Daily Local News (West Chester, PA)
Whippets fail to avenge 2016 loss as Vikings rout D-West
GRATERFORD » Last fall, Cole Peterlin paced up and down the Perkiomen Valley sideline.
While there, he observed and he learned.
Throughout the season, he soaked in the lessons of senior quarterback Stephen Sturm, one of the area’s all-time best, as the senior racked up record-setting numbers while leading the Vikings to a Pioneer Athletic Conference title as well as to a District 1 Class 6A playoff run.
Now, the ball is in Peterlin’s hands.
And by the looks of it, Perkiomen Valley finds itself in good hands once again.
After a slow start, junior quarterback Peterlin and the Vikings marched up and down the field on their way to a 38-0 win over Downingtown West at Thomas J. Keenan Stadium.
“I was nervous at first, but a few series in and I felt like I belonged out there,” said Peterlin, who, like Sturm, is a left-hander. “It’s a lot to live up to, being behind a guy like Sturm. He helped me learn how to run this offense a lot better than I used to know.”
With the win, Perkiomen Valley — ranked No. 9 in Pa. Prep Live’s season-opening Top 20 rankings — picks up an opening-week win for the third straight year.
Downingtown West drops its second straight season-opener after falling to the Vikings 42-41 last year. It’s the first time the Whippets lost their openers in back-to-back years since the 2004 and 2005 seasons.
On the night, Downingtown West simply couldn’t generate any sort of rhythm offensively. The Whippets punted away their first six possessions, then turned it over on downs their next three possessions.
“We knew we had a lot of question marks coming into this one,” said West head coach Mike Milano. “We’ve got nine 10th-graders on the field, but that’s no excuse. We’re better than this.”
Sophomore quarterback Will Howard showed poise under center. He finished with 202 yards passing, but certainly could have had more. Howard had a handful of throws deep that just missed the outstretched fingertips of his streaking wide receivers.
“That’s a pretty good football team,” said Milano of Perk Valley. “They had a kid on defense, No. 5 (senior lineman Alec Jackson), that we couldn’t handle. He dominated play for 48 minutes. He knocked every tackle down, he batted three or four balls, we couldn’t block him.”