With a Brotherhood on the Line Paving the Way, Lammy, Downingtown East Dominate Pennridge

Tagged under: District 1, Gameday Hub, News

Willie McGonigle | August 26, 2023

Downingtown East’s Owen Lammy looks for running room against Pennridge Pic Courtesy of Kam Hammond

DOWNINGTOWN: When you play with the same guys for several years you expect to be close to each other. Downingtown East offensive line is a perfect example of just that as not only did the Cougars return 6 players on the line, but they are close. Adham Abouraya, Luke Fowler, Ryan Konchek, Ryan Moses, Cody Zarelli, Emerson Baker showed what having a close-knit group can do as they paved the way for the Cougars to put up 417 yards of total offense including 374 yards rushing, the Cougars completely dominated the visiting Pennridge Rams 43-0 Friday night at Kottmeyer stadium.

“We are just a brotherhood, everything we do is has one, we are whole unit, play as one and pound the rock if we can.” Konchek said.

“It’s unbelievable luxury” Cougars head Mike Matta said of returning six guys on the line adding “The offensive line is tight they do everything together, they work together, they lift together, they broke all the records in the weight room, they are strong guys.”

The two guys that benefited from the offensive-line performance were Ayden Harris who carried the ball 23 times for 155 yards and 3 touchdowns and Owen Lammy (15-82, TD). Lammy offered praise for his line saying, “I’m really proud of the offensive line they’ve been working so hard in the weight room, most of them are returning starters everyone gives it their all.”

“Without this Offensive line, we wouldn’t be rushing that many times,” Lammy added.

Not to be outdone the Cougars’ defense put up equally impressive effort limiting the Rams offense to a total of 19 yards of offense, 1 first down that was on a Cougars offsides penalty, and didn’t allow the Rams offense to cross midfield once.

Lammy who also shines at Outside Linebacker said of his defense “Defense was so locked in, we’ve talked about all week how we didn’t want them to have a first down. We knew we were capable of doing that and everyone executed that tonight.

Matta echoed Lammy’s thoughts on the defense saying, “We have a good defense.”

Former NFL NG Brandon Noble is the Cougars defensive coordinator and it’s something that Lammy loves having someone with his knowledge of the game calling the plays.

“It’s awesome because he knows everything, he knows exactly what we want to do, gives us a great game plan and we just execute it.” Lammy said of Noble.

Not to be outdone the Cougars’ special teams shined after the Cougars’ defense forced a three and out on the game-opening drive Ryan McGowan got through the Rams’ line and blocked their punt setting the Cougars up with the ball on the Rams’ 10-yard-line. Three plays later Mason Ippolito took a QB sneak in from a yard-out and the Cougars scoring parade was on.

Harris would add a 15-yard touchdown run and Ryan Hornak added a 24-yard field goal in the 17-point first quarter for the Cougars.

Lammy’s two-yard and a pair of touchdowns by Harris gave the Cougars the 37-0 lead entering the locker room at halftime.

John Morrin added a 7-yard touchdown run in the fourth quarter to cap the scoring.

Next week the Cougars who were a 6A honorable mention in the preseason PFN rankings will travel to State College for a showdown with the Little Lions who entered the season ranked 5^th in 6A. The Rams will look to get Coach Kyle Beller his first win when they host Souderton.

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