Three tasty matchups for hungry football fans

By PETER DiGIOVANNI

cpn11716@comcast.net

Week 2 of the scholastic football season is here and it brings a marquee matchup between two of the most highly regarded teams in Class AAAA, a big inter-county battle and a key Central League clash, along with the rest of the slate as teams look to possibly improve on week one games.

The big matchup is Roman Catholic visiting Kottmeyer Stadium to take on Downingtown East. The Cougars piled up 500 yards of total offense in their opener against Bonner-Prendergrast, while Roman scored two late touchdowns to down Malvern Prep, 28-27, in New Jersey. East head coach Mike Matta knows what a challenge Roman will be for his team.  “They are very, very good,” Matta said. “They have a big, tough line, real tough Philly kids and they are big. The quarterback (Mike Keir), can really throw the ball and (WIll) Fuller is the real thing. He can make all the catches and we will have to be careful with him.

“The running back (Dimeteri Kelly), is an Eric Dickerson type in that he is lean and tall and very athletic. He runs hard and he is physical. He broke some tackles on those two runs against Malvern and he will be a handful. but our kids love challenges like this and they know with our schedule they have to be ready every week or they will be in trouble.” 

Pick: Great matchup for area fans. There should be a lot of points scored and it will be a treat to see Jay Harris and Fuller on the same field. Roman will give up too many points against the explosive Cougars, so let’s say Downingtown East 35, Roman Catholic 28.

A enticing county contest features Malvern Prep visiting Coatesville. Malvern is coming off a tough loss to Roman, in a game where the Friars gave up two touchdowns in the last nine minutes. Malvern looked good for 3 1/2 periods with quarterback Bill Ford going 10-of-19 for 201 yards and running the Wing-T to perfection.

Coatesville destroyd an overmatched York High team, 41-0, and head coach Matt Ortega knows it will take a big effort to hold off the Friars.

“Malvern really runs the Wing-T great,” Ortega said. “They have a quarterback that really seems to know what he is doing with the offense and they run a lot of things of it. They ran a lot of reverses against Roman. We have been preaching getting turnovers from our defense this year, something I don’t think we have done that well in my three years here. Our defense and pressure package was good against York and we will have to be good again against Malvern.”

Pick: Tough game here with two very good teams, but expect Coatesville’s explosiveness to be the difference here. Coatesville 34, Malvern Prep 28.

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