3,634.

That’s how many days it’s been since the Cherry Hill East Football team last won three games in a row. The Cougars were able to continue this year’s winning streak with a 32-14 defeat over West Windsor-Plainsboro South on Saturday afternoon. 

The Cougars got off to a hot start right out of the gate. On the first drive of the game, the quarterback of the United dropped back into the pocket and fired a pass right in the hands of Justin Herskowitz (‘23) for an interception. On the first play of the Cougars’ drive following the interception, Ben Cohen (‘24) ran past multiple defenders and  took it straight to the endzone for a 27-yard touchdown. The Cougars never looked back after this. 

“That’s what we were talking about before the game, to come out and start fast,” Coach Drob said. “We didn’t do that the last two weeks, we had some mistakes and that was our goal right off the bat.” 

After the United turned the ball over on downs, the Cougars went right back to work on offense. Cohen was able to connect with Rome Ciocco (‘23) for a seven-yard touchdown pass. On the next two offensive drives, Cohen ran it in again for two more touchdowns. Things were looking very good for the Cougars going into halftime. 

The Cougars’ momentum started to falter at the start of the 2nd half. East fumbled the football on their first three possessions on their own side of the field which set up great field position for fhe United. However, the Cougars’ defense stayed strong and did not let them score once. Then, the Cougars muffed a punt which set up a short field for the United and eventually led to a touchdown. After a strong 2nd half-performance last week, this was the last thing that anyone expected to happen. 

“We talked about playing a perfect 2nd half during halftime,” Drob said. “Guys might be pressing too hard and might be trying to do too much and not just doing what we asked. We talked about playing a full 48 minutes and we have not done that yet.”

Cohen, who threw for 155 yards and rushed for 147 yards, was able to give the momentum back to the Cougars when he found the endzone one more time for his 4th rushing touchdown of the game. He now has accounted for 14 touchdowns this season and has already surpassed his total from last season just through four games. 

“Ben keeps getting better every week,” Drob said. “We’re hard on him every week because we know what he’s capable of. He’s doing an awesome job being a leader and not just a quarterback and being one of our captains.”

The Cougars will travel to Palmyra next Friday night for a 7:00 kickoff. They will look to extend their win streak to four in a row for the first time since the 2011-2012 season.