DOWNINGTOWN – The road back to the district final was a long journey for the North Penn Knights, but that road came to end in Downingtown on Friday night.
After a back and forth battle the fourth quarter belonged to the hosts, and the Downingtown West Whippets bested the Knights 35-16, to capture the 6A District 1 championship on a cold rainy night at Kottmeyer Stadium.
With 6:38 left in the first quarter the Whippets look a 7-0 lead with a touchdown to wide receiver Darian Smith but the offense sputtered for much of the first half after that.
After some sloppy turnovers, North Penn’s Matt Pownall scored a touchdown with under 2 minutes left in the first quarter, and the Knights tied it 7-7 with 1:52 left in the first.
With 3:45 left in first half North Penn decided Ryan Bocklet’s connected on a 35 yard field goal giving the Knights their only lead of the game, 10-7, a lead that was short lived as the Whippets’ Tommy Miller scored a touchdown for Downingtown with 0:58 on the clock, giving the Whippets a 14-10 lead, a lead they would not relinquish the rest of the game..
“We’ve got to let every play be individual. So we can’t think about if something bad happened, we can’t think about that, we gotta move on and if something good happens, we can’t celebrate, we gotta move on to the next play. That’s how we control it,” North Penn Coach Dick Beck stated.
The back and forth battle for control continued after the half.
With 7:40 left in the third quarter and Downingtown found the endzone again to take a 21-10 lead, with Smith scoring a touchdown for the Whippets. The Knights did answer after a huge turnover and came within 21-16 on another Pownall touchdown, but it was all Downingtown in the game’s final quarter.
Downingtown won the turnover battle in the fourth quarter and capitalized on a interception and fumble to take a 28-16 lead and then found the endzone one more time to seal the deal.
“I feel really sad. But I’m proud of this team and how far we got.” senior Aiden Eves said. “I’m not going to regret anything that I did here, I think I left it all on the field tonight. But I think we just got outplayed tonight by a lot.”