PA – Central Athletic League | Archive | October, 2021

TREDYFFRIN – Strath Haven used a solid, consistent ground attack to defeat Conestoga 35-14 in a matchup of one-loss teams teams Friday evening at Teamer Field.

The Panthers (6-1 overall, 5-1 Central League) pounded away for more than 300 rushing yards on 53 carries, controlling the ball and the clock. Running backs Chase Barlow and Matt Shuler consistently ran inside for solid gains. Strath Haven did not have to punt and the Panthers racked up 15 first downs in the first half alone.

The biggest Panther ground gainer was Barlow, who ran 27 times for 186 yards and scored three touchdowns. While Barlow has been one of Strath Haven’s leading runners this fall, it has been from the halfback position. He moved to fullback due to an injury to Anthony Crawford, who broke his ankle last week.

“Chase did a great job in his first game at fullback,” Strath Haven coach Kevin Clancy said. “Our backs ran north and south and the whole offensive line was outstanding tonight. Our right tackle, Jake Millett, has been doing a great job for us. Our tight ends, Mason Green and Nate Perlman, are great blockers. You could mention anyone on our offensive line, they all did a great job tonight.”

It’s been that way all season.

“Our team likes gaining six, seven yards at a time, but we’ve run into some tough teams,” Barlow said. “Tonight we got back to where we were at the start of the season, getting seven yards a carry, and that’s how we like it. …The key was everyone sticking to their jobs and holding themselves accountable. If everyone does their jobs right, the whole team works as one, and we were just doing our jobs. Everything was working according to plan.”

The victory gave Strath Haven a 6-1 record (5-1 in the Central League). The Panthers are currently ranked No. 2 in District 1 5A football.

The Pioneers drew first blood 41 seconds into the game when Peter Costigan took a pitchout and tossed a 53-yard TD pass to Patrick Reilly.

Strath Haven came right back with five consecutive running plays for 72 yards, capped by a 23 yard touchdown run by Barlow, who started up the middle, cut to the right side, and ran into the end zone. Just three minutes into the game, the score was tied at 7-7 and be a preview of things to come.

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CONCORD — A telling victory a week earlier had Garnet Valley football fans thinking ahead to the possibility of postseason delight. As for the Jaguars, they were only half-satisfied.

The real fulfillment would not come until Friday night’s 41-0 victory over visiting Radnor.

“We went back, watched film and figured out what we needed to do,” outside linebacker and safety Drew Van Horn said. “We knew we could get better. And there was nothing we could do other than come out and work hard.”

That wake-up moment, if it was one, came in a 65-37 victory at Ridley that tended to underline Garnet Valley’s Central League dominance. But it wasn’t the 65 that caught the Jags’ attention. It was the 37.

By Friday, when they would limit the injury-challenged Raptors (1-6, 1-5 Central) to 86 yards of offense, the Jags appeared to be peaking not just on offense, but on the side of the line of scrimmage that will matter just as heavily in the postseason.

“We played great defense,” coach Mike Ricci said. “We’re improving every day. And that’s what we want to do.”

Van Horn was smothering, both in run and pass coverage, while also gaining 37 yards on a couple of carries.

Ryan Saunders scored three touchdowns, Max Busenkell threw for two score, Luke Lassik and Jack Westburg mixed in a touchdown apiece and Zachary Liberatore was perfect on his five PAT attempts for the Jags (7-0, 6-0).

Radnor enjoyed 46 receiving yards from Tommy Deshan. The Raptors did use a 12-play, 51-yard drive to churn to the Garnet Valley 11 in the second quarter, already down five touchdowns. But the Jaguars’ defense was at its best when it most mattered, showing why they have not lost a game since 2019.

“They are obviously well coached and have great athletes,” Radnor coach Tom Ryan said. “We had our chance to get in the end zone but just didn’t finish. And obviously we’re pulling for Garnet to keep things rolling and represent the Central League well going forward.”

The Jags rolled early, spicing a nine-play drive with a 33-yard Sean Gallagher reception before Saunders scored on a five-yard run. Carter Wilson blocked a Radnor punt and recovered the ball at the one on the next drive, with Saunders stepping into the end zone a play later.

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Garnet Valley’s Sean Gallagher, seen in a game against Strath Haven, set up a touchdown with a long run in Friday’s

41-0 win over Radnor. (PETE BANNAN/MEDIANEWS GROUP)

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UPPER DARBY — It’s no coincidence that Upper Darby’s offense has operated at a high level since junior Montez Ellis was installed at the quarterback position.

Coach Dave Barr made the change two weeks ago after the Royals suffered their fourth loss in five games. Something had to be done.

With a 47-14 victory over Penncrest at Memorial Field on senior night, the Royals have scored 75 points in their last two games. They have a very good defense that’s still getting better, but their offense was sputtering prior to last week’s 28-14 win over Lower Merion.

Ellis was the Royals’ bellcow at running back the first five games of the season. He’s their most explosive player, capable of big gains on the ground every time he rushes the ball. The idea, simple enough, was to get the ball into Ellis’ hands as much as possible.

Moreover, Barr believed former starting quarterback Donte Shaw’s skills were better suited at wide receiver, though Shaw would still have chances to play quarterback from time to time. That was the case Friday night.

“(Ellis) has such a special vision, and we wanted to give him more ways to be creative,” Barr said. “Donte was doing a great job and he’s been awesome for us at receiver. He has been really effective for us out in space.

The moves are paying off for the Royals and Barr and his coaching staff are looking pretty smart.

One thing didn’t change about Ellis’ game: he can run the football with the best players in Delco. He amassed 133 yards with a pair touchdown runs against Penncrest. Ellis also showed a nice touch throwing the ball, connecting on four attempts for 40 yards. One of his two incompletions was a Hail Mary on the final play of the first half, intercepted by Jimmy Cage.

“I took it as a challenge because this is my first year playing quarterback,” Ellis said. “Working on (playing QB) in practice is not good enough. I have to practice more and more, to get better at it, and as of right now I’m just doing what the team needs me to do and help us win.”

With Ellis at quarterback, junior Dishon Lee has emerged as a backfield weapon for the Royals. Against the Lions, Lee and Ellis finished with the same amount of rushing yards (133). Lee posted running scores of eight and 11 yards in the first half, and on the first play from scrimmage after halftime, darted 70 yards to the house to give the Royals a 27-7 advantage,

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HAVERFORD — Haverford High has been home to spectacular quarterbacks in recent years, including Daily Times Players of the Year Jack Donaghy and Trey Blair.

Junior Tommy Wright put in his application to join the club Friday night, with four touchdown passes and a ton of savvy reads in the run-pass option to lift the Fords to a 41-15 Central League victory over Springfield.

The triumph snapped a four-game losing streak for the Fords (3-4, 2-4 Central), who were a couple bad breaks from wondering if they were snake bitten after the Cougars went ahead 15-0 in the first quarter.

A pick-six by the Fords was called back by a roughing the passer penalty, and the Cougars were doing everything right, including point-after holder Matt Dickinson’s alert run for two points after a high snap.

But Wright changed that in the second quarter with a 30-yard scramble to set up a one-yard scoring pass to Tyler Rogers.

That triggered a run of 27 consecutive second-quarter points and in all, 41 unanswered to turn a deficit into a romp.

“We just need like one little play to get the momentum going,” said Wright, who threw for 173 yards. “Once that happens, everything is going our way. We’re all hyped. We’re all catching the ball. We’re all making tackles; everything just starts clicking. One little momentum shift and we’re good.”

Wright was the second-leading rusher for the Fords with nine carries for 74 yards. Junior Ethan Mahan was his favorite target, hauling in six passes for 94 yards, including a postcard perfect 37-yard score.

“He’s a very good receiver,” Wright said of Mahan. “We work every single in the day in the offseason and I think that shows. I just know when he’s going to be open.”

The Cougars (3-4, 2-3), on the other hand, were unable to get anything going after their big first quarter, in which Jake Rama threw a 50-yard TD pass to Robby Longo on the second snap of the game. Rama later tossed an eight-yard score to Nate Cain.

The Cougars got just one first down the rest of the evening against a defense determined to take away the run. The Fords limited them to 24 rushing yards.

“They made a couple good plays, they made some good calls and then I just think we got a little shell shocked and a couple balls didn’t bounce our way,” Springfield coach Chris Britton said. “We tried to fight through it a little bit but they got the best of us in this one. They got some confidence and they’re a good team. They’ve had some balls bounce the other way for them for a couple games. I think it was our turn.”

Haverford quarterback Tommy Wright threw four touchdowns as the Fords defeated Springfield 41-15

Friday night at Cornog Field. (PETE BANNAN – DAILY TIMES)

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RIDLEY — You’ve got to look pretty far down the Ridley football roster before you find Nahaj Saleem’s name.

He’s still filed under his number from last season, No. 80, a hedge between his two positions on offense. Primarily an extra blocker at tight end, Saleem’s number was as lineman-adjacent as his role, but also not foreign to the occasional pass route.

This year, Saleem opted for a more play-making No. 6. It’s a little easier for opponents to read, too, especially when he’s mobbing a quarterback or streaking down the field after a reception.

Saleem’s duties Friday night in a 70-6 Ridley romp over Harriton were confined to blocking for a run game that the Rams couldn’t stop and disrupting a passing attack the Rams couldn’t start. But in catching a pair of touchdowns in last week’s showdown of unbeatens with Garnet Valley, Saleem showed how special he can be on both sides of the ball.

That privilege required a little campaigning on the practice field and a lot of extra work with Ridley quarterback John Heller.

“It took a lot of proving in practice,” the 6-1 junior said. “A lot of it happened in practice.”

It starts with defense for Saleem, as a versatile edge rusher or outside linebacker. With the Rams (0-7, 0-6 Central) operating out of a pass-heavy shotgun look, Saleem got after quarterback Logan Rothberg at will, contributing a sack and several QB pressures, including on Antonio Saahir’s first-half interception.

Ridley (6-1, 5-1) carried a 372-27 advantage in total offense into halftime, leading 56-0. At the break, Ridley had run 37 plays with 18 first downs and eight touchdowns.

“It was a comeback week,” Saleem said, referencing the 65-37 loss to Garnet Valley. “We realized we did do good things in the first half, but at the end of the day, the score didn’t fall our way. We looked at that, worked off that and brought it back.”

His services weren’t needed in the passing game, where Heller was 8-for-9 for 111 yards. He threw a corner route up for Stephen O’Donovan to run under for an 11-yard score in the first quarter, added a one-yard sneak touchdown also in that 35-point frame and hit Paul Jackson for a 21-yard TD in the second. Jackson also scampered with an inside handoff on misdirection for a 10-yard score.

“He’s our quarterback,” Saleem said of Heller. “We look up to him as much as he looks up to us. We look out for him as much as he looks out for us.”

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Ridley’s Nahaj Saleem, left, seen in a 2020 game trying to tackle Upper Darby’s Darryl Pollard-Farmer,

has changed numbers, positions and his impact on the Ridley team this season. (Pete Bannan/MEDIANEWS GROUP)

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UPPER PROVIDENCE — The Haverford High boys team and the Strath Haven girls needed to make a point at the Delaware County Cross Country Championships Saturday afternoon at Rose Tree Park.

Haverford, which placed second to Penncrest in a 2019 meet that was decided by the sixth runner tie-breaker, had its top three runners finish 1-2-3 and easily outdistanced runner-up Penncrest for the school’s second team title. The first was in 2018.

Strath Haven, which fell one point short of Haverford in the battle for the 2019 girls crown, ran away from the Fords and The Academy of Notre Dame to earn its first team title since 2018 and its third in the last eight meets.

Haverford senior Ethan Fingerhut was the boys’ individual champion with a time of 16 minutes, 4 seconds. He finished 18 seconds ahead of junior teammate Patrick Lawson, who beat classmate Quentin Ryan to the line by five seconds.

Penncrest junior Gavin Mogck and Radnor senior Jimmy Kurtz rounded out the top five finishers. Junior Remy Dufresne (16th) and senior Chris Potter (24th) were Haverford’s other scorers.

Fingerhut became Haverford’s third consecutive individual champion. Mike Donnelly took the honors in 2018 and 2019. No meet was held in 2020.

“I finished one place ahead of my brother (Josh) two years ago,” Fingerhut said of his eighth place in 2019. “We knew some of the other teams here were good, and I really wanted to do what I could to win this race today and for our team to win the championship.

“When we hit the last mile (marker), I just took off and really tried to get out there as far as I could. Now our goals are the Central League (meet), districts and states.”

Lawson admitted that the Fords “took a look at the other runners, they were strong on the hill at two miles and sprinted past those other guys.”

Ryan competed in the Delco varsity race for the first time.

“For us, winning as a team is always the goal,” he said. “It doesn’t matter who finishes first, second or third. The thing is that our team wins.”

Matt Wells shrugs off any attempt at taking credit for his team’s successes in his four years as Haverford’s head coach.

“They are a special bunch,” he said. “They put in the work during the summer, and I’m honored to be associated with the Haverford program. We’re fortunate to be in a league with teams like Penncrest, Lower Merion and Radnor, who really help to push us.”

Sophomore Hannah Prokup (fourth) and seniors Rowe Crawford (fifth) and Gwyneth Stach (sixth) led the way for Strath Haven’s girls championship, with 10th-grader Chloe Brown (12th) and senior Morgan McErlean (23rd) rounding out the scoring. The Panthers put up 50 points to Haverford’s 63.

Notre Dame junior Therese Trainer was the individual champion in 19:22, with Penncrest freshman Ruby Schwelm second (19:37) and Haverford ninth grader Camryn McGeehan third (19:40).

“(Brown) getting past three Haverford runners coming up the last hill was all heart,” Strath Haven head coach Bill Coren said.

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Garnet Valley needed every one of Maddie Wood’s 49 assists in a 3-2 victory over Villa Maria Saturday.

Each set was determined by three points or fewer. The Jags took a 2-0 lead with scores of 25-22 and 27-25 and Villa won the third and fourth sets by 26-24 scores. GV sealed its 12th win of the season with an 18-16 victory in the fifth set.

Kelly St. Germain posted 15 kills and three blocks for the Jags. Klaira Zakarian paired 14 kills with two blocks, while Katie Dugery and Sara Weins combined for 13 blocks. Rachel Soklasky, Maddie Snelgrove and Leah Ellis excelled on defense.

Garnet Valley’s Maddie Wood sets the ball in the fourth set against Strath Haven

Wednesday night.(Pete Bannan/MediaNews Group)

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LIMERICK >> Tied with two other players tied heading into the 18th hole at Turtle Creek Golf Course, Lower Merion junior Sydney Yermish knew if she wanted to walk away with a District 1 Class 3A championship she was going to have to take it.

Standing from about 193 yards out after her drive, Yermish decided to try and clear the water in front of the green and reach the par-5 in two shots.

The risk was worth the reward when Yermish’s five-iron hopped onto the right side of the green.

Though her eagle putt just missed after hitting the cup, a birdie proved good enough to deliver Yermish her second District 1 title in three years — posting a 5-under for the tournament to best Downingtown East senior Ava O’Sullivan and Unionville junior Mary Grace Dunigan at 4-under.

“Once I saw my lie and how far and the angle, I knew I had to go for it,” Yermish said.

“I definitely won it with that shot,” she added. “It was amazing to hit that and for it to work.”

Yermish did not get the opportunity to defend her District 1 Class 3A girls golf championship last season. After winning the title as a freshman in 2019, Yermish and the rest of the Central League competitors were left out of the district and PIAA field during a COVID-impacted 2020 season.

She came into Tuesday tied for third at one-under par — four shots behind O’Sullivan and one behind Dunigan.

Yermish followed a 70 on Monday at Raven’s Claw Golf Course with a four-under 68 at Turtle Creek, which included an eagle on hole two and birdies on 13 and 18, to win her second district championship.

“It was amazing,” Yermish said. “I won it my freshman year, so last year was really hard for me to sit out. It just made me want it more this year because I knew you can’t always have this kind of experience. It was amazing that I was able to do it again, and I was really excited.”

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Lower Merion junior Sydney Yermish, right, celebrates near the 18th green after winning the 2021

District 1-3A girls golf championship Tuesday at Turtle Creek Golf Course in Limerick. (Owen McCue – MediaNews Group)

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RIDLEY TWP. — Mike Ricci didn’t have to say much at halftime Friday night. His Garnet Valley football team was under no impression that it had played well enough in the first half. The defense, especially, knew it had gotten beaten up good by Ridley offense to the tune of 34 points, or 13 fewer than it had allowed in its previous five games combined.

So Ricci left his defense to it, to the task of discerning what needed to change.

“We went into the locker room, we knew we had stuff to work on,” junior linebacker Drew Van Horn said. “We talked about it, no one got mad with each other. We just figured out what we need to do and we came out on the field and executed. There’s nothing better we could’ve done.”

That vaunted Jaguars unit made sure that Ridley got nothing done after the break.

Garnet Valley held the Green Raiders’ offense to a solitary second-half field goal, rattling off 37 unanswered points for a 65-37 win in a clash of unbeaten, Class 6A Central League teams that more than lived up to the hype.

Ridley (5-1, 4-1) headed into halftime flying high with a 34-28 lead, the last installment delivered by Tahir Mills’ halfback pass to Nahaj Saleem with 11 seconds left. Having deferred the kickoff, they started the second half with a drive to the 3-yard line that stalled, leading to Nick Volpone’s 22-yard field goal for a 37-28 edge.

But Garnet Valley (6-0, 5-0) made sure that was the end of the scoring. It forced punts on the Green Raiders’ next two series, then recovered a fumble when CJ Wood popped Kimir Stephenson near the Ridley sideline and Van Horn hopped on the loose ball. Another turnover on downs followed, forced by Van Horn’s sack of Ridley quarterback John Heller, and the fight was ended when Jake McDowell scooped a fumble in the dying moments.

While the defense held, the Garnet offense revved up, even as injuries forced it to dig deeper into the running-back rotation. Ryan Saunders was the man to finish drives in the first half with rushing scores of 12, eight and five yards in the first half. He added a four-yard TD five minutes into the third quarter.

But Saunders would exit with an injury, for a team already missing Shane Reynolds, their anticipated top ball-carrier. No matter, since Jason Bernard was more than willing to step up.

The junior rumbled for 184 yards on 23 carries, including a 30-yard score with 19 seconds left in the third quarter. He added a one-yard plunge in the fourth quarter and a pair of two-point conversions. The player nicknamed “Bus” for his willingness to deliver on contact and his youthful resemblance to the running style of former NFL bull back Jerome Bettis, was part of a running attack that accounted for 412 yards on 54 carries.

“That’s what we practice for,” Bernard said. “We practice for situations like these every day. We make sure that every person at that position can get in the game and do well.”

“Everyone on this team knows how hard he works,” Van Horn said of Bernard. “He’s definitely the hardest worker in the weight room. He comes out every day and works. And it just shows when his number was called. He makes an impact on this team.”

Garnet Valley had no answers for Ridley in the first half, thanks to Heller. The quarterback was 17-for-28 for 311 yards, a fair few of them on passes released with defenders hanging off of him.

He found Khameen Powell on a 30-yard score on fourth-and-14 in the second quarter to get Ridley to within 21-20.

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Garnet Valley’s Ryan Saunders, seen scoring against Strath Haven last week, scored four times

Friday night in a 65-37 win over Ridley in a battle of unbeatens. (Pete Bannan/MediaNews Group)

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Maybe this is the week a game between undefeated teams in the Central League lives up to its billing.

Last week’s showdown, Garnet Valley at Strath Haven, was more or less a fan letdown, even though the 42-7 final underscored just how strong Garnet Valley is this season.

While Garnet appears to be unstoppable force in the Central League, Ridley is perfect this season, just as  Strath Haven was a week ago. It didn’t go so well for Haven, so what can Ridley do to avoid a similar fate against the mighty Jags?

Can the Green Raiders, who are set to play their fourth game in the cozy confines of Phil Marion Field, pull off the upset?

While the Central League games are again the highlight of this week’s schedule, let’s not look past what the Del Val League has to endure this weekend. All of its teams take a respite from league competition to face Ches-Mont League schools.

Academy Park (4-0), which has scored at least 40 points in each of their four games, travels to Avon Grove (2-3). Chester (4-0), fresh off its rout of Oxford, is at West Chester Henderson (2-3). Interboro (1-4) is away against Bayard Rustin (3-1), while Chichester (1-3) looks to snap a two-game skid at home against winless West Chester East (0-5). And speaking of teams looking for win No. 1 on the campaign, Penn Wood (0-4) makes the commute to Malvern to play Great Valley (2-3), which has lost three straight decisions.

With that, here are the top five games to watch in Delco this weekend. All games kick off at 7 p.m.

Friday

Garnet Valley at Ridley

There hasn’t been this much anticipation for a GV-Ridley game in at least five years, the last time the Green Raiders were victorious.

The Jaguars (5-0) and Green Raiders (5-0) are loaded with game-changing skill talent, smart and athletic quarterbacks, physical lines and stingy defenses. Last week, GV rendered the Haven run offense ineffective in the 42-7 victory.

On offense, senior Max Busenkell has been a stellar passing quarterback, completing 80 percent of his attempts for 771 yards and 10 touchdowns, and he has some major targets in Sean Gallagher (401 yards, five TDs) and Joey Halloran (172 yards, three TDs).

Similarly, Ridley had been known as a ground-and-pound offense under sixth-year coach Dave Wood. Not in 2021. John Heller has been exceptional airing the ball out to playmakers including Khameen Powell and Kimir Stephenson.

Garnet Valley’s run defense didn’t allow Haven to move east and west last week. At all. And they will present a difficult challenge for Tahir Mills, but the senior athlete has shown he can hurt teams in so many ways. Mills has scored touchdowns via run, catch and return, and is a threat to score every time he touches the ball. Due to Mills’ ability to change the game in a hurry, he’ll be the one player to keep an eye on.

PETE BANNAN – MEDIANEWS GROUP Garnet Valley’s Ryan Saunders, center, is congratulated by teammates

after his second touchdown against Strath Haven last Friday night at George King Field.

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