 High School Football:
Howling Chiefs Defense Shuts Down East
Friday, October 13, 2000
By Greg Alvord
SJSports Staff Writer
On a beautiful full moon night in Evesham, the Cherokee Chiefs and Cherry Hill East Cougars waged a battle on the gridiron. The Cougars had to feel like the characters in Warren Zevon's hit "Werewolves of London", as little old Cherry Hill East got mutilated late last night by the werewolves of Cherokee again...Howwwlll! The Chiefs continued their impressive roll with a 41-0 harvesting versus the Cougars.
 If you thought C.C.R. sang it right when they said, "Don't go out tonight, there's a bad moon on the rise", you knew how Cherry Hill East felt as the Chiefs supplied the bad moon in the form of their dominating performance. The Chiefs began the scoring in the first quarter after taking a punt on their own 20-yard line. After a couple of plays the Chiefs handed the ball to their main man, running back Sean Mayers who displayed a run that stunned the crowd and left them saying, "Oh my, my, Mayers." Mayers blast through the hole created by the powerful blocking of Will Frystak, Joe Elinski, and Mike Mazzetti and put on such moves that only the "Godfather of Soul" James Brown could have matched. Displaying Barry Sander-ish type moves, Mayers stop on a dime, sliding, slashing 59-yard touchdown run avoided six would be tacklers gave the Chiefs a 7-0 lead.
 The second quarter saw the Chiefs scored three times. The first score saw quarterback Kevin Crane (three touchdown passes on the night) did his best Kurt Warner impersonation, as he laid out a beautiful spiral to Bobby Deckert. Using the classic verses from Warren Zevon again, Deckert hauled in the pass like a werewolves' hairy hands on a "Pina Colata at Trader Vicks, Howwwlll, werewolves of Cherokee again." After the score, the Chiefs defense clamped down. This powerful, brutish, nasty unit has allowed only twenty points all year and with that type of junkyard dog ferocity they displayed tonight, it's easy to understand why. The Chiefs "D" stopped the Cougars next drive cold. Jon Decker sniffed out an East attempted draw like a blood hound on the bayou. On second down, fire plug Carlton Hope, Matt Mangold, and Mike Sands "laytih the smakdown" to the Cougars ball carrier. On third down, Brian Wojno came blitzing in for the sack like Zevon sang, "You better stay away from him, he'll rip your lungs out Jim!", describes how Wojno came a charging in. The Chiefs offense got the ball back and methodically marched in for another Mayers score. Mayers ran behind the tremendous blocking of Brian Sweeney, Elinski, and Chris Easlick. The Chiefs line controlled the play in workman like fashion that would have made the longshoremen of the Philly Shipyard proud. The final score of the half came after the hot Blake Letchford picked off a Cougar pass and returned it inside the Cougar ten. From here, the Chief O-line surged into towards the end zone with the power of a volcanic lava flow. On a nice play action fake, Crane found Louie, Louie Russo, who ran a beautiful banana route in the corner of the end zone for a touchdown and a 27-0 Chief halftime lead.
The Chiefs scored in the third quarter to open their lead to 34-0. With such a large lead and the Chief defense hitting harder than an "In his prime Mike Tyson left hook", the game was in safe hands for Cherokee. Coach John Scott awarded his second unit with well-deserved playing time to finish off the game. The final score for the Chiefs came as wipeout Keegan McCool "as a cucumber" hauled in a 7-yard pass to give the Chiefs a 41-0 lead.
Next week is a huge game for Cherokee as the cross town rival Shawnee invades Cherokee country. Get your tickets early because this ball game is almost guaranteed to be a classic. The Cherokee Big 84 Alumni Association will be having tailgating festivities by the freshman field to start the evening. All Cherokee football alumni are welcome.
Photos by Forrest Robleto
    
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