As Downingtown East attempted to rally at Perkiomen Valley’s Thomas J. Keenan Stadium Friday night, they turned repeatedly to a tailback wearing No. 35 to grind out the tough yards and maintain possession.
There was just one problem – no one could find No. 35’s name.
It turns out it was freshman Juelz Robinson, added to the varsity roster late in the season. Robinson led the No. 11 Cougars in rushing with 54 yards as Downingtown East rallied from a ten-point deficit to defeat No. 6 Perkiomen Valley, 17-10, in a District 1-6A opening round contest.
In a way, Robinson’s anonymity seemed appropriate for a game in which no one Cougar stood above his teammates as the team’s top player or statistical leader. They just kept playing football, fighting through three quarters of frustration to score tying and winning touchdowns in the fourth quarter, capped off by senior quarterback Mason Ippolito’s 41-yard strike to Nick Keenan with 2:44 to play for the decisive margin.
“The biggest thing that coach (Michael) Matta emphasizes is that we’re a team. We’re known for not giving up,” said Ippolito. “Our first half wasn’t great, so we laid it on the line. We took some shots and hit on a few big ones.”
They sure did. The Cougars kept one scoring drive alive when kick/punter Ryan Hornack hit Luke Kessler for a 17-yard gain, setting up Hornack’s own 20-yard field goal that got D-East within seven before the end of the third quarter.
On the next drive, Ippolito connected with Michael Brown (five catches, 71 yards) for the biggest play of the night to that point, a 38-yard connection into the PV red zone. The quarterback would carry the ball across himself, bring D-East even with PV with eight minutes to go.
Perk Valley drove into Cougars’ territory, but QB Patrick MacDonald quick-kicked on a fourth down, allowing D-East to take over and reel off consecutive first down runs from Ippolito and, at the time, the player known only as No. 35.
“I started the season with the freshman team, and just started the journey… freshman team, then JV, I didn’t get added to varsity until later,” said Robinson. “We had some injuries, and I got bumped up to second-string at running back.”
Ippolito was more effusive in praising Robinson’s progression. “There’s no one who works harder than this kid,” said the quarterback and team captain.
After Robinson’s 27-yard scamper, Ippolito took to the air and found Keenan for the deciding points.
“It was actually meant to be a wheel route to Michael (Brown),” said Ippolito. “It wasn’t even designed to go to Nick, but I saw that post pop. We trust each other to make those plays.”
The Cougars would stuff Perkiomen Valley on a pair of late drives, including a 4th-and-1 stop at the PV 44-yard line with under two minutes to play.
Early on, the small victories in a tight battle were going PV’s way. Head coach Rob Heist had emphasized the importance of special teams in what always figured to be a slugfest, and was proven correct immediately when PV won a first quarter-long battle for field position when junior Juliun Corropolese’s second punt of the evening forced East to start at their own 3-yard line. Three plays yielded no progress, and the ensuing punt went out of bounds at PV’s 34.
Wasting no time, PV went to Anthony Rodriguez for his first carry of the evening, and the senior exploded through the middle for a 27-yard gain. Two plays later, quarterback Patrick MacDonald carried out a great fake, rolled right and found Corropolese in the back of the end zone. After the TD scorer kicked his own extra point, PV led 7-0 with just five seconds left in the quarter.
Colin Sturges got rolling for the Vikings on the following drive, and a couple D-East penalties pushed PV into the red zone where their drive would stall, but not before Corropolese booted a 31-yard field goal to extend the hosts’ advantage to 10-0.
Meanwhile, a PV defense led by Rodriguez and the brothers Euker, Cole (DL) and Carter (LB) were limiting D-East’s grinding run game. Stifling was more accurate, with D-East accumulating no first downs and only 21 yards of offense in the game’s first 20 minutes.
That appeared poised to change as D-East QB Ippolito mixed in the traditional D-East running game with a 28-yard pass to Keenan to move the Cougars into the red zone.
But with 1:02 left in the half, a third down saw Ippolito loft a pass for the front corner of the end zone, in search of Keenan. Beating him to the pylon — and the ball — was the man of the hour, or at least the first half, Juliun Corropolese.
PV took a 10-0 lead to the break. Corropolese accounted for all 10 PV points, adding an interception, a punt downed inside the 5, and a kickoff that resulted in a touchback.
For Perkiomen Valley, their 2024 season comes to an end at a mark of 7-4. In traditional fashion, PV challenged themselves early and often as evidenced by the fact that all four teams who topped the Vikings — Downingtown West, Chester, Pope John Paul II, and Downingtown East on Friday night — are alive and well in their respective playoff brackets.
For coach Heist and the Vikings, the hard work it takes to reach this point in this season year in, year out never stops.
“In Pennsylvania, high school football is year-round,” said Heist. “We encourage kids to play multiple sports, but if you’re not in another sport, we expect you with us, working to get bigger, faster, and stronger.”
Over two dozen seniors played their final games for Perkiomen Valley Friday night.
“They gave us every single ounce they had, every single week,” said Heist. “We beat Coatesville for the first time in program history, we beat Spring-Ford which is always a goal, we kept the Battle Axe (the rivalry trophy with Methacton) home, which is always a goal.
“We played a big-time program like Downingtown East here tonight. They’ve had our number in the playoffs, but we had them on the ropes and played until the last second. I couldn’t be prouder of our kids.”
For the 11th-seeded Cougars, it’s onto round two and the renewal of one of District One’s most storied rivalries when Downingtown East visits No. 3 CB West at War Memorial Field next week.
It wasn’t a vintage Downingtown East regular season.
An 0-2 start, a cancelled game, and a couple of tough rivalry losses left the Cougars at 5-4 — their fewest wins in a full regular season since 2013.
But none of that really matters to the Cougars after Friday night.
“Once the playoffs start, it’s a fresh, new season,” said Ippolito. “We know we’re the underdogs, but we’ve got all the confidence in ourselves.”
