Malvern Prep runs by Penn Charter

MALVERN- Saturday afternoon at the Pellegrini Athletic Complex, the Malvern football team took the first step in taking home the coveted inter-Academic League title. the host Friars got a superlative 260 yard rushing effort from Isaiah Wright and also got a great job from their defense as Malvern Prep opened its league play with a 41-21 win over Penn Charter.

 

Malvern Prep (1-0, 4-2) jumped on the visiting Quakers (0-1, 2-3) early when Wright capped off a six play opening game drive by going 28 yards to score and it was a 7-0 Friars lead. After completely shutting down the Quakers attack, Jake Reid finished off another Malvern Prep drive with as 23 yard field goal. On the next Penn Charter possession, Andrew Connolly picked off Colin Schumm and rambled 23 yards to score and it was a 17-0 Malvern Prep advantage. Connolly had two the four Friars interceptions for the game.

 

“I really did not feel I was going to have a game like this,” Wright said. “I just ran hard behind my offensive line and kept trying to get more yardage. We made some mistakes in the first half but we cleaned them up at halftime. And running behind this offensive line is definitely fun. They were really coming off the ball today. They work their butts off so we can make plays and today they were very good.”

 

Leading by 17-0, Malvern Prep then gave up a 95 yard kickoff return to Oshamine Ijeobi to make it a 17-7 game late in the first period. But, the Friars came right back as Yaadhir Nash took the Penn Charter kick off and went 88 yards to the house and the Friars lead was 24-7. The Malvern Prep defense only gave up one offensive touchdown from the Quakers for the game.

 

Penn Charter came alive after that and the Quakers forced three Malvern Prep fumbles that led to a Penn Charter touchdown and then, late in the second period, Liam Rowan picked off a Jack Capaldi pass and returned it 70 yards to score and the Malvern Prep lead was only 31-21 at halftime, even though the Friars dominated the score sheet.

 

“We made too many mistakes in the first half,” Malvern Prep head coach Dave Gueriera said. “We talked at halftime about playing disciplined football and blowout the outside distractions and we did that in the second half holding them to zero points.”

 

Malvern Prep’s defense allowed just 70 rushing yards on the day and harassed Schumm into a four interception day. Connolly had two of those, with Wright and Jaylen Evans getting the other picks for the Friars.

 

the second half saw the Friars use Wright to get the ball down the field and set up Reid for a 48 yard field goal and at the end of three periods it was a 34-21 Malvern Prep lead. The fourth period saw the Friars use a short field to get a Capaldi six yard scoring run and the final score was 41-21 and the friars looked ahead to next week and a road date with the Haverford School.

 

“Wow, what a day for Isaiah”,’ Gueriera said. “He is a great kid and a great team player. He does all the little things right and he really had a day for himself. We are going to take things one week at a time but I thought we really cleaned up our mistakes in the second half today.”

 

Malvern Prep 41, Penn Charter 21.

 

Penn Charter   7 14 0 0-21

Malvern Prep  24 7 3 7-41

 

                         Scoring

MP-Wright 28 run (Reid kick)

MP- Reid 23 FG

MP-Connolly 23 interception return (Reid kick)

PC-Ijeobi 95 kick of return (Melnick kick)

MP-Nash 88 kick off return (Reid kick)

                        Second Period

PC-Curtin 8 pass from scheme (Melnick kick)

M-Stocker 21 pass from Capaldi (Reid kick)

PC-Rowan 70 interception return (Melnick kick)

                        Third Period

MP-Reid 48 FG

                         Fourth Period

MP-Capaldi 6 run (Reid kick)

 

                                   Team Totals

 

                       PC             MP

First downs     7                16

Yards rushing 70              325

Yards passing 72             129

Total yards      142            454

Passing         12-21-4       8-13-1

Fumbles-lost   2-1              3-3

Punts-avg     5-18.5            0-0

Penalties-yds   4-45            7-60

 

                             Individual Statstics

Rushing: PC: Schumm 6-23; Ijeobi 10-34; Curtin 1-1; Mailey 2-2; turner 5-7. MP: Wright 23-260, TD; Gueriera 1-1; Capaldi 3-0, TD; Nash 13-64.

 

Passing: PC: Schumm 12-21-72, TD. MP: Capaldi 8-13-129, TD.

 

Receiving: PC: Turner 1-9; Curtin 1-8, TD; Grimes 5-43; Ijeobi 2-0; Larrabee 1-6; Barnett 2-6. MP: Stocker 2-51, TD; Brecker 1-9; Vernisi 2-11; Kennedy 1-20; Falkenstein 1-14.

 

Sacks: PC-McCain, MP: None.

 

Interceptions: PC: Rowan. MP: Connolly 2, Evans, Wright.

EOF-