Cherry Hill East lights it up during historic first home night game

CHERRY HILL – Like many generations of football players at Cherry Hill East, Tyler Drob always dreamed of playing a home game under the lights.

On Friday, the head coach and his entire program watched their dreams become reality.

And they provided a performance worthy of a prime-time slot.

The Cougars rattled off 24 unanswered points in the second half en route to a 31-7 victory over Triton in a West Jersey Football League Memorial Division game. The win gave East its first 3-0 start in 13 years.

“It feels amazing,” said senior Isaiah Donaldson, who scored three touchdowns including the first TD under the lights on a 91-yard pass play in the first quarter. “We were ready and we knew we what we had to do. (Friday morning) first period, I was ready to go.”

Senior quarterback Zach Salsbery said, “We’re just happy to make history. I never thought it was going to happen. When we were younger, we always talked about it, playing a home night game, but I never thought it was going to happen.”

Drob said he talked to some of his former East teammates this week leading up to the game, as well as his fellow teachers at the school.

“Everyone was asking me about the game,” said Drob, who graduated from East in 2013. “This is something we always dreamed of and I’m happy for these kids to have the opportunity to experience it.”

Under the lights, the atmosphere in the new stadium was simply electric. The student body was at full throat right from the start and, clad all in black, filled the home stands. Even Crimson the Cougar appeared to have some extra pep in his step.

Close to 2,000 fans packed inside the stadium for the history-making event.

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Saturday morning games with often sparse crowds (the old bleachers could fit about 500 fans) are a distant memory now. The new stadium was a $2.6 million project.

“This is the way it’s supposed to be, Friday football under the lights,” a beaming Mike Beirao, the district athletic director in Cherry Hill. “This is what we had envisioned for a long time. We have the facility and it gives the opportunity for our young people to come out and celebrate. It’s been a real positive environment.”

And they had plenty to celebrate on Friday.

Donaldson took full advantage of the spotlight, putting together a career night that started with a nifty 91-yard TD in the first quarter. He made a one-handed grab of a Salsbery screen pass and made several defenders miss as he made his way down the right sideline for the score.

The senior made another nice catch on the decisive score, a 39-yard TD reception in the third quarter. He added a 15-yard touchdown run in the fourth quarter.

Donaldson has a touchdown run and TD reception in each of the Cougars’ three games. He has eight total TDs (three rushing, five receiving.

“He’s been leading the charge and the guys feed off his energy,” said Drob, who called Donaldson the best player on the field in each of the first three weeks of the season.

Salsbery has been stellar so far, too. He’s completed 16 of 25 passes for 351 yards and has thrown two TDs in each of the three games.

Senior Denzel Lee, who rushed for over 1,400 yards last fall, has scored touchdowns in each of his last two contests.

East, which suffered through plenty of rough spots in the recent past including a 32-game losing streak from 2015-2018, has turned the corner under Drob. The Cougars are 14-9 since Drob took the program over, including a conference title run in 2022, their first in 32 years.

“It’s just the buy in by the kids,” Drob said about the turnaround. “We pushed them to rise to another level. It was hard at first. They weren’t used to the offseason commitment and asking more of them.

“We took some lumps last year. We lost a lot of close games. We lost to Triton on the last play of the game. We had to push harder. We had to push to finish games and that’s something we had to do (Friday)."

Game notes

East kicker Judah Niv, a sophomore, booted four extra points and a 20-yard field goal, his second FG of the season. He booted a 41-yarder in the season opener against Clearview.

Ryan Morley accounted for Triton's lone touchdown with a 5-yard run in the second quarter. It was his fourth TD in three games.

Triton quarterback Jaylen Morris left the game in the first half with a concussion and didn’t return.

Triton head coach Domenic Tomeo said his team has to clean up the mental mistakes and that not being able to finish plays hurt the Mustangs (2-1).

“They executed, that’s a really good team over there,” Tomeo said about East. “We have to tackle better.”

Tom McGurk is a regional sports reporter for the Courier-Post, The Daily Journal and Burlington County Times, covering South Jersey sports for over 30 years. If you have a sports story that needs to be told, contact him at (856) 486-2420 or email tmcgurk@gannett.com. Follow him on Twitter at @McGurkSports. Help support local journalism with a digital subscription.

This article originally appeared on Cherry Hill Courier-Post: Cherry Hill East posts victory over Triton in first-ever home night game