Haverford rally not enough
DOWNINGTOWN >> With two prolific offenses squaring off in a District 1 Class 6A semifinal game, everyone expected a lot of points on the board Friday night. Thus, no one in the capacity crowd at Kottmeyer Stadium left disappointed, as Downingtown West and Haverford combined for 841 yards of offense and 13 touchdowns.
Despite a second half largely dominated by Haverford’s offense, it was the top-seeded Whippets advancing to next week’s Class 6A championship game, holding off a furious Fords comeback bid to win 49-42.
With the win, West moves on to a title clash with familiar Ches-Mont League foe Coatesville, a 48-27 winner over Garnet Valley Friday night.
“It’s just sick,” D-West defensive end Max Hale said about moving on to the championship game. “We were confident through the whole game, no matter what the score was. We’re all brothers and we’ve got each other’s backs.”
The Whippets’ balanced attack proved to be the difference. Whippets quarterback Will Howard threw for 252 yards on 14 of
24 passes, connecting with six different receivers. Among the lot were a pair of touchdown tosses to Will Mahmud, and another
52-yarder to Jake DePitetro. Meanwhile, West ran the ball for another
250 yards, led by Tyriq Lewis, who churned out 136 yards on 27 carries, along with two touchdowns.
“If we’re running the ball well, great, if we need to pass, great,” Howard said. “We will do what it takes to get yards and score touchdowns. “Tonight we got it done in all aspects of the game. Having that balanced attack is tough to defend. The line did a great job up front, and Tyriq ran the ball great.”
Lewis bailed Howard out on possibly his only mistake of the night. Haverford came up with a big interception right at the line, and, at the very least, would be getting the ball in excellent field position. But Lewis was able to punch the ball loose, and West recovered, then went on to score to go up 35-7.
“I told him he saved my butt,” said Howard. I made a bad decision to throw there, but having a guy like him there to have my back is great. But that is this whole team. We all know we’ve got each other’s backs.”
But for a couple of big plays from Blair, this very well could have been a mercy-rule game in the second half. West’s defense was about as tough as you could want in containing a talent like Blair.
“We knew that Blair was going to make some plays,” Howard said. “He’s an amazing talent that is going to do big things in college, so getting to play with a 35-7 lead is a testament to our defense. They simply weren’t going to have enough time to come back.”
One big question entering the contest was the health of Fords’ quarterback Trey Blair, who suffered a hip pointer in last week’s win over Downingtown East. The answer to that was that he was going to be just fine.
Though the Fords’ star was seen limping a little toward the end of the game, it didn’t stop him from leading all rushers with 217 yards on 17 carries, two going for touchdowns. Blair had a couple of huge runs, including a 74-yarder that set up the Fords’ first score of the game.
“He is just amazing,” Gallagher said. “He came in here 75 percent at best and look what he did. He is, without question, the best player I’ve coached in my 28 years. Might be one of the best players I’ve been on the field with.”
Down 42-14 at one point, the Fords never once hung heads or let down. And they almost came all the way back, scoring four of the last five touchdowns of the game.
As West began to stop Blair on the ground, he went to the air, twice hitting tight end Chris Dempsey for huge gains, including a 52-yarder to set up a score from Blair and another to Dempsey for a 21-yard touchdown.
Following Blair’s keeper for a touchdown, Haverford recovered an onside kick, and made it a one-touchdown game when Blair hit Will Higson for a nine-yard touchdown.
But West recovered the next onside try, and ran out the clock for the win.
“We had to modify what we did to try to get (Blair) to give the ball to someone else, but he still found his spots,” said West coach Mike Milano. “But my kids played their brains out in the first half. We’re looking forward to playing for a district title next week.”