DOWNINGTOWN — Whether it’s one man or 100, winning the Battle of the Brandywine is revered in the Downingtown school district.

Downingtown West caught a pair of touchdown passes from Cole Bricker, played shutout defense against the run and caught a fumbled catch/break on a holding while giving Downingtown East an extra point, 14-13, on Friday night at Kottmeyer Stadium.

The Whippets finished the regular season 9-1 and will likely be seeded No. 2 in the District 1 6A playoffs, despite a head-to-head tiebreaker with Bishop Shanahan for the Ches-Mont North Division title.

“I heard Coach (Mike) Milano say this in a conversation about this the other day: The first (East-West game) you’re trying to justify why people hired you,” first-year West coach Tom Kline said. “I thought about this for a long time and took this game personally. I wanted to show that I was the right person for the job. But more than that, I love these guys.”

Compared to last year’s team that reached the regional finals, West is right back in the mix after finding ways to perfect this squad. The defense, led by coordinator Phil Plank, was the catalyst, and against the Cougars, West held them to 70 yards on 29 carries.

“This defense is good,” East coach Mike Matta said. “Very good.”

Both defenses were stingy to start the match. The West forced two turnovers in the first quarter and the East went three-and-out on its first three drives before finding something in the fourth. Set up with a short field, Mason Ippolito hit Zach Lindsay for a 12-yard touchdown pass to open the scoring.

This woke West up. The Whippets promptly marched 90 yards, aided by a personal foul on East and a waving flag on a 25-yard run by junior quarterback Bricker. Bricker found his favorite target, J.D. Weller, who was down the far sideline for an eight-yard TD.

Bricker worked some magic on West’s next drive, scrambling to his right and finding Brendon Goode-Kimble for a 21-yard score and giving the Whippets a lead they would never lose.

“You watched (Bricker) last year as the JV quarterback and you saw something there,” Kline said. “People were asking, ‘Who’s going to be our quarterback?’ and I was saying, ‘Cole is going to be our guy.’ I believe in that kid. He had some trouble handling the ball and things didn’t look good, but he responded. He’s a very good kid. I love him.”

The Cougars had 70 total yards in the first half, but they went 81 yards in seven plays on their second drive of the third quarter. Ippolito completed three passes for 77 yards and the last 38 resulted in a TD to Nick Keenan. But something went wrong with the snap and the catch, and East could not convert one desperation pass after another and fell behind 14-13 with five minutes and 29 seconds left in the third quarter.

“Any loss is hard, it doesn’t matter how it happens,” Matthew said. “There is not a single game that will not lose any game.”

West reached the red zone on both of its possessions in the third quarter but was unable to add points. On the second drive, Bricker scored but the Whippets were called for a runner-assistance penalty.

East had just come off an 81-yard drive, starting from the 10 and maneuvering 70 yards to the West 20. But a holding penalty on first down followed by a false start stalled the drive and the 43-yard field goal was missed.

Ben Petrillo picked off Bricker on the next drive, but Ippolito completed one of the next seven passes and time expired on East’s comeback attempt.

Ippolito finished with 189 passes, while Bricker completed a career-high 162 passes in the air and 40 on the ground.

The East will also be in the District 1-6A playoffs, but will start on the road, while the West will have multiple home games.

“Everyone thought we were going to have a bad year because of who we graduated from,” Bricker said. “We all took it personally. We showed up to work every day and it paid off by going 9-1 this year.”

Downingtown West 14, Downingtown East 13

Downingtown East 7 0 6 0 — 13

Downingtown West 0 14 0 0 — 14

Scoring

DE — Lindsay 12 pass from Ippolito (Hornak kick)

DW — Weller 8 pass from Bricker (Sharp shot)

DW — Goode-Kimble 21 Pass from Bricker (Sharp shot)

DE — Keenan 38 pass from Ippolito (pass failed)

Team Totals

DE DW

First falls 9 11

Yard rushing 70 117

Last yards 189 162

Total yards 259 279

Do not exceed 11-24-1 16-21-1

Fumbles-lose 0-0 2-2

Betting-average 5-37 2-28.5

Penalties-yds 7-55 4-35

Individual Statistics

Haste – DE: Rios 15-43; Ippolito 7-20; Morrin 2-6; Brown 4-3; Robinson 1-(-2). DW: Taraschi 4-41; Tuğlacı 8-40; Dunn 13-18; Miller 4-12; Wolfington 2-4; Smith 1-3; team 1-(-1).

Passing – DE: Ippolito 11-24-1, 189 yards, 2 TDs; DW: Bricker 16-21-1, 162 yards, 2 TDs.

Alma – DE: Brown 5-89; Keenan 2-56, Tank Destroyer; Lindsay 3-39, TD; Fuchs 1-5. DW: Goode-Kimble 3-66, TD; Weller 6-53, TD; Smith 3-18; Shaughnessy 1-17; Wolfington 1-5; I don’t know, 2-3.

Interventions – DE: Petrillo. DW: Goode-Kimble.

First Publication Date: 26 October 2024, 12:20