WEST GOSHEN — With West Chester East storming back into the game during a wild third quarter, Juelz Robinson took the field looking for a way to turn the tide back toward his team.
Robinson began a run of 30 unanswered points for Downingtown East to start Friday night’s Ches-Mont game with a long touchdown run. After West Chester East ripped off three touchdowns in a matter of minutes, Robinson found a way to make a play once again.
He took an outside run 57-yards, juking a Vikings defender on the way, to help halt a potential comeback bid and propel Downingtown East to a 51-26 victory.
“I was definitely excited to get back in the game,” Robinson said. “I knew I could put it away if I got the chance to. Got the play, got to the outside and just kept going.”
“I definitely ran really hard on that run to seal the deal and secure the victory.”
Robinson ran 20 times for 160 yards and two touchdowns to lead a Cougars (5-1) backfield that finished with 338 yards and six touchdowns on the ground. Alex Rios punched in four of those scores.
West Chester East quarterback Logan Cummings completed 21-of-32 passes for 345 yards and four total scores. Chase Golden caught eight balls for 226 yards and two scores for the Vikings (4-2).
“We came together as an offensive line,” Downingtown East offensive lineman Cooper Ward said. “We made sure to do exactly what we do. We pushed them off the ball and showed them how tough we are. This is Downingtown football. We run the ball. We like torture kids on the offensive line.
Downingtown East went up 23-0 at halftime. Robinson broke off a 46-yard TD run with 8:53 left in the first. John Morrin added an 11-yard score with 10:05 left in the second; and Rios punched in a two-yard TD run with 8:54 left in the first half. Ward, Asher Chaney, Zain Hassan, Christian Awad, Sritarun Malina were the ones paving the way.
Meanwhile, the Cougars’ defense held the Vikings to minus-32 yards on the ground in the first half with five sacks, including a safety after the Vikings snapped the ball into their own end zone. Rios had two of the sacks.
The lead went up to 30-0 with 9:51 left in the third quarter after a long kick return by Christian Ippolito set up Rios’ second touchdown run of the day.
“We have a physical defense,” Rios said. “We knew they were going to come out and try and run. And we knew they were going to try and drop back and throw the ball, so we were ready for it. We’ve got some great pass rushers in there, and we were just ready to get home.”
West Chester East finally got on the board when quarterback Logan Cummings found Chase Golden for an 80-yard touchdown pass. It was the start of a crazy third quarter that included six total touchdowns and nearly 400 total yards of offense by the two teams.
Rios punched in a touchdown at the 4:55 mark in the third quarter, but the Vikings scored three times in a span of just more than two minutes to put a scare into the Cougars.
Cummings and Golden connected for a 48-yard touchdown bomb with 3:05 left in the quarter. After a Cougars fumble, Cummings hit Golden for a 41-yard completion down to the one-yard line and then punched it in himself at the 2:09 mark. The Vikings then converted an outside kick before Cummings connected with James Kernicky on an 11-yard touchdown to make it 37-26 Downingtown East with 0:57 left in the third quarter.
“I don’t know that halftime speech really wanted us to actually wake up,” Cummings said. “Putting up zero points in the first half is unbelievable. That’s not what our offense is. So we had to come out and make a statement, and that was 26 points, which was pretty huge for us.”
It was a two-score game for 33 seconds and just three offensive plays for Downingtown East, who didn’t pass in the second half after losing quarterback Ethan Ellis to injury. Robinson broke off the 57-yard score to make it 44-26 with 0:24 to play in the third.
The Cougars, who didn’t punt in the game, finally stopped the Vikings on their next drive before running their way down for another score — a Rios 3-yard touchdown run— with 4:59 left in the game.
“It was awesome because we needed that,” Ward said of Robinson’s run. “We started getting low on defense, and we were like, ‘We need to come back on offense. We need to punch them in the mouth, show the defense we got their back.’ And that’s exactly what we did.”
The Cougars have won four in a row after an opening week loss to North Penn. They allowed nearly 250 yards on the ground in that contest.
Friday started a Ches-Mont gauntlet that continues on the road against West Chester Rustin (4-2) next week, followed by Coatesville (6-0), Bishop Shanahan (5-1), and Downingtown West (4-2).
“We just gotta have the right mindset, come out, play 100 percent and nobody can stop us,” Robinson said.
West Chester East hung with Coatesville last week but a banged-up Vikings group couldn’t do the same Friday night, falling behind early.
They’ll try to regroup next week on the road against Oxford (5-1).
“We have to have a good week of practice,” Cummings said. “We can’t go in there half-a** at practice. We can’t be doing that. And we also have to get healthy. After these big games we have to get healthy.”
Downingtown East 7 16 21 14-51
West Chester East 0 0 26 0-26
Individual Scoring
First Quarter
DE: Juelz Robinson 46 run (Paul Selden kick)
Second Quarter
DE: John Morrin 11 run (Paul Selden kick) 10:05
DE: Safety 9:58
DE: Alex Rios 2 run (Paul Selden kick) 8:54
Third Quarter
DE: Alex Rios 3 run (Paul Selden kick) 9:51
WCE: Chase Golden 80 pass from Logan Cummings (Eamonn McKenna kick) 9:15
DE: Alex Rios 1 run (Paul Selden kick) 4:55
WCE: Chase Golden 48 pass from Logan Cummings (kick fail) 3:05
WCE: Logan Cummings 1 run (pass fail) 2:09
WCE: James Kernicky 11 pass from Logan Cummings (Eamonn McKenna kick) 0:57
DE: Juelz Robinson 57 run (Paul Selden kick) 0:24
Fourth Quarter
DE: Alex Rios 3 run (Paul Selden kick) 4:59
Team Statistics
…………………….DE………………WCE
1st downs………..24…………………17
rush-yds……….47-338……….27-(-13)
comp-att-int….6-6-0…………..21-34-0
pass yds……….62………………345
total yds…………400……………….332
fumb-lost……..2-2………………2-0
pen-yds…………3-20…………..5-30
Individual Statistics
Rushing
Downingtown East: Juelz Robinson 20-160, 2 TDs; John Morrin 7-79, TD; Christian Ippolito 9-52; Alex Rios 7-38, 4 TDs; Jonah Myers 2-9; Ethan Ellis 1-0; Julian Bennett 1-0.
West Chester East: Chase Golden 2-30; Carl Komoroski 10-20; Cooper Verbos 3-5; Chris Cost 1-(-5); Logan Cummings 10-(-43), TD; Team 1-(-20).
Passing
Downingtown East: Ethan Ellis 6-6, 62 yards.
West Chester East: Logan Cummings 21-32, 345 yards, 3 TDs.
Receiving
Downingtown East: Madden Miller 2-35; Michael Schlachter 3-24; Juelz Robinson 1-3.
West Chester East: Chase Golden 8-226, 2 TDs; James Kernicky 5-53, TD; Matt Kendro 3-38; Carl Komoroski 4-23; Jack Anderson 1-5.
Interceptions: None.
Sacks: Downingtown East: Alex Rios 2, Graham Smith, John Morrin, Team.