Downingtown

With plenty at stake, Downingtown East and neighboring Downingtown West will square off in the latest chapter in the Battle of the Brandywine. The 7-0 Cougars and 6-1 Downingtown West are tied atop the Ches-Mont League National Conference standings, each with a 3-0 league mark. The ninth meeting between the fierce rivals is set for 7 p.m. Friday at Kottmeyer Stadium. Last year, East struck for 21 second-quarter points and cruised, 44-14. "It was a horrible, horrible night," West coach Mike Milano said.

Jennifer Wittick's first goal was pretty. Her second goal, clinical. The third one? Well, that was just impressive. By the time Wittick scored her fourth goal for the Downingtown West girls' soccer team on Thursday night, the ball hitting the back of the net by way of Wittick was expected. Her tremendous individual effort gave the Whippets a 4-2 victory over Bishop Shanahan in a matchup of the top two teams in the Ches-Mont League. The win solidified the Whippets (12-2 overall)

Ryley Angeline and Jay Harris scored two touchdowns apiece, and unbeaten Downingtown East rallied for a 26-21 victory over host St. Mark's (Del.) on Friday night in a nonleague football game. After St. Mark's went out to a 7-0 lead on a 13-yard run by T.J. Brown, Angeline scored on a 9-yard pass from Kyle Lauletta in the first quarter and a 1-yard run in the second quarter to give the Cougars (6-0) a 13-7 halftime lead. Lauletta, a Richmond-bound quarterback, and Harris, a dynamic wide receiver who has committed to Michigan State, hooked up on a 15-yard pass in the third quarter to put Downingtown East up, 19-7.

David L. Culp has spent more than 20 years creating this magnificent garden in southern Chester County, ripping the bully-honeysuckle off a one-acre hillside by hand not just once, but three times, to avoid using chemical herbicides; hauling heavy rocks from here to there, again by hand, to build walls with indigenous stone; planting and replanting, doing and redoing, and endlessly weeding, all, naturally, by hand. You'd think his hands would be a mess, which they are not, despite the fact that he wears gloves only when removing poison ivy. And you'd think he'd want to slow down.

It was the fourth quarter, and Kyle Lauletta was still airing the ball out for the Downingtown East football team. There's nothing unusual about the senior quarterback throwing the ball downfield for the Cougars, but until Friday night, he and the rest of the starters had never played in the fourth quarter this season. And there he was with seconds remaining, still orchestrating the offense. His explosive play behind center helped high-powered Downingtown East, ranked second in Southeastern Pennsylvania by The Inquirer, defeat Pennsbury, 42-28, at Kottmeyer Stadium.

It has been a while since Pennsbury coach Galen Snyder has had to prepare for a pass-happy Downingtown East squad. To be exact, it has been seven years. In 2005, with Pat Devlin throwing for 394 yards and four touchdowns, the Cougars topped Snyder and the Falcons, 26-21, in the first round of the PIAA District 1 Class AAAA playoffs. This time, it's Kyle Lauletta at the controls for East. In two games, the 6-foot-3, 210-pounder has hit on 31 of 43 throws for 529 yards and seven touchdowns.

In Friday night's nonleague showdown against Roman Catholic, Downingtown East showed that it was very much deserving off all the preseason attention it had received. The Cougars, with Kyle Lauletta passing for 226 yards and four touchdowns, blasted the turnover- and penalty-prone Cahillites, 42-20, at Downingtown West's Kottmeyer Stadium. East, ranked No. 2 in Southeastern Pennsylvania by The Inquirer, broke the game open with four second-quarter scores. No. 5 Roman was held to 9 rushing yards and three first downs in the first half.

Two of the area's most feared pass-and-catch duos will be on display Friday night when Roman Catholic clashes with Downingtown East at Downingtown West's Kottmeyer Stadium. For Roman, ranked No. 5 in Southeastern Pennsylvania by The Inquirer, quarterback Mike Keir, getting looked at by Division I-A and I-AA programs, has Notre Dame-bound wideout Will Fuller at his disposal. No. 2-ranked East also can do serious damage through the air, with Richmond recruit Kyle Lauletta flinging the ball in the direction of Michigan State-bound Jay Harris.