Downingtown West Dominates Second Half In Win Over Bishop Shanahan

DOWNINGTOWN — In the midst of an offensive shootout with Bishop Shanahan when it entered halftime, the Downingtown West defense knew it needed to step up.

The Whippets trailed by one at the break as big plays from Eagles quarterback Anthony Aquila and the passing game gave them fits.

Downingtown West bottled up the Shanahan run game and put pressure on Aquila on the way to a second-half shutout. The defensive stand and three-touchdown night from running back Amari Cannon propelled the Whippets to a 33-21 revenge win over Shanahan on Friday night.

“We were in a pinch at first. We weren’t getting much pressure,” Downingtown West defensive lineman Kyle Markley said. “We changed a little bit up in the second half, and we just flipped a switch from there. We got it done.”

Aquila passed for two touchdowns and ran for another in the first half, finding Aidan Civitella for scores of 24 and 33 yards. He finished 20-of-29 for 209 yards and two scores, including 10 catches, 111 yards and two touchdowns for Civitella.

Downingtown West quarterback Cole Bricker also tossed two first-half touchdowns — a 9-yarder to JD Weller to put the Whippets up 7-0 and a 26-yarder to Brendon Goode-Kimble to tie it, 14-14, after Shanahan went ahead.

Shanahan went up 21-14 on the 33-yard touchdown pass with 2:02 left in the first half. Downingtown West’s Amari Cannon answered with a personal 60-yards touchdown drive that was capped by a four-yard rushing score with 44.7 seconds left in the half. A blocked PAT by Shanahan’s Lachlan Sherwin kept the Eagles up 21-20 at half.

“He’s a gamer,” Shanahan coach Paul Meyer said of Aquila, who also came away with a defensive pick. “Every game, you know what you’re going to get from him. He’s going to make plays. Defensively, he was a stud tonight. He was hitting people, he was stepping up, filling holes.”

Downingtown West’s pass rush came to life in the second half. Brian Carter forced and TJ Sinkus recovered a strip sack on Shanahan’s third play of the third quarter. Even though the Whippets couldn’t immediately recover, they kept coming after Aquila with three sacks in the second half. The “Big 3” of Sinkus, Markley, and Brian Carter on the defensive line brought the heat often.

Cannon ran 22 times for 136 yards and three touchdowns in the game. A 40-yard catch from Bricker set up his second score — a one-yard run with 2:34 left in the third to go up 26-21.

The Whippets’ defense forced two consecutive Shanahan three and outs before Cannon punched in a two-yard touchdown run with 6:32 to left in the fourth.

“In the locker room, we were just talking,” Cannon said. “We had to get everything going. We had a mindset this week that we wanted to win this game. We just came out and fought harder.”

“I think their size got to us a little bit, wore us down a little bit,” Meyers said. “They were running right at us so we got tired a little bit. They’re a little bit bigger than us. … He’s tough. He doesn’t go down right away and he falls forward too, so he always gets the extra yards.”

Downingtown West held Shanahan to 40 yards on 13 plays on its first four drives of the second half. The Eagles finally found a way to move the ball on their fifth offensive drive of the half as Aquila and Civitella connected several times. Owen McGrory also caught eight balls for 63 yards.

Aquila drove his team all the way down the Downingtown West six-yard line before the Whippets’ defensive line made its presence felt again. Ryan Neuhaus came up with a strip sack on 4th-and-2 with about two minutes left to all but seal a victory and preserve the second-half shutout.

“Big time,” Markley said of the play.

“We go for zero scores every time and it paid off,” he added.

Downingtown West lost to Shanahan, 28-22, last season. It was the lone blemish for the reigning District 1-6A champs before a season ending loss to St. Joe’s Prep in the state semifinals.

The Whippets are flying a bit more under the radar this season after a Week 2 loss to St. John’s (D.C.) and Week 3 one-point overtime defeat to Perkiomen Valley, but a revenge win over the Eagles’ was their fourth straight victory heading into big-time matchups with Coatesville and crosstown rival Downingtown East.

“We’ve been talking about it since August,” Markley said. “We’ve been prepping the whole season for it, and 365 days later came back and got the job finished from last year.”

Downingtown West 7 13 6 7-33
Bishop Shanahan 7 14 0 0-21

Individual Scoring
First Quarter
DW: JD Weller 9 pass from Cole Bricker (Mason Sharp kick) 8:40
BS: Aidan Civitella 24 pass from Anthony Aquila (Sal Debellis kick) 4:57

Second Quarter
BS: Anthony Aquila 1 run (Sal Debellis kick) 10:38
DW: Brendon Goode-Kimble 26 pass from Cole Bricker (Mason Sharp kick) 7:02
BS: Aidan Civitella 33 pass from Anthony Aquila (Sal Debellis kick) 2:02
DW: Amari Cannon 4 run (kick blocked) 44.7

Third Quarter
DW: Amari Cannon 1 run (pass fail) 2:34

Fourth Quarter
DW: Amari Cannon 2 run (Mason Sharp kick)

Team Statistics
…………………….DWest………………Shan
1st downs………..16…………………18
rush-yds……….35-196……….30-79
comp-att-int….4-8-1…………..20-29-0
pass yds……….80………………209
total yds…………276……………….288
fumb-lost……..1-0………………2-2
pen-yds…………7-55…………..1-15

Individual Statistics
Rushing
Downingtown West: Amari Cannon 22-136, 3 TDs; Cole Bricker 4-24; Marcus McComsey 2-22; Max Levey 1-8; Max Wolfington 3-7; TJ Sinkus 1-7; Ryan Shoemaker 1-4.
Bishop Shanahan: Anthony Aquila 22-68, TD; Nate Bracken 8-11.

Passing
Downingtown West: Cole Bricker 4-8, 80 yards, 2 TDs, INT.
Bishop Shanahan: Anthony Aquila 20-29, 209 yards, 2 TDs.

Receiving
Downingtown West: Amari Cannon 1-40; Brendon Goode-Kimble 1-26; JD Weller 1-9; Max Wolfington 1-5.
Bishop Shanahan: Aidan Civitella 10-111, 2 TDs; Owen McGrory 8-63; Nate Bracken 1-9; Danny Keenan 1-16.

Interceptions: Bishop Shanahan: Anthony Aquila.

Sacks: Downingtown West: Ryan Neuhaus, Kyle Markley, Brian Carter.