By Peter DiGiovanni
pdgiovanni07@gmail.com
DOWNINGTOWN — Thursday night at Kottmeyer Stadium the Bishop Shanahan football team shook up District 1 as the underdog Eagles knocked Downingtown West from the undefeated ranks with a stunning 28-22 Ches-Mont Northern Division win.
Shanahan (1-0 in the division, 7-1 overall) went on an incredible 20-play, 54-yard scoring drive that took nine minutes off the clock in the fourth period to grab the win. The Eagles converted four fourth down plays during the drive, and Anthony Aquila took the football the final four yards for the decisive score.
“We knew they were a physical team and they have beat us up over the years and we decided this week we were not going to take it anymore,” Aquila said. “We had a great week of practice and we were physical and that is what got us this victory.”
The game saw six lead changes as both teams traded the momentum back and forth. After three periods the Whippets (0-1, 7-1) held a slim 15-14 lead. West quarterback Cole Bricker rolled in from seven yards out late in the fourth period to give the Whippets the one point lead.
The Eagles came right back early in the fourth period. They went on another long drive, this one a 64-yard, 12-play march with Aquila running the show. Aquila went up the middle for a three-yard touchdown run to give Shanahan a 20-15 lead with 11:32 to go. Aquila rushed for 44 yards on the night and completed 11 of 15 passes for 160 yards.
It did not take West long to regain the advantage, however. Tommy Miller broke off a 50-yard run to put the ball deep in Eagles’ territory. Two plays later Mike Taraschi gave the Whippets the lead back at 22-20 with a 12-yard touchdown run.
All of this set up Shanahan’s last heroic scoring drive. Aquila faced a series of fourth down conversions during the marathon drive. The first conversion was a three-yard Aquila run. On the second conversion, Aquila threw a jump pass to Aidan Civitella for a first down on a fourth-and-three play.
After another Eagles fourth down conversion, a five-yard run by Julian Haylock, Shanahan faced a fourth-and-one at the West six yard line. Aquila called his own number and the Eagles’ offensive line pushed the pile enough for another first down.
Two plays later, Aquila twisted and turned his way over the goal line and Shanahan had a 28-22 lead after the successful two-point conversion. The Eagles left the Whippets just 17 seconds on the clock and a six-point deficit.
“Anthony is just a gamer,” Eagles’ head coach Paul Meyers said. “Our seniors lead the way and Anthony is just so smart. You can see he snaps the ball with about two seconds to go on the play clock.
“We talked all week that they were going to go toe-to-toe and try to be physical with us. And D West is a great football team that is really well coached, but our guys believed in each other. We did some good things on that last drive and came out with a big win.”
The Shanahan defense was led by Nathan McCarthy, Mike Cleary and Max Czarzasty as the Eagles held the potent Whippets’ offense well under their 34 point-per-game average.
“We had a great week of practice,” Czazasty said. “We talked about being physical with them and we decided to take the game to them. We all played together — defense, offense and both lines just battled and battled.
“The O-Line was physical and they moved their line most of the night. We believed in each other and this is just a total team win.”
Bishop Shanahan 28, Downingtown West 22
Bishop Shanahan 0 7 7 14 – 28
Downingtown West 2 6 7 7 – 22
Scoring
DW – Safety
BS — Haylock 14 run (Debellis kick)
DW — Weller 23 pass from Bricker (kick failed)
BS — Bracken 70 pass from Aquila (Debellis kick)
DW — Bricker 7 run (Sharp kick)
BS — Aquila 3 run (pass failed)
DW — Taraschi 12 run (Sharp kick)
BS — Aquila 4 run (McGrory pass from Aquila)
Team Totals
BS DW
First downs 14 13
Yards rushing 92 205
Yards passing 160 130
Total yards 252 335
Passing 11-15-0 7-9-0
Fumbles-lost 1-0 0-0
Punts-avg 2-43.0 3-31.0
Penalties-yds 1-10 10-80
Individual Statistics
Rushing — BS: Aquila 24-44, 2 TD; Haylock 10-35, TD; Bracken 2-11; Civitella 1-2. DW: Miller 6-73; Smith 2-10; Wolfington 1-2; Taraschi 4-22, TD; Bricker 10-44, TD; Dunn 9-54.
Passing — BS: Aquila 11-15-160, TD; DW: Bricker 7-9-130, TD.
Receiving — BS: Civitella 4-54; Haylock 1 -8; Bracken 5-92, TD; Conte 1-5. DW: Weller 4-90, TD; Smith 1-8; Goode-Kimble 2-32.
Sacks — BS: Cleary. DW: Brown.
Interceptions: none.
