Knights “Bend the Knee” tonight, crushed by Cougars

Written by: Paul Sarpen on Saturday, September 2nd, 2017. Follow Paul Sarpen on Twitter.

Tonight was a record setting night at Kottmeyer Stadium, in the Boro of Downingtown, between two consistent top tier District 1 programs, the Downingtown East Cougars and the North Penn Knights.

If you think the records would involve lowest scoring game in stadium history, in a game between two teams with notoriously solid defenses, you would be sorely mistake. Tonight’s game set a record for most combined points (105) in a game, most points by a losing team (44), and Downingtown East tied the stadium record for the most points by any one team (61), in a 61-44 shootout win over North Penn. The teams also combined for 41 first downs, 864 yards of offense, only five punts, and six turnovers.

Over the last three seasons, the teams have split four meetings, including a playoff game in 2014.

North Penn got on the scoreboard first, when Steve DePaul hit the highly recruited receiver Justis Henley on a 61 yard flanker screen to convert a third and 15 for a touchdown on their first possession. The Cougars tied the game at 7-7 when Kyle Lauletta hit Jack Riley on a three-yard pass. Kelly Macnamara booted a 27-yard field goal to put North Penn up 10-7. Like they have all night, Downingtown East answered back, as Brassir Stocker scored the first of his three touchdowns, on an eight-yard run and a 13-10 lead at the end of one.

The second quarter featured more back and forth action. DePaul hit Owen Thomas for a nine-yard score, and a 17-13 lead for the Knights. Downingtown East re-took the lead 20-17, when Brassir Stocker returned the ensuing kickoff 93 yards. North Penn scored two unanswered touchdowns on runs by Khan Jamal (13 yards), and Dars Bowsky (32 yards) to take a 30-20 lead. The Cougars closed the lead at 30-27 at halftime, when Tim Aivado scored from a yard out on a 4th down and one.

The momentum that Downingtown East took into the locker room continued as the Cougars scored three unanswered touchdowns to open up a three score lead. Bryce Lauletta scored on a one-yard run to re-take the lead (33-30), Tim Aivado scored on a 16-yard run (40-30), and a 45-yard run by Brassir Stocker (47-30). A second touchdown pass from DePaul to Henley (45 yards) closed the score to 47-37 after three quarters.

The Cougar scoring onslaught continued when Bryce Lauletta scored his second one-yard touchdown run of the night to put East up by 17 again, and Garvey Johnassaint scored from four yards out to put the Cougars up 61-37. DePaul threw his final touchdown pass to Jon Haynes (10 yards) to close out the scoring.

On the night, Downingtown East ran for 370 yards led by Brassir Stocker (150 yards), Garvey Johnassaint (123 yards), and Tim Aivado (86 yards). North Penn quarterback Steve DePaul threw for 307 yards and four touchdowns, and receiver Justis Henley had 225 yards and 2 touchdowns (11 catches)

After the game, a clearly unhappy North Penn head coach Dick Beck told his team he didn’t want to see or hear any crying or (complaining). “Don’t quit on us, because I will be here early Monday morning. It was not a ‘scheme’ thing, but an inability to get off our blocks, and they flat out beat our (butts). Our defense was really bad.”

Downingtown East coach Mike Matta stated, “This is the best offensive line we ever had here. They were clearly staying on top of their blocks. I can’t say enough about our strength program and Darren Wasser. As far as our tailbacks go, all three are different. Bryce is clearly our leader. We were able to fight back all night.” Tailback Brassir Stocker said, “Our line is really good. They put in the work all week, and gave 110%. It was a hard week of practice, and we felt that North Penn quit a little bit. They’re not used to being down like this.” Connor Munnelly was more blunt in his assessment of the second half, ”Shootouts with North Penn don’t normally happen like that. We beat them physically, and they quit at halftime. When they were walking coming out of the locker room after halftime, we knew we were going to beat them.”

SUMMARY
Dtown East- 13-14-20-14- 61
North Penn- 10-20- 7- 7- 44

NP- Henley 61 pass from DePaul (Macnamara kick)
DE- Riley 3 pass from Lauletta (Good kick)
NP- Kelly Macnamara 27 yard FG
DE- B Stocker 8 run (kick blocked)
NP- Thomas 9 pass from DePaul (Macnamara kick)
DE- Stocker 93 yard kickoff return (Good kick)
NP- Jamal 13 run (kick blocked)
NP- Bowsky 32 run (Macnamara kick)
DE- Aivado 1 run (Good kick)
DE- Lauletta 1 run (Kick blocked)
DE- Aivado 16 run (Good kick)
DE- Stocker 45 run (Good kick)
NP- Henley 41 pass from DePaul (Macnamara kick)
DE- Lauletta 1 run (Good kick)
DE- Johnassaint 4 run (Good kick)
NP- Haines 10 pass from DePaul (Macnamara kick)

DE NP
First Downs- 21 20
Penalties-Yards 4-50 9-61
Fumbles-Lost 1-0 2-2
Punts-Average 3-34.7 2-36
Rushes-Yards 55-370 25-121
Comp-Att-Int 8-14-2 18-33-2
Yards Passing 66 307
Total Yards 436 428

Passing
Downingtown East- Lauletta 8-13, 66 yards, 1 td, 2 int. Long 0-1
North Penn- DePaul 18-33, 307 yards, 4 tds, 2 int.

Receiving
Downingtown East- Noble 1-12, Riley 2-16 (TD), Umberger 3-30 (TD), Aivado 2-8
North Penn- Henley 11-225 (2TD), Andrews 1-11, Catanzaro 2-19, Thomas 1-9 (TD), Edwards 1-11, Haynes 1-10 (TD), Cartwright 1-26

Rushing-
Downingtown East- Johnassaint 16-123 (TD), Umberger 1-0, Aivado 17-86 (2td), Stocker 14-150 (2TD), Lauletta 7-11 (2td).
North Penn- Bowsky 3-44 (TD), Andrews 4-27, Jamal 10-50 (2td), Henley 1-36, DePaul 5-(minus 3)

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