Daily Local News (West Chester, PA)
Vikings bounce back into form
Coming into this football season, the West Chester East Vikings vowed to to improve on their 2-8 record from a year ago.
After starting the season 3-0, West Chester East went on a three-game losing streak, dropping games to Sun Valley, Avon Grove and Downingtown East.
With Coatesville looming in two weeks the Vikings and head coach Scott Stephen knew they needed to get back on track against Bishop Shanahan Friday, and they responded with a 28-10 win that kept them right in the District 1 Class 5A playoff race.
Stephen talked about how his team went through the losing streak and what they did well against the Eagles Friday night.
“Sometimes you don’t know they type of team you have until you are forced to deal with and grow from adversity and the experiences this game presents,” Stephen said. “We were not pleased with how we responded to some situations during the Avon Grove game and as a staff believe we took a positive step during the Downingtown East week. We had to focus on the journey and not solely on the results. We had to have a growth mindset in terms of how do our behaviors, interactions with each other and do our preparation in all that we do allow us to grow long term as a program nor just as a team.
“We started out flat against Shanahan and a little sluggish also but we regrouped, took a deep breath and focused on our guys carrying out their responsibility on each play. Our defense settled down after the first drive, played assignment football and our D-line was able to generate some push, and the rest of the defense was able to feed off it.
“Offensively, we had a number of plays in the first half where one guy did not execute and as a result we were inconsistent. Once we made the corrections, we were able to put some scoring drives together by finding some success in our running game. It was a very important win for us.”
Stephen has done a great job with the West Chester East program and with a likely loss coming up this week against powerful Coatesville, the Vikings will still find themselves with a 5A playoff spot with a strong finish in their last two regular season games. West Chester East has a fantastic running back in Pierre Marchant and a big time playmaker in Mike Gray, and the Vikings are the most improved team — along with Kennett — in the Ches-Mont this season.
*** I got the pleasure of seeing Coatesville in person Friday night and the Red Raiders are as impressive as advertised. Coatesville is a threat to score on every play, but what impressed me was the Red Raider defense, led by Tione Holmes and Nik Thompson. The first team defense held Downingtown West to just seven first-half points and sacked Whippet quarterback Will Howard four times, and chased the West star on every play.
*** Howard left the game with a broken right wrist and is out of the lineup. West is in trouble, because the second string signal-caller has a concussion, so tough-as-nails linebacker Ryan Wetzel went in as quarterback and Wetzel did what he does best, play tough-as-nails football. Things turn around in football in a hurry and it was a bad nigh for the Whippets, who face archrival Downingtown East this Friday.
Peter DiGiovanni covers high school football for The Daily Local News and Pa. Prep Live. Follow him on Twitter @PeteDLN.