In a torrential downpour and hurling winds, the Cherry Hill East Cougars (2-7) fell to the Cherry Hill West Lions (3-6) by a score of 33-0 on Friday night.
Due to the game conditions, the Cougars struggled all night offensively. Quarterback Ben Cohen (‘24) only had 10 passing attempts which is far down from his usual average.
“Weather was definitely an issue,” Coach Daley said of the loss. “We’ve been throwing the ball well lately and we obviously weren’t able to do that Friday night.”
Without the passing game, the Cougars had to rely on their ground game by putting the ball into the hands of running back Mo Sample (‘24) who rushed for 30 yards on 12 carries. The Cougars attempted to get creative by utilizing wide receiver Ethan Haddock (‘23) to run the wildcat offense and give the defense a different look. However, the offense was never able to find any consistency all night.
On the other side of the ball, the Cougar’s defense struggled to stop the run as West had 371 rushing yards. As a result, Lion’s offense did not pass once the whole game. West Running back Dhante Johnson (‘22) ran for 239 yards with a touchdown while Kevin Rorke (‘23) ran for 68 yards and two touchdowns. The Cougars know that their defense has to be better if they want to win next week.
In a game like this, injuries are something that is very common and the Cougars are very lucky to have come out of the game very healthy.
“You always have to look for the positives and we came out of the game pretty healthy,” Daley said. “We should have most of our guys ready to go for next week.”
Despite the conditions, the stands were packed with fans from both teams. The Cherry Hill East Countrymen made the short trip across town to support the Cougars. Even though their team wasn’t doing well, they still cheered very loudly every time East made a good play.
The Cougars will wrap up the season this Thursday against Perth Amboy at home. The team will look to send the seniors off on a winning note and finish the season off strong.