By PETER DiGIOVANNI
cpn11716@comcast.net
DOWNINGTOWN - Mission accomplished.
The Coatesville High School football team continued its assault on the rest of District 1 Friday night at Kottmeyer Stadium. Coatesville jumped out to an early lead and piled it on a beleaguered Spring-Ford team for a convincing 59-28 triumph that gave the Red Raiders their first District 1 Class AAAA title since 1992. The 59 points were the most scored in a district title game, eclipsing the previous mark of 55 set by North Penn in 2005.
Coatesville (12-2) received four touchdown passes -- three to Chris Jones -- from quarterback Emmett Hunt and rushed the football for 244 yards, with senior Daquan Worley accounting for 180 of the total to key the rout. Coatesville will now go to the PIAA Class AAAA Eastern Final against LaSalle or Parkland next weekend at a time and place to be determined.
“I can’t even describe the feeling of winning a district title,” Hunt said. “When coach (Matt) Ortega came in, he said it would take him four years to turn the program around and he asked us to trust him. I didn’t know what he was talking about for sure, but the coaches put us in position to win and we have won the biggest game tonight.
“We listened all week to Spring-Ford (12-3) trash talk about us saying we were an average team and that I was just an average quarterback. But tonight, we left no doubt about it.”
As it has most of the season, Coatesville jumped out to an early lead, scoring on its first possession as Hunt hit Dre Boggs on a 10-yard slant for an early 7-0 lead. The Red Raiders would end up scoring on their first six possessions.
After their first turn with the ball when the Rams were stopped on a fourth-and-short, their second ended even worse as it was the Coatesville defense’s turn to make a big play.
Rams quarterback Hank Coyne hit R.J. Sheldon with a pass in the flat, but Jason Totaram leveled the Spring-Ford (12-3) tight end, who fumbled the football. In swooped Devonte Suber, who picked up the fumble and rumbled 33 yards to paydirt for a 14-0 advantage.
“I was just thinking end zone,” Suber said. “We were taking their will away play by play and that fumble was a big one. This is a great feeling to win a district title with my teammates. We are a family here and God is good.”
Spring-Ford did not roll over, however. On the ensuing kickoff, Tate Carter electrified the crowd with a pretty 91-yard touchdown scamper to put the Rams on the board. Carter had a big game for the Rams, catching six balls for 54 yards.
But it was clear right there that the Rams’ defense was no match for the Red Raiders’ blitzkreig attack. With Worley churning up the yardage on the ground and Jones and Dre Boggs making big catches, the Red Raiders went into halftime with a comfortable 35-21 lead.
“This is a great feeling to win a title,” Boggs said. “We did not pay what they were saying any mind. We listened to coach Ortega and took care of business.”
The Red Raiders continued to take care of business at the start of the third quarter, needing just two plays to push the lead to 42-21. Worley took a pitch from Hunt and raced around the right side 51 yards for the score and you could see the Rams slumping down on their sideline.
After a Jon Bollenbach 27-yard field goal, Worley struck again at the end of a six-play drive ending with the senior going in from 11 yards to make it a 52-21 game and Coatesville could taste the district title after outscoring the Rams 17-0 in the third.
Jones then snagged his third touchdown pass of the game from Hunt in the right corner of the end zone to put the game into the mercy rule early in the fourth, the third straight playoff game that the rule went into effect for the Red Raiders.
The Coatesville defense limited leading rusher Jarred Jones to 42 yards on 15 carries and held Spring-Ford to 201 total yards.
District 1 finals are not supposed to be as easy as this win was. Head coach Matt Ortega talked about his team and what they just accomplished.
“These kids are special,” Ortega said. “They are not cocky, but they are very confident in what they do. They work hard every week and they will get back to it on Monday. We had a four-year plan and here we are as district champs.”
The win was the 10th in a row for Coatesville. They have outscored their four playoff opponents by a combined margin of 202-98.
Coatesville 59, Spring-Ford 28
Scoring
C-Boggs 10 pass from Hunt (Bollenbach kick)
C-Suber 33 fumble return (Bollenbach kick)
S-Carter 91 kickoff return (Gulati kick)
C-Hunt 1 run (Bollenbach kick)
S-Carter 14 pass from Coyne (Gulati kick)
C-Jones 22 pass from Hunt (Bollenbach kick)
S-Hopkins 8 pass from Coyne (Gulati kick)
C-Jones 14 pass from Hunt (Bollenbach kick)
C-Worley 51 run (Bollenbach kick)
C-Bollenbach 27 FG
C-Worley 11 run (Bollenbach kick)
C-Jones 8 pass from Hunt (Bollenbach kick)
S-Lundi 3 run (Gulati kick)
Team Totals
S C
first downs 9 19
Yards rushing 83 244
Yards passing 118 171
Total yards 201 415
Passing 14-27-1 13-18-0
Fumbles-lost 1-1 2-0
Punts-avg 3-26.5 3-36.5
Penalties-yds 6-50 10-65
Individual Statistics
Rushing: SF: Jones 15-42; Lundi 5-17, TD; Coyne 2-21; Carter 1-3. Coat: Worley 18-180, 2TD’s; Hunt 5-25, TD; Boggs 4-20; Jones 1-13; Hudson 2-7; Ahara 1- (-1).
Passing: SF: Coyne 14-27-1 118 yards, 2TD’s. Coat: Hunt 13-18-0 171 yards, 4TD’s.
Receiving: SF: Carter 6-54, TD; Sheldon 3-35; McDowell 2-15; Hopkins 1-8, TD; Schein 1-6. Coat: Jones 7-107, 3TD’s; Boggs 3-36, TD; Williams 2-26; Worley 1-2.
Sacks: SF: Sheldon. Coat: None.
Interceptions: SF: None. Coat: Flamer.
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