A year ago, on September 16th, Conwell Egan traveled to West Catholic and left with a stinging 38-0 loss to the Burrs.
One year later and everything has changed. The team that went just 2-4 in conference play last season is now looking like the odds-on favorite to win the PCL’s Blue division after their hard fought 21-13 victory over West Catholic. This was the Burrs first loss in conference play this season.
“We knew they beat us bad last year. All the seniors on this team had a bad taste in our mouth and we had it circled since January,” said Conwell Egan senior running back Patrick Garwo, who led with 78-yards and a career first touchdown against the Burrs.
“We knew we had to come in, we knew they were going to be a great team, but we’re a great team too.”
It was a cold night at Harry S. Truman high school’s Morgan Stadium as these two teams met to decide the fate of the PCL’s Blue division. Both squads knew the weight of this game was heavy.
“With two undefeated teams in the Catholic League, which is a tough league, it’s what I thought,” said Conwell Egan head coach, Jack Techtmann.
“We knew it wasn’t going to be easy, we had a lot of injuries, a lot of young kids stepped up and we were lucky at the end there. They fought.”
Conwell-Egan leads PCL Blue Division with 21-13 victory against West Catholic (photos by Kathy Leister).
Hard-fought contest indeed. Neither team was able to truly distance themselves from their opponent throughout the entirety of the game. One team simply managed to outlast the other until the clock reached triple zeros.
Egan opened scoring with 9:15 left in the first quarter. From their own 35-yard line, senior quarterback Alex Goldsby found sophomore fullback Dajuan Harris for a moderate gain, who then turned up field and blew by the entire defense to score on a 55-yard catch and run.
“I caught the ball and turned up field, I had two great blocks by Terome Mitchell and Andrew, so I just saw green and went running,” said Harris.
The Eagles had the chance to pad their lead, but penalties proved to be costly throughout the first half.
Starting from their own 25-yard line, Goldsby dropped back on second and nine and once again found a wide-open Harris around the West Catholic 40-yard line, who strolled his way in for the score. Unfortunately for Egan, a holding penalty would call back the touchdown and eventually lead to an Eagles' punt.
In the second quarter, Egan would set up to punt after a quick three an out; a first down sack by the Burrs forced them back inside their own ten. The Eagles got off a clean punt with solid hang time, but a mishandling of the catch would give possession right back to Egan on their own 30. This would prove to be another wasted opportunity.
The Eagles marched down the field all the way to the Burrs’ 20-yard line. After a 16-yard run by Garwo, the Eagles took an offsides penalty, giving them first and fifteen. They would pass on their first two attempts of the series. First, an incompletion, then, a catch by senior running back Terome Mitchell, followed by an immediate fumble forced by West’s junior running back Zhair Booker.
On the very next play by West Catholic, Booker would take the ball 77-yards to the house. The moment he got into the second level of Egan’s defense there was no stopping him. Just like that, Egan went from looking to pad their lead to instead trying to retake it.
“I showed them last year’s film, and they smoked us last year, but they did because we had penalties and turnovers, so I said we need to eliminate the penalties and the turnovers,” said Techtmann.
Tied 7-7 at the half, the break could not have come soon enough for the Eagles as they lost several players to injuries.
“I think we challenged the young kids at half time, we always have next man up mentality,” said Techtmann.
“We had to challenge them, and they were a little overwhelmed in the first half, made some mistakes, some penalties that cost us touchdowns, but they all stepped up and played the second half.”
Conwell-Egan vs. West Catholic Game Highlights (videos by: Kathy Leister & James Williamson/ Edited by Austin Ampeloquio for PSD).
The Burrs got the ball to start the second half. After starting on their own 40, big runs by Booker would help move the Burrs down to Egan’s 25 yard-line. On fourth and six, West’s junior quarterback Zaire Hart-Hawkins dropped back and fired over the middle looking for senior RB Nathan Walker, but instead found Garwo who intercepted the ball and ran it out to the 21-yard line.
“We ran the perfect call for that,” Garwo said, on his interception. “Khiandre Harris was locked up on his man and he had him pressed up and I was the safety, so I just jumped the route. It was all film.”
The Eagles would turn that interception into a ten-play drive, capped off by a 13-yard touchdown run from Goldsby. Both teams would then combine for four straight punts to go into the fourth quarter with the score at 14-7.
CE's senior QB Alex Goldsby caps off third quarter with a 13 yard-touchdown (video by James Williamson for PSD).
The Burrs opened the game’s final quarter with the ball on their own 41-yard line. Five straight carries from senior wide receiver Jacir Savoy would get the Burrs all the way down to the four-yard line and Booker finished the drive on a four-yard carry into the end zone; Booker finished with 100 yards and two touchdowns on 11 carries.
After initially planning to kick the extra point, an offside call on Egan gave the Burrs the ball at the two-yard line with a chance to take their first lead of the game. But the Burrs’ two-point attempt came up short making the score 14-13 with the majority of the fourth remaining.
“I’ll take the blame for the two-point conversion,” said West Catholic head coach, Brian Fluck. “It was my call and we just need to get the job done.”
Egan would start their next possession from their own 39-yard line. After two short runs, Goldsby dropped back on third and five and fired for Harris yet again, except this time a defender managed to make a play on the ball. The pass then bounces off the hands of the defender and into Harris’, who then reaches the 11-yard line before he’s wrestled down; Harris finished the day with three catches for 90 yards and a touchdown.
This was when things got interesting.
Starting on first and ten from the 11, Egan wouldn’t get passed the three-yard line as the Burrs stonewall them with a very impressive goal line stand. Catholic then retakes possession inside their own five. A 22-yard run by Savoy would give them some breathing room and an offsides penalty on the following play made the down and distance difficult. The Burrs would then pass on four straight plays with all four passes falling incomplete.
WC's senior WR Jacir Savoy talks about his team's tough loss (video by James Williamson for PSD).
An intentional grounding call would put the ball inside the Burrs ten with less than two minutes to go. Rather than attempt another goal line stand, The Burrs decided to save some clock and let Garwo score from three yards out on second and goal.
“I gave up that late touchdown because I wanted to get the ball back. That wasn’t on our defense. That was on me,” Fluck said, as a point of praise for his defense.
“We held a team that’s average 42 points a game to 14 really.”
With less than two minutes remaining and the Eagles leading at 21-13, the Burrs managed to move the ball from their own 20 to Egan’s 25-yard line in under a minute on four straight completions. With less than 30 seconds on the clock, the Burrs went knocking on Egan’s door, but the Eagles had no plans of answering.
“I wasn’t nervous at all,” said Goldsby (on West Catholic’s late drive).
“I know my team and I know they know me, so we’ve always got each other’s back and we’re not worried about anybody but ourselves. We’ve got to play our game and not worry about other people.”
With the game on the line, the Egan defense would force three straight incompletions to set up fourth and goal from the opposing 25-yard line. On fourth down, Hart-Hawkins dropped back and fired looking for a receiver crossing over the middle, but the ball went high and was broken up by Garwo. Eagles win 21-13.
“We knew all the pain we went through last year would pay off this year. We just had to compete, push the young guys, and we’re at the top now, but we’re not done,” said Garwo.
This win caps off a remarkable turnaround by a Conwell Egan football program that sat in the cellar of the PCL last season.
“It’s a whole different team from last year. Last year, that wouldn’t have happened,” Goldsby said, on his team’s ability to come back from injuries. “This year, we’re playing stronger together, we’re stronger with mentality and we’re just a stronger overall team.”
Despite sitting comfortably atop the PCL’s blue division, Techtmann isn’t ready to celebrate quite yet.
“Well it feels good, but you never count your chickens,” said Techtmann.
“We’ve got a tough McDevitt team and then we’ve got to finish up at O’Hara, so we haven’t clinched anything. This was a big win, and we’re certainly in the driver seat and we control our own destiny, so we’ve been doing a good job taking it one game at a time and that’s what we just told the kids, be 1-0 next week and then we’ll go from there.”
Above: CE's Pat Garwo takes it in from the 3-yard line giving the Eagles an 8 point lead (video- James Williamson for PSD).
Above: CE's Pat Garwo knocks down final pass from WC's Zaire Hart-Hawkins ending the game 21-13 (video by James Williamson for PSD).
Above: CE's senior QB Alex Goldsby talks abouts about his team and what's next for the Eagles (video by James Williamson for PSD).
His players reiterated the same message.
“Just being 1-0 tomorrow,” Harris said (on what’s next for his team).
“It feels great right now, but we can’t celebrate too much because we still have one more game to seal the division,” said Goldsby.
Conwell-Egan (8-0, 5-0) will face Bishop McDevitt on Oct. 20th at Springfield Montco High School.
West Catholic (6-2, 4-1) will play Neumann-Goretti, Oct 19th at Widener University.