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Jacobs brothers help lead Rustin to a 19-14 win over Plymouth Whitemarsh

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

| November 20, 2021

Daimon Jacobs always has his bigger brothers back and that was on full display late in the fourth quarter of West Chester Rustin’s District 1 5A semifinal victory over Plymouth Whitemarsh.

Both teams had played a really tight game for the entire game and Rustin found themselves up 19-14 late in the game, but P.W had the ball. After P.W quarterback Aidan O’Brien converted a 4th and 15 on a 22 yard scramble, the Rustin defense needed a big play.

P.W had been in a similar situation just one week before when they drove 65 yards down the field to tie their game against Upper Dublin before winning the game in overtime. Rustin knew what P.W was capable of and junior Daimon Jacobs, brother of star running back Deshawn Jacobs sealed the game with an interception late on around midfield.

Daimon’s interception came on a play where his brother missed his read on defense and Daimon had to cover for him. “I think my brother bit up on it and I thought, I’ve got to make this play for him. They threw it up, gave me a chance to get it and I went up and got it” Daimon said.

Rustin knew not to be fooled twice by the play. Earlier in the half, with Rustin leading 7-6, Plymouth Whitemarsh hit the Golden Knights with a trick play. Aidan O’Brien pitched the ball to Chris McLaughlin who then threw the ball down the field perfectly into Phil Taormina’s arms and he ran in for a 65 yard touchdown to give P.W. a 14-7. The Colonials tried the same play on their last drive, but despite Deshawn misreading the play, Daimon knew where to be a capitalized.

“It was a little bit of a psychic connection there” Explained Deshawn.

It was no surprise that Daimon knew when to cover for his brother because they’ve been playing together all their lives. Ever since their youth football days, starting at 6 years old, they’ve had a special connection, “He was halfback I was full back, just thunder and lightning.” Said Daimon.

Rustin had to come from behind multiple times, something that they haven’t had to do much this year. After the trick play, the Golden Knights knew they didn’t need to panic and remained confident.

“They hit us with a trick play and all I thought was that we have to score. There was no other thought in my mind. We knew we could do it and our line was working really hard and our defense was phenomenal too and we all just played great” Desahwn Jacobs said.

Jacobs, who set the school record for yards last week and touchdowns in a season, with over 2,300 yards and 37 touchdowns, added to his total on Friday. It wasn’t his best game, but a 193 yard game on 24 carries and two touchdowns isn’t too shabby. Jacobs have Rustin a 7-6 lead in the first quarter with a 12 yard touchdown on fourth down and got the Golden Knights within one on another 12 yard score. Jacobs helped set up the go ahead score when Senior Quarterback Kolbe Freney ran up the middle for 7 yards to give Rustin a 19-14 lead with under five minutes left in the game.

“It’s all about conditioning, but the boys up front make it easy. They make the holes huge and they’re easy to run through so they lighten the load for me a lot,” Deshawn Jacobs said “It takes heart and our team has a bunch of heart.”

Once Rustin took the lead, they didn’t look back and their defense shut down the touch triple option look for P.W. The Golden Knights did a good job of containing the Colonial rushing attack and the only two plays P.W scored on were passes. The first one came when Aidan O’Brien found Phil Taormina for a 22 yard score and then the trick play to Taormina in the second half.

“You can’t replicate it in practice. We designated three kids to be quarterback, dive pitch and each one of them had a football. We made sure we tackled a football on every rep in practice” Said Head Coach Mike St. Clair.

“We bit on two plays we shouldn’t have gotten beat on, but when you run a run offense like that you’re going to get beat on play action every once in a while. We were able to respond, shut them down and score some points.” He added.

With the win, Rustin advances to their second straight District 1 5A championship, where they fell short last year against Upper Dublin 29-8. This time they’ll face two seeded Strath Haven

“I really want to get our seniors a name on that banner. We haven’t had one in a long time, so for them it would be great.” Said Daimon Jacobs

“Luck. You’ve got to get the bounces and hopefully you shut the other team down and make a couple of plays” Said Coach St. Clair

Plymouth Whitemarsh Head Coach Dan Chang gave his team credit for a great season after they won 10 straight games after losing their opening game. “I think coming into the year we were young, inexperienced, we’re small and we lose that first one against C.B South, we kind of get written off.” He said, “Like I said I was proud of our guys, we battled every game on offense and defense and our guys should be proud of what they accomplished.”

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