Shanahan defeats Great Valley; nails down District 1 4A playoff spot

East Whiteland >> Running onto the Great Valley High School field for the opening kickoff Friday evening, Bishop Shanahan knew what it had to do to nail down a District 1 4A playoff berth.
The Eagles (5-5) had to defeat the host Patriots; then Pottstown had to lose to Owen J. Roberts, for Shanahan to gain a playoff spot.
Shanahan did its part, relying on its solid running attack to carve out a convincing 35-7 victory. Meanwhile, Pottstown fell to OJ Roberts, 35-0, ensuring a District 1 4A playoff spot for the soaring Eagles.
“We stepped up tonight; we had our backs against the wall,” said Shanahan head coach Paul Meyers. “We told our guys that this game was our [first] playoff game – you lose, you go home.”

Meyers gestured toward senior running back Garrett Glendenning, who ran for more than 120 yards in the first half, and said, “Who was going to step up for us tonight? People like Garrett – I told him that we were going to feed him [the ball] tonight.
“I told him before the game he was going to have [a good night] – he’s finally healthy. He was battling leg injuries here and there earlier this season, but now he’s healthy.”
Glendenning said, “They told me earlier this week I was going to get a lot of carries [tonight]. Our o-line played great tonight – they were opening big holes, the holes I was running through were wide open.”
Meyers said, “All of our [offensive] linemen did the job tonight – we challenged them.”
Opening the holes up front for the solid Shanahan running attack, which featured not only Glendenning but also Brandon Choi, Jon Loftus, Gus Ross and quarterback Cooper Jordan, were offensive linemen Vincent Gueriera, Lenny Kresefski, Anthony Cipriano and Jack Lyons.
The first time Bishop Shanahan got the ball Friday evening, the Eagles put together an eight-play, 60-yard touchdown drive. The last seven plays were running plays, and the final three were runs by Choi totaling 20 yards, the last a one-yard plunge into the end zone to make it 7-0 with 6:58 left in the first quarter.
Midway through the second quarter, Great Valley nearly evened the score when Patriot senior Graham Muscella recovered a fumbled Shanahan punt return at the Eagles’ 5 yard line. But on the very next play, a Great Valley fumble gave the ball back to the visitors.
Late in the second quarter, the Eagles put together a 10-play, 84-yard touchdown drive that began with a 43-yard burst by Glendenning.
“We ran a jet, and our receiver Gus Ross sealed off the outside – there was just a hole between him and the tackle, and I took off,” said Glendenning.
Later in the drive, Glendenning broke off an 11-yard run, then grabbed a pass from Jordan for a 13-yard gain. With 19 seconds left in the first half, Glendenning scored on a six-yard run, as he found daylight on the left side and scored standing up. Shanahan led 14-0 once Connor Bailey’s kick sailed through the uprights.
Defensively, the Eagles kept Great Valley off the scoreboard for the first 32 minutes, and Meyers praised his defensive line (Lyons, Cipriano, Kresefski and Carson Binder) as well as linebackers Choi, Loftus and Simmi Whitehill.
Bishop Shanahan received the second half kickoff, an onside kick, at midfield, and began a seven-play touchdown drive, with all but one of the plays run on the ground. The final play was a 25-yard romp by Loftus into the end zone to give the visitors a 21-0 lead with 8:27 to go in the third quarter.
Great Valley then bounced back with a seven-play, 67-yard touchdown drive of its own, capped by a 32-yard TD pass by junior quarterback Jake Smith to a wide-open Ryan Banavitch on the left side to cut the visitors’ lead to 21-7 with 4:17 left in the third quarter.
Then it was Bishop Shanahan’s turn to ignite a scoring march, a 56-yard drive composed of six running plays, the final one a 33-yard run by Ross through openings on the left side. As the third quarter ended, the Eagles led 28-7.
Ross wasn’t finished, as he intercepted a Great Valley pass on the first play of the third quarter, bringing the ball to the Patriots’ 23. Three plays later, the 6-foot-2, 210-pound Choi rumbled inside for a 21-yard gain into the end zone and a 35-7 lead.
When the game ended, the victorious Eagles ran to their sideline as the Shanahan fans cheered the newly-minted District 1 4A qualifiers.
Meyers said, “I wanted to get into the playoffs for our seniors, they’re the backbone of our team.”
Glendenning said, “I was really excited when I realized we were going to Districts. While I was on the sideline I was thinking about what was happening in the other game [Pottstown-OJ Roberts]. We found out that result as our game was ending. I think we have a great chance in Districts, because we played a bunch of the bigger schools during the season, which toughens us up for the playoffs.”
Unlike Bishop Shanahan, Great Valley (2-8) saw its season end with the Friday night contest. Patriot first-year head coach Jeff Martin said this contest, and this season, have been learning experiences for his young squad.
“We’re very young, we were starting mostly sophomores this year and we started a freshman tonight, so we’ll benefit next year from the game experience our underclassmen got this fall,” said Martin. “With that being said, we had a couple of seniors this year that played a lot of [good] football for us – [linebacker/guard/fullback] Graham Muscella, [two-way tackle] Ian Rodriguez and [running back/nose guard] Carter Nelson.
“We started the season with a sophomore quarterback who went down with an injury 3-4 games ago, so [next fall] we’ll have a senior [Jake Smith] and a junior at quarterback competing next year. Most of our offensive line were sophomores and juniors. Defensively, we’ll be deep at defensive back next year, and we’ll also return 3 of 4 linebackers. I’m encouraged by our youth going forward.
“We’ll count on our underclassmen to lead this team forward – I want them to keep that taste of adversity, that taste of defeat [from this season], in their mouth through the off-season, and use that as motivation to get bigger and stronger, and we’ll come out ready to go next year.”