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West Chester Rustin falls short in district championship, losing to Upper Dublin 21-7

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

| November 26, 2022

On 2nd-and-12 from midfield, Colin O’Sullivan barked orders at the line of scrimmage to his teammates, signaling a change in the play call. The senior dropped back to pass, looking over the middle for an open receiver, before finally releasing the ball down the seams, targeting Staring Reaves. O’Sullivan got hit as he got rid of the ball, causing it to hang in the air falling short of its target. Jake Crispino read the ball perfectly, intercepting the pass and returning it to the 38 yard line.

The interception by Crispino boosted West Chester Rustin, who found themselves down 21-0 with six minutes left in the third quarter. The turnover came two plays after Daimon Jacobs’ second fumble of the game for Rustin. The Knights quarterback David McClain targeted Jacobs on a deep route that drew a pass interference penalty, setting Rustin up with good field position. On 3rd-and-nine, Rustin ran a trick play, with the running back trying to find Jacobs in the end zone. The senior drew another pass interference penalty, but an illegal procedure penalty on Rustin meant the play didn’t count. On fourth down McClain dropped back to pass and was swallowed up by Nyles Bunn-Mcneill killing the drive.

West Chester Rustin (12-2) shot itself in the foot on multiple occasions in its District one championship matchup against Upper Dublin (14-0). The Golden Knights made one too many mistakes, losing to the Cardinals 21-7, coming up short in the championship round for the third straight season. The loss marks the third time Rustin was defeated by Upper Dublin in five years, first in 2018, then in 2020 and once again this season.

Making it to the District championship isn’t seen as a failure by Rustin head coach Mike St. Clair.

“The district finals isn’t coming up short,” St. Clair said. “Our kids love playing after Thanksgiving, they’ve got a mentality set that when we get knocked down, we’re getting back up again.”

St. Clair jokingly compared his team to the Buffalo Bills in the early 90’s, who lost four straight super bowls with Jim Kelly as the quarterback.

Rustin came out aggressive on offense, straying away from its normal run heavy attack, throwing the ball on the first two plays of the game. Rustin came in averaging 295 yards on the ground, with two one thousand yard rushers, Jacobs and Chris Hatton.

McClain faked a handoff, rolling outside and finding Antonio Santagelo for a 19 yard gain, the next play he did the same, finding Jacobs for 15 yards. The Knights seemed to be rolling, but the drive fizzled out when McClain was sacked on third down forcing a punt.

Rustin wanted to keep the Upper Dublin defense on its heals by using the threat of the pass to open up its running game.

“We knew that they knew we’re going to come out running the ball so we wanted to keep them off balance a little bit,” St. Clair said. “The threat of throwing hopefully would pull them back a little bit, but they’ve got a fast big defense. They’re well coached and tough to move ball against.”

Upper Dublin’s defense came in having not allowed a point the entire playoffs and it was stingy on Friday, allowing 214 yards of total offense to Rustin.

Upper Dublin drove down the field on its opening drive, finding the end zone on a  when O’Sullivan hit Reaves over the middle on 3rd-and-13. A miscommunication on the back end let Reaves get wide open, catching the ball at the 20 and walking in for the touchdown. O’Sullivan finished 15-28 for 128 yards with a touchdown and an interception on the night. The blown coverage was part of a plethora of mental errors made by the Golden Knights throughout the game.

With just under nine minutes left in the half, Rustin had the ball around midfield, but the lights in the stadium went out. This caused about a half hour delay with both teams going back to the locker room, before the issue was eventually solved.

McClain explained how the lights had gone out during a game at Emmaus years ago and that it was weird to experience it again. He felt the stoppage didn’t have an effect on either team. Three straight runs from Rustin led to a punt that was blocked by Kyree Butler, setting up Upper Dublin at Rustin 35. Once again Upper Dublin capitalized on a mistake from Rustin, going up 14-0 on a four yard run from Jacob Cornbluth with just over two minutes left in the first half.

Butler explained that before the kick he said to his teammates he was going to block it after Rustin had faked one for a first down earlier.

“We handed them 14 points and you can’t do that against a team like that.” St. Clair said.

Upper Dublin immediately went up three scores coming out of halftime. O’Sullivan hit Reaves for a 25 yard gain and then D.J Cerisier for a 12 yards, setting up a Nyfise McIntyre one yard score to make it 21-0. McIntyre finished with 19 carries for 44 yards and the score.

Upper Dublin talked about its plans for the opening drive during halftime according to head coach Brett Stover and “executed the plan well”.

Rustin didn’t go down without a fight in the second half with Nelson Murray taking an end around 36 yards, before Chase Hatton got two more chunk plays to put the Knights in the red zone. Hatton was Rustin’s leading rusher, carrying the ball 10 times for 65 yards while Daimon Jacobs had nine carries for 46 yards. On fourth and goal from the one McClain faked an end around, taking into the end zone himself on a bootleg to give Rustin its only points of the game with six minutes remaining. McClain also completed three of eight passes for 54 yards.

The ensuing onside kick was recovered by the Cardinals, who ran out the rest of the clock thanks to a couple of penalties from Rustin. The win for Upper Dublin marked Brett Stover’s 4th District championship with the program.

On the other side, St. Clair is still looking for his first, despite deep runs into the postseason. The Rustin coach praised his teams effort despite being on the losing side, saying that “they can keep their heads high” after a great season, calling it a “joy” to coach them. The senior class for Rustin appeared in three district championships, having to replace them will be difficult for the Golden Knights next season.

 

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