Malvern Prep vs Imhotep

Freshman QB Jackson Melconian steps up big against No. 2 Imhotep, leads Malvern to 17-13 win

Jackson Melconian hasn't even been a Malvern student for one whole month yet.

Getting little to no varsity reps during training camp, he entered the season as the third-string quarterback and the JV starter. He was moved up to the second-string quarterback ahead of Week 2 when senior Bryce Pippin hung up the cleats -- but Skyler Smith was the clear QB1.

That was until Smith went down with a wrist injury on the opening drive.

On came Melconian with just one game of JV experience, who excited the Friars' student section right out of the gate, marching down the field and creating several chances throughout the first half. However, the Friars missed a field goal on the opening drive, fumbled, were stopped on fourth-and-1, before they finally grabbed a late field goal to make it just a 6-3 game at halftime in a frustrating half for Malvern.

Melconian went 7-of-12 through the air in the first half with 110 yards, making a number of big connections with Ennis Udo and nearly finding Chris Lake in the end zone twice.

From there though, it was a totally different ballgame.

In a matter of two and a half minutes, Malvern took a 17-6 lead. Hayden Pegg grabbed pick six to give Malvern their first touchdown of the day, and just a few plays later, an Imhotep punt was blocked and Sean Maguire scooped it up and took it back to the house.

All of the sudden, Malvern was in control.

It wasn't all smooth sailing from there though. Imhotep punched it in to make it a one-score game at 17-13 and an Imhotep player was carried off on a stretcher early in the fourth quarter, pausing the game for about 20-30 minutes.

From there Melconian was picked off on a deep ball in the end zone, and Imhotep had the ball with eight minutes left. The two sides would trade possessions from there, however, as Imhotep got the ball back with two and a half minutes left on the clock in a game-winning drive situation.

Imhotep began to march down the field with ease as their rushing force wasn't easy for Malvern to stop. As they neared the red zone though, because they missed an extra point earlier in the affair, a field goal wouldn't tie it -- so, they were forced to go for it on fourth down, and Lake would pick up a huge sack to give Malvern the ball back with less than two minutes.

From there, Malvern picked up a first down and they were able to run out the clock, securing the victory against the second-ranked team in the state.

∗ The star of the show: Melconian finished his night 10-for-17 passing, throwing for 160 yards and an interception in his first varsity game. Freshmen at Malvern are usually forced towards the back of the student section, but instead, he was the main spotlight on the field.

"He literally maybe got 10 or 15 percent of the reps this week during practice. So we kind of had to shorten the playbook a little bit," head coach Dave Gueriera explained after the victory. " ... He picks stuff up like a sponge, and he had a great game."

∗ Battling adversity: "We got hit with a little bit of adversity there when Skyler went down," Gueriera said. "We kind of had to go to plan B which was Jackson ... Nobody waivered, and we kind of all had faith in the kid."

∗ Udo impresses again: While Melconian diversified who he threw to as the contest progressed, Udo and Melconian connected four times for 65 yards in the first half and found him through every hole there was, making it look like it was Tom Brady to Rob Gronkowski in the golden days of the Patriots dynasty.

"They kind of took away Ennis in the second half which forced him to kind of look elsewhere, but Jackson did a great job finding the holes and open receivers," Gueriera said.

Udo has eight catches for 170 yards and a pair of touchdowns this year on offense while also proving to be a catalyst on defense.

∗ The road ahead: Malvern, now 3-0 on the year, takes on Roman Catholic next week. "Roman is a really good team. They got lots of talent and are fairly similar to Imhotep -- they have Division 1 talent up and down the field, so we got our work cut out for us next week."

∗ Earning respect: After beating the No. 2 ranked team in the state of Pennsylvania with a freshman under center, "I think we earned some respect," Gueriera said.

Quinn Riley '25