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Malvern Prep vs Springside Chestnut Hill

MALVERN – Malvern Prep and Springside Chestnut Hill find themselves in the exact same spots as last year heading into the final week of the season. A de facto Inter-Ac Championship.

Naturally, SCH and Malvern always play on the last week of the season – the historic rivalries of Germantown-Penn Charter as well as EA-Haverford always take place in Week 5 of the conference schedule, leaving the Friars and Blue Devils as the odd men out.

So, the stage is set for 6 p.m. on Friday night, under the lights of Quigley Field. SCH is 3-1, with their one loss being to Haverford, and Malvern is 4-0; the Friars have a co-championship clinched already, and SCH can join them as champions with a win (this league refuses to have playoffs). If Malvern wins, it’s their third outright championship in four seasons. A win Friday would also make them 18-2 over the past four years of Inter-Ac play.

The Friars have sleepwalked through their Inter-Ac schedule so far, after an up-and-down non-conference schedule. They didn’t allow a score through the first two weeks and have outscored opponents 154-21. Simply put, every game has been a blowout that involves JV players getting substantial minutes in the second half of the game, as there isn’t really a point in going game-by-game on the Friars’ schedule. The closest game has been a 27-0 win over Haverford.

On the other hand, SCH has had some closer games. They started off with dominant wins over both Penn Charter (21-7) and Germantown Academy (36-0), though then came their 28-21 loss to Haverford. They rebounded nicely by handling Episcopal in Week 4, 28-9.

Malvern blew out Haverford last year and SCH lost to Haverford as well last year, but that didn’t stop the Blue Devils from putting up a valiant effort last year against Malvern. With three minutes to go and Malvern up 10-7, SCH was driving into the Friars red zone before a game-saving pick-six by Owen Mears saved the day for the Friars.

The Blue Devils are led by junior quarterback Liam Zelman, whose top weapon is fellow junior Aaron Clark – who had a whopping 209 receiving yards on 10 catches against Haverford. Zelman has also had several games with over a hundred rushing yards, including 264 against Germantown.

Quinn Riley '25