Cherry Hill East football team loses to Princeton, but positives are seen
"We're 0-4, and this team hasn't quit in one game," coach Andrew Daley said, "and I'm proud of the guys for that."
Mitchell Donovan will remember those fleeting stretches when his team hit a sweet spot, when he was dictating the rhythm of the game and how it felt to dominate.
He'll think of the halfback pass in the first quarter, a 40-yard touchdown from Mike Wheeler to Nick Gazzola.
He'll remember floating the ball into the outstretched arms of Issac Jean-Baptiste, watching him juke defenders when a comeback felt just within the team's grasp.
"It's the greatest feeling in the world, to have a team across from you, and you're in total control of them and the game," said Donovan, the senior quarterback of the Cherry Hill East football team after a heart-wrenching 21-14 loss at Princeton on Saturday afternoon. "We know what we're capable of. We saw it in this game, and we're not going to stop fighting until we reach our potential."
Cherry Hill East entered the contest riding a 31-game losing streak, dating back to 2015. But Princeton had lost its previous 21 and hadn't even scored a point yet this season.
Both teams, it was obvious, saw a golden opportunity. The Cougars had shown flashes of great football this year, and this was another legitimate chance to close one of the more miserable chapters in the history of a proud program.
"This loss doesn't hurt any more than any other loss," insisted first-year coach Andrew Daley. "Yes, we had a chance to win this game. But, in my mind, we have a chance to win every game. As a coach, if you're not thinking that, you shouldn't be in the profession."
The Cougars have clearly adopted their coach's resilient frame of mind.
Penalties and turnovers and various other self-inflicted wounds had deflated the momentum the Cougars were desperately attempting to build. But in the final minute of the game, they were right there, deep in Princeton territory with a chance to win.
On third-and-nine from the 25, Donovan's pass just missed Jean-Baptiste in the end zone. And on fourth down, with 50 seconds left, Donovan's pass fell incomplete over the middle.
"We're 0-4, and this team hasn't quit in one game," Daley said, "and I'm proud of the guys for that."
When it wasn't battling its own mistakes, Cherry Hill East (0-4) had the misfortune of trying to stop a 6-foot-3, 280-pound bulldozer of a running back in Jaylen Johnson.
Johnson — a converted offensive tackle — gained three or four yards at will throughout the game. The Cougars simply didn't have the size to match up with the surprisingly nimble big man.
Johnson finished with three catches for 32 yards and 16 carries for 77 yards rushing and two touchdowns, including the final go-ahead score on a one-yard run — an answer to Donovan's game-tying touchdown on the previous drive — that capped a gutsy 11-play, 71-yard drive with 3 minutes, 48 seconds to play in the game.
"I was just thinking, 'Choo-Choo,' " Johnson said of his thoughts before his final touchdown, and it might as well have been his mantra for the game. "This is just an unbelievable feeling," he added.
It was in contrast to the first drive of the game when Cherry Hill East appeared in total control. The Cougars went 70 yards in five plays, ending with Gazzola's strike to Wheeler. The offense looked poised for a big day. But the second drive ended in a lost fumble, one of three on the day. And the third drive, ending on a missed 30-yard field goal, included two penalties inside the 15-yard-line, including one illegal shift that negated a Donavan touchdown pass to Wheeler that would have given Cherry Hill East a 14-0 lead in the first quarter.
The game, as the players were quick to point out, was within their reach. But the loss will not deter them.
The Cougars intend to keep fighting.
"To go out there every week and get beaten but to still work as hard as you possibly can and go all out each week, that shows real manhood and character," Donovan said. "We're going to stick together."
Cherry Hill East 7 0 0 7 — 14
Princeton 7 7 0 7 — 21
CHE: Nick Gazzola 40 pass from Mike Wheeler (Ben Greenberg kick)
P: Evan Angelucci 1 run (Kevin Linko kick)
P: Jaylen Johnson 3 run (Linko kick)
CHE: Mitchell Donovan 1 run (Greenberg kick)
P: Johnson 1 run (Linko kick)