Downingtown East Wins the Battle of the Brandywine

Written by: Armand Vanore on Saturday, October 20th, 2012. Follow Armand Vanore on Twitter.

October 20, 2012

Downingtown, Pa., The Downingtown East Cougars, behind the arm of Kyle Lauletta and the legs of Jay Harris and RyleyAngeline gained sole possession of the Chest-Mont Nationalconference with a 35-21 win over nemesis Downingtown Westin the annual Battle of the Brandywine at Kottmeyer stadium Friday evening. The win gives the Cougars at present the top seed in District 1 AAAA.

The game took an immediate offensive posture with four first quarter touchdowns (two by each team). Michigan State commit Harris culminated East’s first score from the backfield with a 17 yard run. After East intercepted West’s Nick Pagel, Laulettafound Harris with a 66 yard touchdown and suddenly the Whippets found themselves down by 14 while only running two offensive plays.

The Whippets, under coach Mike Milano settled down and went on a nine play, 70 yard drive and Pagel made up for his previous interception with a 16 yard touchdown run. Needing a break themselves, they then recovered an Angeline fumble deep in East territory and five plays later Mitch Meleski scored from four yards out knotting the score at 14.

The game turned the Cougars way when they scored twice in the last minute in the half. After a Lauletta one yard TD plunge the Cougars got the ball back at their 30 after Brandon Feamsterintercepted Pagel deep in East territory. Lauletta admiraled a 70 yard drive in 30 seconds with five completions (four to Harris) and hit Harris in the left end zone from four yards and a lead that the Cougars would not relinquish.

Downingtown East now has an 8-0 (4-0) record and will visit West Chester East next week. West falls to 6-2 (3-1) will host a very formidable Coatesville squad next week.

Notes: Lauletta, a University of Richmond commit threw for 276 yards with still five minutes left in the third quarter. He now has over 2,000 passing yards and 26 touchdowns. Harris is a terror as a triple threat player (RB, WR and returner) and has to be accounted for wherever he lines up. East coach Mike Mattaran multiple trip formations and will have a huge advantage come playoffs with inside slot receiver Chris Beals open on seam routes with Harris doubled on the outside. Whippets RBTino Bunho had 126 hard earned yards rushing. Angeline finished his night with 139 rushing yards on 30 attempts. Pagelshowed good ball control running the triple option and ran for 74 yards on 11 carries. Elijah Griffin played a stellar game at LB for East and was in on a plethora of tackles. There was close to 7,000 in attendance at the start of the game and virtually no one in the stands following a 39 minute lightning delay at the end of the third quarter.

Scoring By Quarter

1st Quarter

DTE- Jay Harris- 17 run- (PAT-Chris White)- 9:25

DTE- Harris- 66 pass from Kyle Lauletta- (PAT- White)-8:23

DTW- Nick Pagel- 16 run- (PAT- Nick Caruso)- 3:44

DTW- Mitch Meleski- 4 run- (PAT- Caruso)- :39

2nd Quarter

DTE- Laletta- 1 run (PAT- White)- 1:49

DTE- Harris- 4 pass from Lauletta- (PAT- White)- :09

3rd Quarter

No Scoring

4th Quarter