Coatesville smashes Wissahickon, 42-21

First home playoff win since 1993, advances to battle Neshaminy

By Kyle Carrozza, Staff Writer, The Times

Coatesville High School head coach Matt Ortega addresses his team, Friday night, after the Red Raiders defeated Wissahickon, 42-21, to advance to the third round of the PIAA District One AAAA playoffs.

CALN – After a hiccup last week in a relatively closely contested victory, Coatesville football continued their business-as-usual domination Friday night at home against Wissahickon, knocking off the Trojans 42-21. The win was the Red Raiders’ first home playoff win in 19 years.

The gulf between the two teams was even larger than the three touchdown difference suggests, as two of Wissahickon’s touchdowns came late, after the game had already been decided.

Perhaps the biggest difference came from special teams play. While Coatesville did not have big touchdown returns like in many other games this year, they did have solid gains, and the short punts and kicks of Wissahickon’s special teams greatly helped the Red Raiders’ cause.

After Coatesville forced a three-and-out on Wissahickon’s opening drive, a 19-yard punt gave the Red Raiders the ball at Wissahickon’s 39. The Trojans struggled to cope with Coatesville’s offensive versatility all night, as demonstrated by junior running back Daquan Worley, who took a screen pass 26 yards and followed it up with a three-yard run for a touchdown.

While the Trojans were able to use a clever running game to string drives together, they failed to pose a threat for most of the night. Their best first-half chance came after their defense recovered a sack fumble in Coatesville’s red zone. After three plays resulted in zero yards, their kicker missed a 22-yard field goal, keeping the score 7-0 at the end of the first quarter.

“Our coaches have a big background with the option offense,” said Coatesville Head Coach Matt Ortega. “We ran it years ago, so we’re familiar with the blocking schemes.”

Coatesville made Wissahickon pay by scoring a touchdown of its own. On the first play of the second quarter, senior quarterback Emmett Hunt showed his athleticism, rolling out of the pocket and throwing on the run to senior wide receiver Chris Jones. Jones showed a fair amount of athleticism himself, racing down the sideline for a 55-yard touchdown.

Coatesville’s defense went back to work, forcing what would have been a three-and-out had it not been for a roughing-the-kicker call that extended the drive. Undeterred, the defense forced Wissahickon to punt again after a third-down sack by junior linebacker Tyler Burke. Burke, who has also had an outstanding year at tight end, made multiple tackles behind the line of scrimmage and seemed to be in the Trojans’ backfield all night.

“We have great coaches who watch a lot of film with us before every game,” Burke said about his success on defense.

The ensuing Coatesville drive showed the full array of the offense’s skills; in high school football, where many teams only bother learning a few plays, the Red Raiders ran the ball with their running back, handed off to a wide receiver, used a direct snap to a wide receiver, used play action, and threw to three different targets to string together a 12-play, 81-yard drive. The drive finished when Hunt hit Jones for a 9-yard touchdown.

Left with only 39 seconds, Wissahickon ran the ball to take the game to halftime, Coatesville leading 21-0.

The beginning of the second half saw Wissahickon gain some momentum backing stopping Coatesville’s drive and then scoring to make it 21-7, but Coatesville proved any hope for a comeback false. A good kick return allowed them to start at the Trojans’ 33, and some solid running by Worley was capped off with a 16-yard touchdown pass to Burke, Hunt’s third touchdown pass of the night.

“I played defense last year, so I’m more familiar with that, but I like both offense and defense,” said Burke.

Special teams made another huge contribution on Wissahickon’s next drive. After Coatesville forced a three-and-out, senior Brian Stringer blocked the Trojans’ punt to give his team the ball at Wissahickon’s four. Three straight runs from Worley resulted in a Red Raider touchdown.

But the special teams unit was not done there. After Coatesville’s next drive failed, Hunt punted from near midfield. The Trojans’ returner did not catch the ball cleanly, muffing the punt and allowing it to roll into his own end zone. Coatesville’s senior Jason Totaram won the scramble for the ball, recovering the muffed punt for a touchdown to put his team up 42-7 with 7:58 remaining in the game.

Wissahickon scored two more touchdowns before the game ended, but the Red Raiders’ attention was already fixed on Neshaminy, the Red Raiders’ opponent next week.

“My primary focus is to have a team that can play a Suburban One [Neshaminy’s conference] team and play a power game,” said Ortega.

Neshaminy (9-3) employs a run-heavy offense that should prove an interesting matchup for Coatesville’s run defense, which has been outstanding all year.

“I want to make the kids strong enough to play physical football,” said Ortega.

The versatile Red Raider offense will also have to find a way to score against Neshaminy’s defense, which had held opponents to a touchdown or less five times this year.

Next week’s winner will go on to the District 1 finals to face either Spring-Ford or Pennridge.