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Council Rock South Continues Its Resurgence Upsets Downingtown West in Dominating Fashion

 
Tagged under: District 1, Gameday Hub, News, pfn, Playoffs

| November 8, 2026

DOWNINGTOWN: After five games, with their record sitting a dismal 2-3 and in the midst of a three game losing streak, Jerry Rogers, Gavin Sailor and their Council Rock South Golden Hawks teammates heard the noises coming from the outsiders about how maybe they weren’t that good a team and it felt as if their season reached a crossroads, but then came a chance to regroup with the Golden Hawks receiving a bye due to Cheltenham canceling their season. Since the bye, the Golden Hawks have been reeling, having won their last four games and grabbing the 11th seed in the District 1 6A playoffs and sending them to Kottmeyer Stadium, where the 6th seed Downingtown West Whippets awaited them. On Saturday night, the Golden Hawks’ resurgence continued, resulting in a 28-7 domination of the Whippets

“After we took some losses in the middle of the season, they counted us out. They said we weren’t going to make the playoffs; we were going to be first-round exits. We let that go past us and got a win,” Rogers said, adding, “It was drive every single time, our teammates, everyone hears it, and we take it as motivation. We use it to come out and dominate on the football field.”

“We had a rough start to the season, but after the bye, the coaches really dialed us in. We made a few changes, and we’ve been on a roll from there.” Sailor said, adding, “It’s kinda a shame I didn’t want to play only nine games my senior year, but that bye week really helped us, so I’m glad for it.

When asked about the bye week, Golden Hawks head coach Cj Szydlik said “At the time of the bye week were reeling, it took us a little time to find ourselves then we had two really good weeks of practice came together as a team and been a roll ever since. We are a tough out, we are physical, and we make plays when it counts the most. I couldn’t be prouder of our guys.”

The formula for the Golden Hawks was a simple one Saturday combine a physical running game and physical defense that stymied the Whippets all night all.

Offensively, Michael Smith (Left Tackle), Turner Tovsky (Left Guard), Luke Mancini (Center) Jaxon O’Brein (Right Guard) and Tyler Fallon (Right Tackle) paved the way for Rogers to grind out 164 yards on 33 carries. “All five of them are bunch of dogs; I wouldn’t have done anything tonight without them,” Rogers said of his offensive line.

Defensively, the Golden Hawks were equally as impressive, holding the Whippets to a total of 104 yards on offense and limiting the Whippets ‘ big-play threat and UMass commit Amari Cannon to 43 yards rushing on 15 carries. As a team, the Whippets had more penalty yards 69 on 7 infractions, than rushing yards, 58 on 23 carries.

“That’s what we do. Coach talked about all week that we just need to tackle 8(Cannon), and that’s exactly what we did.” Sailor who anchored the defensive line said and when he was  asked about playing on the line added “It’s awesome, last year I thought we had the best defensive line in District 1 and I think we carried that into this year. We were completely dominant tonight.”

Right for the start the Golden Hawks offense set the tone as they went opened the game with a convincing 10-play 78 yard that heavily featured Rogers and was capped with him darting in from 19 yards out.

In the second quarter, Rogers again found the end zone, this time bulldozing his way in from a yard out, capping a 4-play, 33-yard drive.

The Whippets got on board with 6:59 left to play in the first half when Marcus McComskey capped five play 64-yard drive with his 12-yard touchdown on a counter play cutting the Golden Hawk lead to 14-7 heading into the locker room at half.

On their second possession of the second half the Golden Hawks took advantage of their defense giving them a short field needing only 3 plays to go 40 yards with QB Cannon Benzio using his legs to score from 34 yards out making it 21-7 after three quarters of play.

The Golden Hawks put the cherry on top of the victory when backup QB Joey Saracino fielded a bad snap-on attempted field goal and managed to find Nathan Keyak, who then found the end zone from 14 yards out.

The Golden Hawks (7-3) will look to continue their resurgence when the 14th seed North Penn Knights, fresh off their upset victory over the Defending District 1 6A champion Pennridge, visit Walt Snyder Stadium next Friday at 7 pm in the Second Round of the 6A District 1 Playoffs. The Whippets’ season comes to an end with a record of 8-3.

Team 1Q 2Q 3Q 4Q Final
Council Rock South 7 7 7 7 28
Downingtown West 0 7 0 0 7

Scoring

First Quarter

CRS: Rogers 19 Run (Barry Kick) 6:18

Second Quarter

CRS: Rogers 1 Run (Barry Kick) 9:24

DTW: McComsey 12 run (Charvet Kick) 6:59

Third Quarter

CRS: Benzio 34 Run (Barry Kick) 3:06

Fourth Quarter

CRS: Keyak 14 pass from Saracino (Barry Kick) 7:03

 

Council Rock South Downingtown West
First Downs 15 7
Rushes-Yards 41-205 23-58
Passing Yards 88 46
Total Yards 293 104
Passes (Comp-Att-Int-TD) 5-11-1-1 4-13-1-0
Punts-Average 4-31.5 6-34.3
Fumbles-Lost 0-0 0-0
Penalties 6-72 7-69

 

Rushing

Council Rock South:  Rogers 33-164, Lacey 2-0, Benzio 5-42, Team 1-minus 1

Downingtown West: Cannon 15-43, Wolfington 1-0, McCosmey1-12, Gray 3-5, Kobus 1-7,Manning 3-minus 9

Passing (Comp-Attempts-Yards-Int- :

 Council Rock South: Benzio 4-10-74-1, Saracino 1-1-14-0

Downingtown West: Manning 4-13-46-1

Receiving: Council Rock Sout: Kruszczynski 1-11, Szydlik 1-41, Rogers 1-20, Keyak 1-14

 Downingtown West: Goode-Kimbre 4-46

Interceptions:  Council Rock South: Kruszczynski  Downingtown West: Kobus

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