Posted on 30 September 2015 by ldevlin.
HAVERFORD >> As time wound down at Haverford High School Tuesday afternoon, you could hear Penncrest’s Olivia Mancarella exhorting her team for something, anything, in the way of attacking cohesion.
As the frustration escalated, the volume on the protests rose. That was music to the ears of Haverford’s defense.
The Fords executed all facets of their game plan Tuesday: They got an early goal from Greta Ungvary, they settled in to neutralize waves of Penncrest pressure, and they walked away with a 1-0 win in a battle of Central League unbeatens.
Central to the defensive effort was negating the threat posed by Mancarella, who leads the Lions and the Central League with nine goals. The approach to handling the forward Tuesday was to isolate her up top, depriving her of service and forcing her to run the backline hunting for a loose touch or a speculative long ball.
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Posted on 28 September 2015 by ldevlin.
NEWTOWN SQUARE >> Marple Newtown didn’t have one of its captains on the field for Thursday night’s Central League showdown with Radnor. In a battle of unbeatens, senior two-way lineman Matt Trainor was forced to watch from the sideline as his boys chased after their fourth consecutive victory to start.
“We had to come together,” linebacker and fellow co-captain Matt McKee said.
Trainor let his teammates know via text that he would have their back in the coming weeks as he recovers from a meniscus injury.
“Losing him was something that really hurt us, but it’s something that really motivated us,” All-Delco athlete Abel Hoff said. “We just had to go out there and get the W for him. That’s all we could do.”
Led by Hoff’s 142 yards of total offense, the Tigers rallied to a 20-9 victory to remain perfect in 2015. It’s the first 4-0 start at Marple Newtown since 2007.
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Posted on 28 September 2015 by ldevlin.
UPPER DARBY >> Upper Darby’s Isaiah Bruce snared the pitch from his quarterback, Christoff Minott, and with it, he grabbed a hold of the game.
Bruce sprinted down the right sideline — and in front of the Ridley bench — for his career-best fifth touchdown. The 53-yard scoring run late in the fourth quarter all but sealed Upper Darby’s 32-29 win Friday night over the visiting Green Raiders.
The senior running back logged 217 yards rushing and four touchdowns on 23 carries. Bruce also hauled in three passes for 97 yards and a touchdown.
“Plays like that just happen for us,” said Bruce, who leads Delaware County backs in rushing yards and touchdowns through four weeks. “We just come out to play. I’m surprising myself with how I’m playing. I put a lot of work in the offseason. And my team is helping me a lot.”
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Posted on 24 September 2015 by ldevlin.
Ryan Kinnard didn’t make the transition to running back until his freshman year at Penncrest High School.
“I’ve played football my entire life. The first eight years I played center,” Kinnard said. “The coaches saw that I am a downhill runner and it’s something that I like to do.”
But Kinnard is far from a one-dimensional player. In last Friday night’s Media Bowl victory over Strath Haven, Kinnard helped disrupt a field-goal attempt that was blocked by teammate Zane Horne. The key special-teams play propelled the Lions to their first victory in 2015. Kinnard has carved out an athletic career as a player who is willing to wear multiple hats. He was a two-way standout for the Penncrest lacrosse team in 2014, ranking second on the team in goals (46) and third in assists (23). The All-Delco and All-American was a member of Penncrest’s state championship team in 2013 and is committed to play the sport at Hofstra in 2017.
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Posted on 22 September 2015 by ldevlin.
HAVERFORD >> Haverford High quarterback Jack Donaghy passed for the most yards and touchdowns in Delaware County in 2014. This year, the senior is again slicing and dicing opposing defenses.
You could say Donaghy is in beast mode.
Donaghy was named Central League MVP for the second straight week at Monday night’s Delaware County Coaches Association meeting at Barnaby’s of Havertown.
Donaghy was 15-for-28 with 282 yards and four touchdowns in the Fords’ 49-12 nonleague trouncing of Penn Wood last Friday. Donaghy has also added a new wrinkle to his game in recent weeks: kicking extra points. He aced all six of his point-after attempts against Penn Wood and is a perfect 9-for-9 on the year. Through three games, Donaghy has completed 60 percent of his throws (39-for-65) with seven touchdowns, zero interceptions and a 170.62 efficiency rating.
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Posted on 21 September 2015 by ldevlin.
NETHER PROVIDENCE >> In the age of fast-paced offenses that pass the ball more than they run, a football purist would have thoroughly enjoyed the slugfest that Penncrest and Strath Haven engaged in for the Media Bowl. The teams each featured a battering running attack and rugged offensive line play as their primary weapon in the Lions’ hard-fought 9-7 victory over the Panthers. Despite a strong commitment to trying to grind each other into the ground, the game took a dramatic — and fast-paced — turn in the fourth quarter.
Trailing 9-0, Strath Haven went into hurry-up mode and it paid immediate dividends. After gashing the otherwise sturdy Lions defense down to the one-yard line, Panthers quarterback Evan Atsaves plunged into the end zone to cut the lead to 9-7 with 2:44 remaining in the contest. Penncrest recovered an onside kick and was subsequently forced to punt. The Panthers took over and went to work; this time using their passing game. Ahmir Gordon took a pass from Atsaves and weaved his way 47 yards to the Lions’ 5-yard line. After a convincing performance for 59 minutes and 55 seconds, Penncrest now faced the possibility of losing as Gordon lined-up for a 23-yard field goal attempt.
The Lions, however, had other ideas about how this Media Bowl would end. After a high snap, the Penncrest (1-2) special teams unit burst through the line and Zane Horn ultimately snuffed out Gordon’s field-goal attempt to clinch the Lions win as time expired. It was a thrilling ending to a neighborhood rivalry.
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Posted on 21 September 2015 by ldevlin.
RIDLEY TWP. >> When Ridley’s Allen Martin took the game’s opening kickoff 78 yards to the end zone Friday night, Garnet Valley teetered back and forth. Sometimes, though, a good slap in the face is all a football team needs to get the blood flowing. Fourteen seconds into regulation, the Jaguars trailed Ridley in a pivotal Central League showdown at Phil Marion Field.
Garnet Valley’s defense certainly wasn’t a problem, but it would take some time for the Jaguars’ triple-option offense to get going. Once it did, the Jaguars were in control.
They kept within striking distance after falling behind 10 points and didn’t allow Ridley the chance to run away, limiting the Green Raiders to 18 total yards of offense in the second half. After that first face slap, Garnet Valley was nothing short of dominating in a 28-10 dismantling of Ridley. The Jaguars were led by senior Tim Bradley’s two sacks and Derrick West’s 136 yards rushing and three touchdowns. Garnet Valley has won six of the last seven meetings against Ridley.
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Posted on 21 September 2015 by ldevlin.
NETHER PROVIDENCE >> Maddie Stabinski talks about Strath Haven being a “young” field hockey team.
Haven head coach Amanda Lawson refers to Stabinski, a third-year varsity player, as someone who demonstrates “good senior leadership.”
Stabinski scored the first and last goals Thursday night as Haven earned a 4-0 Central League decision over Ridley at George King Field and remained undefeated (3-0 overall, 2-0 league).
“She just had a really good game,” Lawson said of Stabinski. “She played the ball perfectly and received the ball well.”
Stabinski was in the right place in the last minute of the first half to finish a play initiated by Val Henderson for the only goal of the first 30 minutes. She added her other goal with less than one minute to play in the second half, assisted by Jackie Yates.
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Posted on 18 September 2015 by ldevlin.
UPPER MERION >> At Marple Newtown High, the girls soccer team is using a new formation this year. The alignment in question is the 4-5-1, a formation implemented primarily to improve the Tigers defense. But Tuesday afternoon, that alignment gave a jolt to the Tigers offense as they overwhelmed host Upper Merion, 4-1, in a non-league match. Julia Lynch scored three times for the winners, including a rare goal on a corner kick that went directly into the Vikings net, as the visitors overcame an early 1-0 deficit to ease into the win column.
“It was something we gave a lot of thought to in the off-season,” said Tigers head coach Erika Bayliss about the formation change. “We wanted something that would give us solid defense, but also generate offense.
“And the girls have been extremely receptive. We just had to be sure they were ready to run with it.”
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Posted on 16 September 2015 by ldevlin.
The Harriton High School cross-country teams had a strong opening week. On Sept. 9, the Harriton boys opened up the season 3-0 with wins over Haverford (25-30), Lower Merion (21-34), and Marple Newtown (15-48). The Harriton girls came up just a point short of a similar start in a loss to Lower Merion (27-28), but were able to best both Haverford (22-33) and Marple Newtown (15-50).
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