Soar Like An Eagle: Bishop Shanahan Overcomes Slow Start Stuns Downingtown West
Tagged under: District 1, Gameday Hub, News
Willie McGonigle | October 11, 2024
DOWNINGTOWN: In the opening paragraph of his novel A Tale of Two Cities Charles Dickens wrote “It was the best of times; it was the worst of times.” For the Bishop Shanahan Eagles offense, it was the opposite, one might have been hard-pressed to find a worse start to a game for a team’s offense but then one would be hard-pressed to find a better ending to a game for an offense than a 20 play drive that ate nearly 9 minutes off the clock. That’s what the Eagles offense did piecing together a 20 play 54-yard drive that featured three fourth down conversions and ended with a 4-yard touchdown by QB Anthony Aquila with 17 seconds left in the game to propel the Eagles to come from behind 28-22 victory over Downingtown West Thursday night at Kottmeyer Stadium.
On the game’s opening drive, the Eagles lost 17 yards pinning them back to their own 10-yard line forcing the Eagles to attempt to punt from their endzone. The Whippet’s punt block unit managed to get through the Eagles’ protection and blocked the kick. However, the Eagles somehow managed to fall on the ball resulting in a safety and an early 2-0 Whipped lead.
In the second quarter, the Eagles took to the air with Aquila and Aidan Civitella connecting for a majority of the damage, however, it was Julian Haylock who capped the 76-yard drive with his 14-yard scoring run that gave the Eagles the 7-2 lead.
The Eagles’s lead was short-lived on the ensuing drive. The Whippets drove 70 yards on seven plays before Cole Bricker connected with JD Weller for a 23-yard touchdown that gave the Whippets the 8-7 halftime lead.
In the second half, the Eagles offenses exploded for 21 of their points and 182 of their 252 yards of total offense.
“At halftime, I told them we started the game sloppy but our maturity didn’t matter it didn’t factor in everyone was like right we’re fine here.” Eagles Head Coach Paul Myers said of his message to his team at the half.
In the third quarter, the Eagles showed their big play potential with Aquila connecting with RB Nate Bracken on a swing pass that went for 70 yards giving the Eagles the 14-8 lead.
Bricker gave the lead back to the Whippets with his 7-yard keeper that put them up 15-14.
In the fourth quarter, the excitement got started when Aquilia gave the Eagles the 20-14 lead with 11:24 remaining in the game.
On the ensuing drive, the Whippets took back the lead with a 66-yard drive that was spearheaded by Bricker to Weller who picked up 29 yards putting the Whippets at Eagle 19. Two plays later Mike Taraschi took it in from 12 yards out giving the Whippets the 22-20 lead.
The ensuing Eagles drive will forever go down in program history. With 9:11 and trailing by only two the Eagles went on a 20-play 54 that nearly ate the rest of the clock and featured 4 fourth down conversions.
The first conversion game with the Eagles facing a 4&1 from the Whippet 45 Aquilia picked up 3 yards. The second conversion came on 4&5 on Whippet 37. Aquila connected with Civitella for 7 yards. Faced with 4&6 from the Whippet 26 Aquilia connected with Haylock for a ten-yard gain putting the ball at the Whippet 16. The last-fourth conversion with nearly a minute left in the game and Eagles facing a fourth inches from the Whippet 7-yard, Aquilia picked up a yard and three plays he capped the drive with a 4-yard touchdown run. Aquila connected with Owen McGrory for the two-point conversion.
“I love him what can I say about him, He can do it all, great short passing game, just a running back getting extra yards, his YAC(yards after contact) is just unbelievable he still gets 2-3 yards after being hit. He’s a great kid.” Myers said of his quarterback.
Next week the Eagles 7-1 face another tough challenge when they host Downingtown East, while the Whippets (7-1) will look to rebound when they host Coatesville both games are scheduled to kickoff at 7 pm.
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