BOYERTOWN -- A little more spreading of the wealth made all the difference for Juelz Robinson and the Downingtown East rushing attack.

One week after the sensational sophomore back toted the ball 39 times for 196 yards in a tight win against Spring-Ford, Robinson racked up 172 of his 189 yards and two rushing touchdowns in the first half and senior fullback John Morrin turned his five carries into 112 yards and another score as the Cougars made quick work of Boyertown in a 28-0 shutout. As a unit, the team posted 345 rushing yards.

It was the team's third consecutive win heading into the Ches-Mont portion of the schedule and second shutout in the past three weeks as the Cougar defense yielded just 130 yards in a showing of total domination that still left the team, which committed seven penalties for 70 yards and lost the turnover battle 1-0, hungry for an even more complete effort.

"I think we have a standard here and we know who we are," Robinson said. "At the end of the day it's 'forget about me, I love you.' Coach (Michael) Matta knows what I can do; he has trust in me and I respect that. Whatever he needs me to do I'm going to do 100 percent to the best of my abilities - if that means getting the ball 40 times a game and we win, then I'm going to do it.

"Whatever it takes to help the team, because it's a program at the end of the day."

Luckily for the Cougars (3-1), Robinson only needed to touch the ball 26 times against Boyertown, in large part due to Morrin's immediate impact in the running game. After the defense forced Boyertown into a quick three-and-out to open the game, East started at its own 41 and drove to the Bears' 36 on four Robinson runs and a first-down pass from junior QB Ethan Ellis to tight end Michael Schlachter (three catches, 24 yards, TD).

Then, Ellis handed off to Morrin for his first touch of the game, a 36-yard outside TD run down the Boyertown sideline. With just over three minutes elapsed on the game clock, the Cougars were off to the races.

"I just want to get as many yards as I can; if the touchdowns come with it, then that's nice," said Morrin, who also caught three balls for 40 yards. "We want to find that balance of not giving Ju too much of the workload, but also, Ju's our boy, so we've got to get him the ball."

While the Cougars punted on their only other drive of the opening quarter, the coaching staff got Robinson the ball plenty enough in period number two. Morrin started the team's first drive with a 42-yard run to the Boyertown 38, and three plays later Robinson broke free for a 28-yard score and a 14-0 advantage.

Following another Boyertown three-and-out (the Bears punted eight times compared to only seven first downs), Robinson had a six-yard carry on second down before he again broke loose for a big one, this time a 69-yard scamper less than three minutes after his preceding score to give the Cougars a 21-0 lead.

"I had trust in my O-line," Robinson said. "They blessed me on the blocking and after that the sky was the limit. And when our defense plays how they did tonight it's really motivating for the offense to go out there and put points up. Our defense is a really, really, really big part of our team, so my goal whenever they go three-and-out is to go score a touchdown for them."

From there things were pretty well sewn up, but the Cougars still had time to cook up something special to conclude the first half. Starting on their own 30, East used nine of the first 11 plays of the drive on the ground, with the long gain of the possession an 18-yard Morrin rush. Down on the Boyertown 15 with both time and timeouts mostly depleted, Ellis (10-for-15, 99 yards, TD, INT) first had an incompletion before hitting Schlachter with back-to-back passes, first on a 10-yarder down to the 5 before finding him again for a five-yard score with 1.6 seconds left on the clock.

Now, the writing was certainly on the wall. Not much of note happened in the second half, save for Boyertown starting QB/DB Tilman Henley (seven rushes, 47 yards) leaving the game with an injury in the third quarter sustained on a defensive possession and appeared to be evaluated for a concussion. Before the period was over both teams had emptied their benches to give the backups some reps. The Bears finished their non-league portion of the schedule at 2-2, and while Thursday was certainly a disappointment, the team has already equaled its 2024 win total heading into next week's PAC opener against Methacton.

East will open up its Ches-Mont schedule at home on Friday against Great Valley. If the last three weeks are any indication, the Cougars are certainly headed in the right direction, though Matta's immediate reflection to his team after the game was that the group was nowhere near its ceiling. If they want to win championships like they have claimed, Matta said, then there is much to clean up going forward if the Cougars are to reach their full potential.

"We're obviously not satisfied or happy but I do think we have the hallmarks of what we need to be a great team," Morrin said. "We just need to fill in those gaps of where we're falling short right now."

"Like Coach Matta says, we need to do good all the time," Robinson concurred. "Can't take any plays off. We definitely do some things good but we (also) have our flaws. When we plug those holes and give 100 percent every day then I like us over a lot of people. It's going to be scary when we get those holes filled."

Rushing: DTE- Robinson 26-189-2TD; Morrin 5-112-TD; Rios 4-10; Ellis 1-2; Ippolito 6-9; Bennett 1-2; Nguyen 2-0; Totals 45-324-3TD; BT- Henley 7-47; Burris 8-18; Hagan 4-12; Foskey 1-(-3); Oakes 1-5; Rose 5-13; Werner 2-16; Royce 1-2; Totals 29-110-0.

Passing: DTE- Ellis 10-15-99-TD-INT; Woodward 0-2; BT- Henley 2-7-14; Royce 3-5-6.

Receiving: DTE- Morrin 3-40; Schlachter 3-24-TD; Miller 3-24; McGowan 1-11; BT- Hagan 1-7; Rose 2-7; Houck 1-7; Soto 1-(-1)