on the D lin agianst Parkland. Parkland runs the ball and does not have a passing game. That was all they needed to do. This week will be different. At this point games in theory should be 10-17 points if teams palying each other are apples to apples.
EPAF.NET
I see you deleted my post.
Still, can we get Jimbo explain what a minority sounds like? You deleted his post too.
Just for the record, career numbers vs. Prep. Coleman 18 catches for 210yds, 1 TD. Fuller 14 catches 217yds, 2 TD’s. C’mon Jerry, you have to look this stuff up before you start throwing stuff at the wall, hoping it sticks.
@Jerry, what are you the kids dad? If you read the post I made, it said records like that are subjective. Let’s take away freshman year, and the 66 yards Coleman got. That puts him 244 yards behind in 5 extra games. Wasn’t looking for a debate with the kids biggest fan, just making a point about records sometimes not telling the whole story. I don’t know Fuller, nor do I care if he had 1 career yard or 10,000. However, just because, for some reason only you know, you have some ill will towards Fuller, still doesn’t make Coleman half of the player that Fuller is.
Yall be jiving ! Coatesville is that chocolate city. Chocolate was actually discovered here and is the chocolate making capital of duh world. They linebackers smarter them Einstein. They line bigguh den wooly mammoths! They skill faster then Bugs Bunny! They gone set the scoreboard on fire, cuz Coatesville is the pyromaniac capital of the world. Aint no trilla! Coatesville is duh beast of the northeast! They gonna set records tonight for real!