2008 Malvern Prep Friars Football Team

Seniors James Connelly, Joe Price, CJ Mooney, Billy Conners

COACHING STAFF

TOP L to R- Nick Cerone, Ian Michell, Gamp, Sellsy

MIDDLE L to R- Kevin Pellegrini, The Jet, EJ Moyer, Joe Forte

BOTTOM L to R- Paul Pellegrini, Kevin Whitney, Pete Mercuri

2008 Roster

2008 Roster
NO.	NAME	POS	HT	WT	CLASS
1	Neil Willis	RB/DB	5'10	175	12
2	Rob McCabe	RB/LB	6'2	210	12
3	Mike Mayock	WR/DB	160	180	12
4	James Connelly	RB/DB	5'11	180	12
5	Billy Conners	QB/DB	5'11	175	12
6	Bob Hill	RB/DB	5'8	160	11
7	Jerry Stark	FB/LB	6'0	210	12
8	Sean Gordon	RB/DB	5'9	165	10
9	Chase Gunther	QB/DB	6'1	180	11
10	Chris O'Brien	QB/DB	5'11	170	10
12	Michael Dougherty	QB/S	6'4	155	10
14	Joe Rava	WR/CB	6'0	160	10
15	Joe Price	WR/DB	6'3	185	12
16	Jeff Schulte	QB/DB	6'0	170	11
17	Mark Tiberi	K	6'3	200	11
18	Andrew Layne	WR/DB	5'10	160	12
20	David Dones	WR/DB/K	6'0	175	11
21	Michael Bolte	RB/S	6'1	183	10
22	Wally Spencer	RB/CB	5'8	150	11
23	Colin Newby	WR/DB	5'9	155	11
24	Michael Brown	WR/DB	5'9	140	10
25	Brian Swanick	WR/DB	5'9	155	10
26	David Posillico	RB/DB	5'8	151	10
27	Chris Dallas-Feeney	RB/DB	5'7	150	11
31	Tom Keefer	RB/DB	6'0	175	12
32	Dan Flynn	WR/DB	5'10	165	11
34	Matt Clary	TE/LB	6'2	215	12
36	Brian Partlow	RB/LB	5'10	175	11
37	Keith Dreyer	WR/S	5'9	145	10
38	Jules Shortt	FB/LB	5'6	184	12
39	Ryan Sheridan	RB/DB	5'10	167	10
40	Ryan Stroh	FB/LB	5'10	180	10
41	Sean Walsh	WR/LB	6'0	180	11
42	CJ Mooney	TE/DE	6'4	235	12
45	Bob Scaramuzza	RB/LB	5'8	195	10
46	Jeff Teti	RB/LB	5'4	150	10
47	Connor Burke	OL/DL	5'10	140	10
49	Andrew Manning	OL/DL	6'2	170	10
50	Christian Aguilar	OL/DE	5'11	164	12
52	Bobby Panchisin	OL/DL	6'2	280	12
53	Michael Galantino	TE/DE	6'1	170	10
54	Dave Umile	OL/DE	6'3	240	12
55	Cristian Green	OL/DE	5'10	190	11
58	Luke Stanish	OL/DL	6'4	230	11
59	Jack Moran	OL/DL	5'10	220	11
60	William Cavalieri	OL/DL	5'9	180	11
62	Mike McCorkle	G/DE	5'11	245	12
64	Matther Devlin	OL/DE	5'11	205	12
66	Joseph DiTrolio	OL/DL	5'10	245	11
70	Sean Ferguson	OL/DL	6'4	340	12
71	Kevin Quinn	OL/DL	6'0	230	11
72	Tyler O'Connell	OL/DL	6'0	230	10
74	Jack Street	T/DT	5'11	194	10
77	Chris Burton	OL/LB	5'11	180	10
78	Paul Ryan	OL/DL	6'1	280	12
82	Sean Mooney	TE/DE	6'6	225	10
83	Carl Nassib	TE/DE	6'2	180	10
87	Tom Bruder	WR/DB	5'10	145	10
88	Jack Devine	TE/DL	5'11	205	11

Got to do this 10 times that year. None better than the last one after the Prep game on Thanksgiving. I am sure all of you either out loud or in your head just started saying rooster, rooster rooster…. Go ahead, admit it. Some of you might have said the entire cheer.

And we kicked their…… YES YOU DID!

POST SEASON RECOGNITION

ALL INTER-AC OFFENSE

**Billy Conners- QB/DB LEAGUE MVP**

Mike McCorkle, Matt Devlin, Bobby Panchisin- Offensive Line

Joe Price- Receiver

Neil Willis, James Connelly- Running Back

All INTER-AC DEFENSE

Joe DiTrolio, CJ Mooney- Defensive Line

Rob McCabe- Linebacker

AP All STATE AAAA

2ND team

Bobby Panchisin-OL

CJ Mooney- DL

Billy Conners- Specialist

DAILY NEWS ALL CITY

Bobby Panchisin- Offensive Line

Joe Price- Receiver

CJ Mooney- Defensive Line

Billy Conners- Defensive Back

2nd Team

Neil Willis RB

3rd Team

Rob McCabe LB, James Connelly RB

Honorable Mention- Mike McCorkle OL

ALL DECADE ALL CITY

Billy Conners DB

ALL INTER-AC ALL DECADE

Bobby Panchisin Offensive Line

Joe Price Receiver

CJ Mooney Defensive Line

Billy Conners Defensive Back

ALL MAIN LINE

I chose not list the names because their format changed. The best players on the Main Line were not listed. It was the best three players on a team. When someone like CJ Mooney, an All-Decade All Inter-Ac player is named 2nd team you know the selection process lacks credibility

OVERVIEW

THESE GUYS WERE LOADED.

I have covered and previously talked about various aspects of the 2008 team. They were the last team of Gamp’s unbelievable and legendary coaching career. Some might say, you always save the best to the last. What a way to go out! Timing is everything and at this time in 2008 I was coaching the freshman team at Malvern. I had the chance to watch this team up close in practice and in games. I also had the pleasure of watching my nephew, who was the starting center, play every game. With a school record 424 points and 42 points a game I might steal a phrase and say these guys were the “greatest show on turf”. What amazed me the most over the course of the season was how they scored points in bunches. One minute they were up 7-0, then you blinked and 8 minutes later they are in the mercy rule at 35-0. They could score quickly and just flat out bury teams and bury they did! The teams they played always seemed to be in the game, then poof, they were not.

For example

1. LaSalle 42-21 final. 21-0 1st 10 minutes, 35-14 at half. LaSalle went 9-3 beat SJP 2x and won the PCL. LaSalle was no slouch. Not a bad way to start and a definite preview for the year.

2. Henderson 35-0 mercy rule at half. 42-0 final.

3. McDonogh- 34-15 final. Gamp gets thrown out of the game. A funny story for a different time. No biggie. Joe Sells takes over. Same result.

4. Sallies 28-0 at half 42-0 mercy rule final. Only time all year Sallies were shut out.

5. EA- 27-8 at half, 53-8 mercy rule final. EA finished 7-3

6. HS- 23-0 at half, 43-0 mercy rule final. HS finished 7-3.

7. GA- 56-14 mercy rule and 56 points at half. Yes, 56 points at half time. 56-23 final. GA actually scored 1st. MP then rips off 56 straight.

8. PC- 47-7 mercy rule at half. I remember Tiberi almost breaking their scoreboard because he kept forcefully banging the extra points off of it. Surprised that he didn’t break it. Final 55-21

9. CHA- 18-0 final. Go figure. Only 18 points. I will say rain, sloppy field and selective yellow flags had an impact. CHA finished 7-4.

10. MP 34- SJP 27. Most of you know the SJP story. This game was covered in a previous Carey’s Corner article. My thoughts on the slow start of the SJP game. MP played CHA Nov 8. The Thanksgiving game with the Prep was Nov 24, 16 days between starts. 4 of 5 IA games were mercy rule, with 2 being mercy at halftime. The 1st team barely played the last 6 weeks of the season. They just needed a half to get their motors warmed up. And yes, they certainly did that in the 2nd half. One of the best, most entertaining high school games I have ever watched.

3 games mercy rule at half

3 games mercy rule in the 3rd.

MP has scored 50 or 60 points 14x since 1950 (Carey’s Corner- By the Numbers). This team did it 3x, once by half time! It is realistic to think they could have scored 50 against LaSalle, Henderson, Salesianum and Haverford School. That would have been 7 out of 10 games. Now that would have been a category! I honestly think if Gamp had left the starters in, this team would have scored 70 on more than one occasion.

I figure that the 1st team played less than 30 quarters on the year. If the starters stayed in to pad their stats it would have been obscene. Joe Price would definitely have become Malvern’s 1st 1000 yard receiver. That would have been 3 more catches for him. He only needed 61 yards. That said, Joe finished 1st in the city rankings (Catholic, Public and Inter-Ac schools) in TD catches and yards per completion; 2nd in total yards. Jimmy Connelly would have been a 1000 yard rusher. He needed 13 more yards a game. Thats 2 carries each game for him. Billy Conners probably would have thrown for 2000 yards. He only needed to complete, on average 2 more passes per game. On the year Billy finished 2nd in the City behind Drew Loughery of LaSalle in yards and TDs. Drew threw for 1100 more yards and 6 more TDs but threw the ball 262 times to reach those stats. Billy did all his damage in ONLY 96 throws and usually by half time, middle 3rdQ at the latest. Not to be left out of the stat parade, Neil Willis was 3rd in the city in points per game with 12.7.

Did I mention that James was captain of Delaware’s lacrosse team and Billy won a national title in lacrosse at Duke? Football was actually their second sport. Neil wrestled and played lacrosse. Joe was a sprinter on the track team. The multi-sport athlete strikes again.

Yeah, these guys were loaded and I have only mentioned 4 players.

DEFENSE

These guys gave up 11 points a game. The games were frequently over so early that the reserves got major quality playing time against the opponents 1st team. Gamp and his staff had no problem going deep into the bench in most of the games. There were multiple games where the entire roster got on the field. More often than not when Gamp and his staff pulled the starters the other team left their 1st teamers in while they attempted to make the final score more respectable. It really didn’t help that much. The average margin of victory was 31.4 points a game. Everyone played, everyone played a lot, and your team still only gave up a little over a TD a game. That is impressive.

1st game of the season was against LaSalle, a year in year out dominant Catholic League team. The Explorers are always a very good team. They are well coached and stocked with quality players on their roster. This was going to be a very good early season test for the Friars. The Explorers had smoked Plymouth Whitemarsh in their opener 45-0. How close was this game going to be? It was over in 10 minutes and a point way from a mercy rule game. 21-0 at the end of the 1st Q, 35-14 at half, 41-14 at the end of 3rd Q, 48-14 before Lasalle scored a meaningless TD at the end with their starting RB still in the game against MP reserves. On the day the Malvern D gave up a net 19 yards on 25 rushes and wreaked havoc on QB Loughery, sacking him 5 times and forcing 2 interceptions by stud LB Rob McCabe. LaSalle averaged 31 points on the year. MP 1st team D held them to 14. Guess everyone found out really quick how good these guys were going to be.

Next up was Henderson. I know these guys well and I almost had to feel sorry for them. 35-0 at half. Game totals for Henderson 47 plays for 134 yards total, 2.8 yards per play. Hendy had two plays for 54 yards. Take them out and that would be 80 yards on 45 plays, 1.8 yards per play. Ouch. Sallies was more of the same. Salesianum had a total of 106 yards on the day, 84 in the 1st half. Mercy rule took over early in the 3rd but not before defensive end CJ Mooney picked up a fumble and sprinted across the goal line for 6. CJ was a tight end and defensive end. Sprint is an appropriate verb. If it had been someone like Fergie, Joe D, Mike McCorkle, Matt “Dev Dog” Devlin or Dave Umile the word rumbled would have been used. CJ was legit big skill.

Malvern rolled into the Inter-Ac schedule at 4-0 and holding those 4 opponents to a slim 9 points a game. Look out IA here they come. EA took their shot 1st. They came in undefeated and averaging 29.8 in their first 5 wins. So much for undefeated. They missed their average by 21.8 points and left with a 5-1 record. A Jerry Stark interception contributed to a solid defensive effort.

The second IA contest was Haverford School. Sportswriters got this one wrong, not even close, wrong. According to them it was supposed to be a showdown between two top teams in the IA. Haverford School came in with the 3rd highest scoring offense in Delco with 29.6 a game. Even though the reporters were wrong, Haverford School QB Dan Judge got it right. He said, “They were stifling”. The Fords left the game 29.6 points short. They had a net 69 yards on 45 plays on the day. Even if I didn’t count the sack yards it was still only 99 yards for the game. Like Loughery from LaSalle, Judge finished with a very dirty uniform having gotten sacked 6 times- McCabe got 1 and CJ Mooney got 2. In the end Mike Murphy Haverford HC said “ We had to play perfect or near perfect to win and we didn’t”. You think the Malvern D had something to do with that?

Penn Charter and GA scored 23 and 21 points and you are probably thinking what happened to the MP defense? Well, nothing actually. PC had 48 yards rushing in the game and scored 7 against the 1st team, 48-7 at half. Gamp pulls the starters and PC throws 30 times until the end of the game and scores 2 TDs against the reserves. GA more of the same. They did manage 134 yards in passing. 4 completions for 64 to the GA receivers and 2 completions for 70 was to Malvern players McCabe and Willis. Rob had a 30 yard pick 6 and Neil a 40 yard pick 6. Have to give GA some props. They did have 14 at half. Only problem was Malvern had 56. I have to admit to be hazy on this one. MP was up 56-7 before GA’s last score in the 1st half. Because the game was so out of hand so early I do not remember if Gamp pulled the starters in the 2nd quarter. I do know the 9 points in the 2nd half were against the rest of the squad. Either way the end result was a rout.

The defense closed out CHA and the Inter-Ac for the title. CHA came in averaging 23.3 points and around 280 yards of offense. Like Haverford did in a previous game the Hillers were unable to match their 23.3 points. It was the only time CHA was shut out all year. Stud RB Ibrahaim Campbell had scorched previous opponents for 23 TDs and 168 yard rushing average. The MP defense held him to 85 yard and no TDs. The boys held CHA to 156 total yards overall on 42 plays. In the game Billy Conners decided to beat them with his defensive skill. He scored on a 70 yard fumble return and had an interception to stall another CHA drive. Another IA title in the books. It was Gamp’s final IA win, his 97th and his 16th outright title. That is amazing.

OFFENSE

Billy Conners was a defensive back and back up QB to Ryan Nassib in 2007. His season stats were 4 rushes for 36 yards and he threw one pass and it was incomplete. With 8 starters back on offense there were some folks wondering if Billy could step in and contribute. In his first test as a starting QB against LaSalle all Conners did was go 9-11 for 185 yards and 3 TDs and added two rushing TDs on top of that. Wonder no more folks. The fatties up front controlled the line of scrimmage as MP rushed for 275 yards as they totally dismantled the Explorers (467 yards of total offense). The trio of Connelly, Willis and McCabe accounted for 210 of those yards on 31 totes. All Joe Price did was catch 4 balls for 177 yards (29.3 average) and 2 TDs. LaSalle was down 21-0 before they even realized the game had started. These guys scored quickly and in bunches.

The “Greatest Show on Turf” was just beginning to roll.

Joe Walsh, head coach of Henderson got it right in game two of the season. “These guys have too many weapons. They have 3 backs that can go the route. We thought we could slow them down”. Nope, nobody did. FB James Connelly 8.7 yards a carry, Neil Willis 7.4 yards a carry and Rob McCabe 8.5 yards a carry. This trio combined for 24TDs and 1766 yards on the year. Not a bad effort considering how little they played. On this day Willis and Connelly combined for 189 yards. Rob McCabe made the best of his one touch and scored. Neil added three rush TDs of his own. Conners only threw 4 passes. He didn’t need to.

MP had a long bus ride down to McDonogh for the next game. In the end McDonogh probably wished their bus had broken down. Different team but the stat line is developing a distinct pattern. The running back trio totaled 180 yards and 2 TDs, Conners goes 10-13 for 193 yards and 3 TDS. Joe Price lights up the McDonogh secondary with 7 catches, 149 yards and 2 TDs. Tight End CJ Mooney adds icing on the cake converting his only catch into a 17 yard TD.

Ditto the Sallies. MP scores 42. Willis and Connelly combine for 3 TDs and Billy completes 7 of 8 for 169 yards and 2 TDs. If you have been paying attention you already can figure out who caught the 2 TDs. Price had TD catches of 9 and 66 yards and totaled 125 yards on 5 catches.

Was the Inter-Ac ready for these guys? Did they know what they were up against? I think they knew MP looked good on film. What they all came to realize was the film actually lied. They were even better in real time. These guys were loaded.

MP opened the IA against Episcopal or should I say, 1st victim. Even though the Friars were coming in at 4-0, there were still some folks out there that thought teams had a shot. Reporters missed badly again. The Inquirer stated in their pregame prediction “ The high flying Churchmen have a chance to make a big statement against the Inquirer’s #2 team in SEPA. Final score 35-13”. Maybe that was a typo? Maybe he meant to say 53? Billy Conners response 6 carries and 5 TDs of 12,6,1,1,48 yards. The Friars as a whole, 20 carries 8 TDs. Final 53-8. The prognosticator was close with 35. Malvern got that early in the 3rd. On the day the big boys up front paved the way for 251yards. If you are into yards per carry, that would be 12.5 yards every time a Malvern player ran the ball. So much for predictions. Did I mention these guys scored quickly and in bunches?

GA was next and if you can believe it, GA outscored the Friars 9-0 in the 2nd half. Huh? How is that possible? How could anyone shutdown the Friars? There is a saying that there are two halves to a football game and the 1st half ended at 56-14. GA scored 1st and last and Malvern only scored their 56 in between, by HALF. Explosive comes to mind. On the day 270 yards rushing on 27 carries . Willis 3 carries 2 TDs. Connelly 3 carries 2 TDs; a Connelly TD of 70 yards and a Willis TD of 55 yards. As a trio Willis, McCabe and Connelly had 7 touches for 186 yards and 5 TDs. I mean, seriously?

The only good thing about the Penn Charter game for Penn Charter was it was a home game for them and they did not have to endure a long bus ride to MP. MP rang up 55 at Penn Charter. I have been to some very tight games and some very crazy games at Penn Charter over the years. This was NEITHER. They should have scored 56 but I think Tiberi’s leg got tired from kicking off and kicking extra points. The Friars scored 8 times with 5 of them being, 33,48,60,62 and 65 yards. Receiver Joe Price and QB Billy Conners put on a show. Price had 3 receptions for 3 TDs that were the “you can’t catch me” kind of receptions. On the day Conners threw 6 times, completed 5…… wait for it….. for 244 yards…..wait for it…..in the 1st half. My calculator says that 48.8 yards a reception. If my calculator could talk it would say “That number does not compute”. Billy was in double chunk territory. Joe Price’s TDs were for 48, 60 and 62. The other completions were to Willis for 52 and one to CJ for 22. Let me re- summarize- 5-6 244 yards 3TDs in the 1st half. Pretty efficient don’t you think? And no, I did not forget James Connelly. He is probably reading this and saying hey, I had a pretty good game too. Yes he did. James ran 9 times for 139 yards and 2 TDs. He had the 33 yarder. Just like Billy, James did all his damage in the 1st half. At 15.4 yards a carry that is some real damage. In all, the 1st half 1st team mauling looked like this- 432 yards of offense on 23 plays- 18.7 per play and 7 TDs on 23 plays. That’s a TD every 3 plays. Repeat after me, these guys scored quickly and in bunches.

For a great recap, complete with stats, of the MP vs SJP Thanksgiving game please click on the article 2008 Ted Silary celebration page…

MY BIG FATTIES

The “Greatest Show on Turf” was led by my big fatties up front. The 1st team ran for 31 TDs and threw for 19 TDs. They amassed 3,452 yards on 358 plays for the year. That is 50 TDs on 358 plays, 9.6 yards per play and a TD every 7 plays. I have to use caps to emphasize- 9.6 YARDS A PLAY AND A TD EVERY 7 PLAYS………….. I did a deliberate pause here so you can let those stats sink in. Center Matt Devlin, guards Mike McCorkle and Joe DiTrolio and tackles Dave Umile and Bobby Panchisin were as solid and dominating interior 5 as you would ever see on the football field of Malvern Prep. These guys might have changed the definition of ‘big skill”. Add honorary big fatty TE CJ Mooney and it was almost unfair. It helps when CJ is listed at 6’4, 235 pounds and can move. I would also add RB Rob McCabe as an honorary fatty too. Rob made the most of his 24 touches on the year. His 8.5 yards a carry made him a season chunker (Carey’s Corner definition). McCabe was an efficient runner but was an even better blocker. I could probably do an entire article on his linebacking skill. He was the guy who helped set the edge on run plays. If I have Rob McCabe on a wing behind CJ Mooney at TE, I am going to say that combination is going to be very effective. And it was! Great job all around my big fatties.

SPECIALS TEAM

Mark Tiberi handled the kicking duties- punts, kick offs and extra points. Punts not much practice at all but kick offs and extra points, tons of practice. On the year as a team, the Friars scored 62 times. Busy man on kick offs. Mark also added 42 extra points. That number ranks him #1 all time for extra points in a season for Malvern. Other special teams points were added by multi-everything Neil Willis. Neil had two punt return TDs . One was against GA and one was against Henderson. Why did I call him multi-everything? His 2008 total stat line read like this: 94 rushes 699 yards and 13 TDs, 9 catches for 225 yards and 3 TDs, 2 punt returns for TDs, 1 interception for a TD and last but not least 2- 2 point conversions. The team scored 424 points. Neil had 118 of them. Offensively he scored a TD every 6.4 touches and every time he touched the ball his average was 8.9 yards. I think multi-everything is a pretty good description of Neil’s football talents.

ROLL CALL

And as I will do with all the highlighted teams, one last roll call of the seniors in their very special season.

Rob McCabe, Neil Willis, James Connelly, Billy Conners, Mike Mayock, Jerry Stark, Joe Price, Andrew Layne, Tom Keefer, Matt Clary, Jules Shortt, CJ Mooney, Christian Aguilar, Bobby Panchisin, Dave Umile, Mike McCorkle, Matt Devlin, Sean Ferguson, Paul Ryan. What a group! You guys had a season to remember. It is a very difficult test to try and go undefeated and your 2008 team passed the test with flying colors.

Seniors CJ Mooney, Billy Conners, James Connelly, Joe Price were shown above in the Captain’s pic. These were the remaining 15 seniors with their “mug shots”

There are multiple rankings out there but in the end I think this is the one that matters most. To put these teams and this ranking into perspective here is some background. As you know MP beat LaSalle and SJP. Both those teams beat Judge. LaSalle beat West Catholic and SJP twice but lost to Washington 23-14. Wood lost to West Catholic and both Wood and West Catholic just missed a state title. SJP only lost to North Penn by a score of 23-14. I am guessing too that most people forget that LaSalle went 14-1 in 2009 and won the state title.

Caught all your games and you guys were fun to watch. You lived up to the title “Greatest Show on Turf”. Congrats !

Brothers forever.

POST SCRIPT

Thanks to my nephew, Matt Devlin, for supplying me the Senior Day October 11, 2008 photo memory book.

Gamp walked the sidelines of MP for 31 years. There were quite a few teams that got close but only 4 ran the table and went undefeated. That puts each of these teams in a special category. The more I researched, the more I came to appreciate the combination of coaching and player talent that each of these teams brought to the football field. The players changed and the staff had some changes but the constant over all those years was Gamp, The Jet and Sellsy. What a threesome! If you never had a chance to meet them or to talk to them you missed a great encounter. They were three great coaches and three great guys. Rest in Peace, Gamp and Jet.

Over the coming months I will take a look back at the 31 years that Gamp had on Warren Avenue. It will probably be more than one article because it would be tough to summarize his career, his titles, his players and his accomplishments in just one article. In the meantime, 1980, 1995, 2001 and 2008 you are etched into the Malvern Prep football record books. Your accomplishments stand alone and I hope the tributes provided some great memories and maybe, got you to connect with some teammates you may have lost touched with. The only thing left is the debate. Let the fun begin. Who is the best Gamp team of all time?

More to come….. The “Shark” is next.

Back to top

1980 Malvern Prep Friars Football Team

Captains L to R: Steve Sullivan, Mike Burke, Ed Devine, Kevin Bradley

POST SEASON RECOGNITION

ALL INTER-AC OFFENSE

** David Orr RB- LEAGUE MVP**

Steve Sullivan- Offensive Line

Bob McEvoy- Receiver

Mike Burke- Quarterback

All INTER-AC DEFENSE

Kevin Bradley- Defensive Line

Brian Wall- Linebacker

Barkley Sample, Ed Devine Defensive Back

Honorable Mention- Jim Marino RB, Mike Laino RB, Rich Chakejian DL, Jay McNeil E, Ron Sheridan DL

ALL SUBURBAN OFFENSE

Steve Sullivan-Offensive Line

Mike Burke- Quarterback

Bob McEvoy- End

David Orr- Running Back

ALL SUBURBAN DEFENSE

Kevin Bradley- Defensive End

Brian Wall- Linebacker

Ed Devine- Defensive Back

Honorable Mention- Barkley Sample DB, Jim Marino RB

**GAMP PELLEGRINI- COACH OF THE YEAR**

ALL MAIN LINE

David Orr- Running Back

Kevin Bradley- Defensive End

ALL INTER-AC ALL DECADE

David Orr RB

Keven Bradley DL

SEASON HIGHLIGHTS

So how do you top your junior year where you went 8-1, only gave up 47 points, win the IA title and are one of the top teams in the area? That’s easy. Led by captains Steve Sullivan, Michael Burke, Ed Devine and Kevin Bradley all the 1980 team did was run the table and go undefeated, avenge last year’s only loss to traditional Delaware power St. Marks, win the IA, give up 58 points, and again be named one of the top teams in SEPA. These accomplishments automatically put them into the discussion as one of the best, all time teams in MP football history. The discussion is a quick one. Well, there really is no discussion once you are presented the facts. The 1980 team was one of the best of all time. Case closed. It was Gamp’s 3rd season at the helm and this team was in the midst of one of the Malvern “streaks” (see previous Carey’s Corner article Malvern Goes Streaking ). Malvern’s last loss in the Inter-Ac was the 1st league game of their 1973 season. Pressure? Not a chance. The boys in blue were focused and determined to make sure nothing got in their way. The skill players were as versatile and as talented as Malvern has ever had- QB Mike Burke, HB Jim Marino and David Orr, FB Mike Laino, WR Bob McEvoy. They could run, catch and throw with the best of them. Like the other undefeated teams these guys were a headache to all the Defensive Coordinators they played. Orr was the team’s 1000 yard rusher, league MVP and Maxwell Award winner, not a bad tri-fecta. He was known as being quiet off the field but as the yearbook noted, on the field he was the “Silent Storm”. David is a perfect example of the stud MP multi-sport athlete. He is only one of two MP players ever to be named All-City 1st team in two sports (football and baseball). Billy Lockhart ’84 and ‘85 mirrored David’s very rare feat. This accolade spans from 1973 through 2018. All-City football and baseball teams were not selected in 2019. I am thinking this demonstrates he was a pretty good athlete.

Great skill, outstanding big fatty line play and a typical Malvern defense that was beyond solid. What was the result? The 1980 team was ONLY one of two teams (2001 being the other) since 1950 to hit all three categories that were featured in previous articles. They averaged 33.7 points a game- 30 for 30 article; they surrendered a meager 5.8 points a game- the Touchdown Club article; and last and certainly most importantly their average margin of victory was ONLY 27.9 points a game- Beat the Spread article. This margin of victory was 2nd all-time behind Gamp’s 2008 team. If you follow MP football at all you already know that 2008 team wasn’t too shabby either. Yeah, this 1980 group was good up and down the lineup. After their two year dominance of 18-1, top rankings and 2 IA titles many opposing teams and coaches were happy to see these guys go. It was rumored rival coaches actually attended Malvern’s graduation that year just to make sure they all did in fact graduate and permanently drive away from campus.

On a special note, this season was not without sadness. In the summer of that year the team tragically lost fellow player and great guy Kevin Fitzpatrick. I never met him but by all accounts Kevin was everything you wanted in a teammate and more importantly, a friend. He was a “Malvern guy” through and through. Kevin was one of the big fatties up front and that automatically makes him near and dear to my big fatty heart. Steve Sullivan captain and close friend recounted “I remember what was inscribed on Kevin’s head stone, “ Courage to Be”. Kevin’s impact on family, friends, teammates and the community are summed up in these three words. A great light was lost on August 10th 1980. Number 71 will live on in our hearts forever.” Well said Steve.

The team dedicated the season to him and they firmly believed Kevin was with them every step of the way of this unbelievable year. In turn, his teammates have asked me to dedicate this tribute of the 1980 team to Kevin and his family.

They came, they saw, they dominated you. Then they got on the bus and went home. There was pretty much nothing you could do about it. They were that good.

DEFENSE

Front Row L to R- Jay McNeil, Rod Krasley, Ron Sheridan, Rich Chakejian, Steve Sullivan, Kevin Bradley

Back Row L to R- Bob McEvoy, Barkley Sample, John Quinn, Brian Wall, Tony Ceriale, Ed Devine

With graduation, Malvern had some uncertainty and some holes to fill. There was a question if the Friars could hit their stride early and build some quick momentum. Scores of the 1st three games were 20-0, 47-0, 34-0. Ah, never mind. Hit their stride, check. Gained some momentum, check. What a way to start a year, pitching three shutouts right off the bat. If that is not a statement on what the rest of the opponents and particularly the Inter-Ac, had to look forward to I do not know what is. Neumann, Delhaas and local Delco Marple Newton all went down without crossing the goal line. In the post-game press coverage of the Marple game it was stated Marple did three things well in this contest- punt, fumble and throw interceptions. Marple punted 9 times. Guessing the Malvern D had something to do with that.

Anyone who knows me, knows I was going to dig into this incredible stat. These Friars were the only team in MP history to start off with 3 straight goose eggs. The 1964 team came closest, giving up 6 in its first 3 games, followed 1965 who gave up 6 in their first game then shut down their next 3 opponents. The 1987 team has the record with 4 shutouts in a row in games 3,4,5 and 6. This shut out statistic puts the 1980 defense in a different class all together.

Next up was St. Mark’s of Delaware. The Friars were looking for paybacks for their only loss in 1979, a 6-0 setback. Took the Friars a quarter to figure things out as St. Marks jumped out to an early 14-0 lead. No worries. Malvern shut them down defensively, outscored them 36 to 6 the rest of the way and chalked up win #4 at 36-20. In the 2nd quarter, a Kevin Bradley interception and a Jay McNeil fumble recovery on the St. Marks 18 yard line helped the Friars turn the game around.

If the rest of the league was wondering what was in store for them, they soon found out. It was not going to be a fun experience for any of them. GA, PC, EA and HS managed 7,6,6, and 0 points. Even though it was the first league game for both teams, many thought the GA contest would determine the IA championship. This was a very good Germantown Academy team. MP jumped out to a 25-0 lead and held GA to 53 rushing yards on 20 carries in the first half. Barkley Sample’s 2 interceptions and fumble recovery helped the defense coast the rest of the way. A late GA score spoiled their potential 4th shutout. If GA was supposed to be the contender then you could conclude the rest of the league had no shot. In a familiar repeat, MP went up 22-0 on EA. A late score prevented another shutout, in route to a 22-6 win over the Churchmen. The Friars closed out the IA season with a school record 7TH consecutive Inter-Ac championship in a row and a 35-0 mercy rule of Haverford School. Rest of the league, no shot, check.

Is there any better way to finish out this stellar defensive year than a 48-0 stomping (newspaper’s word not mine) of Bonner on Thanksgiving? On the day, the Friars held the fellow Friars to 2 yards of total offense and a -36 yards rushing. That is not a misprint, 2 yards of total offense! Like Marple Newtown, the only thing Bonner had a lot of practice at in this game was the punt. They punted 8 times. On the year, when every opponent played MP they all seemed to do that one thing very well….. punt.

It is totally appropriate that 2 of the 7 scores in the final game of the season were on the defensive side of the ball. One was an Ed Devine 68 yard interception and the other was a Bob McEvoy 37 yard interception. On the year, the 5 shutouts tied the 1980 team with the 1976 and 1987 team for most shutouts in a season. It was not out the possibility that this team was legitimately close to 7 or 8 shutouts. PC scored with 58 seconds left, GA scored with 5:15 left, EA scored with 4:50 to go. Let that sink in. 11 minutes from having shutouts in 8 of 10 games. Wow! With defensive linemen like Kevin Bradley, Steve Sullivan, Rich Chakejian, Rod Krasley, Ron Sheridan, Jay McNeil, linebacker John Quinn and all IA linebacker Brian Wall, would you expect anything less from the big boys up front?

They came, they saw, they shut you down then shut you out. There was pretty much nothing you could do about it. The defense was that good.

OFFENSE

Front Row L to R- Joe Maguire, Brian Wall, Steve Sullivan, Mike Ciesieski, Kevin Bradley, Vince Friedel, Bob McEvoy

Back Row L to R- David Orr, Mike Laino, Mike Burke, Jim Marino

There is only one team from 1950 to 1999 to average more than 30 points a game, almost 5 decades! Yep, you guessed it, the 1980 team. There are only 4 teams in MP history that have averaged more points per game. I must be sounding like a broken record but it is another example of why these guys were among the best of the best of Malvern Prep football.

Just as the defense was preventing the opponents from crossing the goal line in the first three games the Malvern offense was doing the direct opposite. They were scoring, and scoring some more, 17x to be exact. Like all of the undefeated teams, when you have good skill in multiple positions everyone will ultimately find their way into the box score on a consistent basis. These names may look familiar. Orr had 5 TDs, Burke ran for 3 and threw for 3, Marino chipped in a key 22 yarder against Neumann, Laino showed his versatility with a receiving and rushing TD and top receiver McEvoy had 2 TDs. Against Marple Newtown the Friars dominated the line of scrimmage with 347 yard rushing. Both Orr and Laino rushed for over 100 yards in the game. 1980 was the one and only time Malvern played Delhaas from Bucks County. Did Delhaas not know anything about Malvern when they agreed to play them? I guess when you beat someone 47-0 you are quickly removed from any future schedule. There was no rematch the following year. That has happened many times over the years. Play MP once, yes. Play MP twice? No thank you.

Malvern 101 Malvern opponents 0. Pretty good start don’t you think?

Next up was the revenge game against St. Marks. Last year the Friars had a long bus ride home in a 6-0 loss. Not this year. Burke to his favorite target McEvoy for 36 yards, Orr plowed in from 1 yard out, Burke scampered in from 10 and the Friars were up 20-14 at half. Once again, David Orr sealed the deal with a 14 yd run and a 28-14 lead in the 3rd. Yes, revenge is sweet, especially against a very good team like St. Marks.

Still keeping score? Malvern 137 Malvern Opponents 20.

Yeah, the Inter-Ac was in trouble because these Friars were on their quest to cement yet another Inter-Ac title. The non-league games showed the rest of the Inter-Ac they were going to have a long season. It started with a quality win against Germantown Academy and ended with a white washing of Haverford School. The GA game was an emotional win for the Friars in many respects. It put them in the driver’s seat for the title and they gave the game ball to Kevin Fitzpatrick’s parents. On the day David Orr asserted his dominance and showed MVP candidate form with 19 carries for 145 yards and TD runs of 14 and 23 yards. You could always count on QB Mike Burke to run for one and throw for one. Sure handed receiver McEvoy hauled in Burke’s TD pass. In the 35-0 win over Haveford the all-around skill marked up the box score one more time. Orr, Laino, McEvoy and Marino all hit pay dirt. Not to be left out, QB Burke added a two point conversion.

It would be easy to expect a team to have a letdown after winning a championship. Who are you kidding? Not these guys. They went on to ONLY score 89 points in their final two games. That would be 44.5 a game. I am not sure but that doesn’t look like a let down to me. Over the last 2 games and in familiar box score territory, Orr rushed 29x for 280 yards and 6 TDs, Marino scored twice. Burke threw and ran for one, AGAIN. And yes, McEvoy caught one of the two TD passes.

I think the reporter who covered the Thanksgiving game summed up the season and this team perfectly. “Motivation is the mother of annihilation. When Malvern Prep stepped onto its home field for the Turkey Shoot that would be a 48-0 dismemberment of Monsignor Bonner, it had one victory standing in its way of an undefeated season. All Bonner stood to gain was a few bruises before dinner. Malvern ran up nearly 400 yards of offense and raised nearly 800 welts on defense in a gruesome display of dominance underlined by a 144 yard 3 TD performance by David Orr.” Yeah, that David Orr did it one last time. Gruesome display of dominance? Is there a better phrase than that? This reporter definitely described this season and this team perfectly.

Final Score? Malvern 337 Malvern Opponents 58.

They came, they saw, they rang up a ton of points on you. There was pretty much nothing you could do about it. The offense was that good.

SPECIALS TEAM

Would it surprise you that this multi-talented team had the same multi-talented players share the special teams chores? QB Mike Burke and Jeff Hasso shared the extra point duties. David Orr and Hasso shared the kick off duties and Hasso and Orr punted. What didn’t David Orr do for this team? Well, an exclamation point was added in the St. Marks game. Malvern had gone up 28-14 and seemed to have the game well in hand. St. Marks scored to make it 28-20. Momentum was swinging the game back in St. Marks favor. Not so fast! That momentum lasted a whole 13 seconds. That is about how long it took Orr to take the kick-off to the house. Add a two point conversion and the game was out of reach and over 36-20. In case you were wondering it was Orr who caught the 2 point conversion….. on his back!

MY BIG FATTIES

Have to love my fatties up front. These guys cleared the way for David Orr, Jim Marino, Mike Laino and Mike Burke to run rampant on opposing defenses. How can you defend four guys in the backfield when the big skill is “Blind Siding” guys over the fence (movie reference I hope you get- “Coach, I was taking him to the bus. It was time for him to go”). You don’t become the 5th highest scoring team since 1950 without big skill doing their job.

Shout out to tackles Brian Wall and Vince Friedel, guards Steve Sullivan and Kevin Bradley and center Mike Ciesielski. Props to honorary big fatty Tight Ends Joe McGuire and Bob McEvoy

ROLL CALL

And as I will do with all the highlighted teams, one last roll call of the seniors in their very special season.

Mike Burke, Jim Marino, Barkley Sample, John Williamson, David Orr, Tony Ceriale, Ed Devine, Frank McNesby, Steve Sullivan, Jay McNeil, Brian Wall, Kevin Bradley, Kevin Fitzpatrick, Ernie Sims, Vince Friedel, Ron Sheridan, Rich Chakejian, Joe Maguire, Bob McEvoy.

You guys were not the biggest around but no one can ever measure the size of your heart. A great two year run that culminated into one of the best teams ever at Malvern Prep.

Brothers Forever.

1980 Malvern Prep Inter AC League Football Champions Team Members 10-0

This was what it was all about. Vince Friedel provided this t-shirt and great memory.

POST SCRIPT

Many thanks to David Orr for finding his scrapbook and sending some great stuff along, to Steve Sullivan for the pics and Vince Friedel for the T-shirt .

41 years later and these guys are still working together and making things happen. Even now, they are still that good!

More to come……………

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Fresh off the undefeated 1995 season, I am sure that Gamp and his coaching staff were beginning to think about the 1996 season. In a previous article highlighting the accomplishments of one of Malvern’s undefeated teams, I stated that the halfback combo of Toby Booker and Derrick Downs was the best halfback combo in the annals of MP football history. With graduation, these two dynamic players were going to leave a huge hole in the backfield and probably would be difficult to replace…..then along came Chris Downs….. Who knew? Chris was a reserve on the 1995 team. His numbers were modest as he usually got into the game once it was well in hand and Thunder and Lightning had pummeled another opponent. In a shout out to an MP coach and one of the all-time great guys, the late Jimmy the Jet knew. Jimmy was Gamp’s forever assistant. He always had an encouraging word for the players and was well known for his stories. If you have been around the MP program over the last 40 years you know who “The Jet” was. His last name is not needed. As he always did, the Jet was coaching the JV team in 1995 and he had a chance to watch Chris play in multiple games. Jimmy knew that Chris had the makings of something special. As it turned out, over the next two years, special was a vast understatement.

The program and Malvern Prep will miss Vincent “Jimmy the Jet” Panetta.

Let me get this out of the way early. Chris Downs is the best running back in MP football history. If you read Get Me a Six Pack-Running Backs you have already seen his name prominently displayed in the Malvern record books. You can also get an appreciation of the number of very good running backs Malvern has had over the years. Chris stands at the head of the class. So, what made him so unique? According to legendary offensive coordinator and Malvern institution Joe Sells, it was vision and anticipation. Chris was able to read defensive movements and make cuts before players closed in on him. It was as if Chris could see things before they happened. “Sellsy” said Chris was the best he had ever seen at doing it. And just like Jet, Joe Sells has been around a very long time. He pretty much has either coached it, diagrammed it or scouted it all. If Joe says it, you can absolutely believe him.

If you want to add icing to his cake of accomplishments, Chris is only 1 of 8 Inter-Ac players to reach the career rushing mark of 3000 yards. This is a best of the best kind of list and Chris is #1. Not a bad finish for a player who in his sophomore year carried the ball 17x for 165 yards. Good call Jet!

Below is the list of players

Chris played in 21 games over his junior and senior season. He was only held in check in 3 of them. It is astounding to think that over the 503 carries he gained, on average, 8 yards a carry (career chunker). In the remaining 18 games he rushed for over 100 yards 6x, over 200 yards, an incredible 11x and 300 yards once. In 1996 Chris was just beginning to warm up as he split it down the middle with 4 games over 100 yards and 4 games over 200 yards. In his senior year he blew it out, rushing for over 2000 yards in the season. His breakdown was 2- 100 yard games, 7- 200 yard games, yes I said 7; and his Thanksgiving best, a 308 yard game against Carroll. In that game he also had a school and league record 6 TDs. This was all in a two year period when everyone in the stadium knew he was going to get the rock. In these games MP was 15-3 and proves the football saying, when you can run the ball well you have a very good chance of winning, especially if Chris Downs has the ball in his hands.

The games looked like this.

Looking at these numbers I am guessing that GA and PC were very happy to see Chris leave Warren Avenue. The GA total was 56 carries for 547 yards and a 9.7 yard average. Chris torched the Quakers for 490 yards on 49 carries. That math is easy even for me- 10 yards a pop. It was in the Penn Charter game that Chris broke the Inter-Ac career rushing record held by Dave Stilley from Haverford School. Okay, let me re-phrase that. The ENTIRE Inter-Ac was happy to see Chris vacate the football field. His two year demolition of the league adds up like this- 193 carries for 1,797 yards, a 9.3 yards per carry average and 22 TDs on top of it all. As much as Chris antagonized the IA his favorite day and opponent might have been Thanksgiving and Archbishop Carroll. In these two games, in addition to rushing for 459 yards, he scored 9 times on runs of 44,5,6,31,11,8,3,26 and 3 yards.

If you were curious how his best games stacked up with the rest of the top IA performances, here you go.

(An as an aside, it is nice to see that no Malvern defense showed up on this list of top performances)

Chris was the leading rusher in the city in 1997. His game average for the year was 199 yards and his two year average was 184 yards a game. Busy guy. Speaking of busy, his 53 TD career total was 50 rushing, 2 receiving and 1 kickoff return. Yeah, Germantown Academy actually kicked off to him. What were they thinking? I am a special teams coach and I can tell you I would have not kicked the ball in the same area code as Chris Downs. Second option would be to kick the ball out of bounds and hope MP took the ball at the 35 yard line. Guarantee you that my Head Coach would have given me an earful on the sidelines as he watched Chris romp 87 yards to paydirt.

As you might imagine with his success, Chris set multiple Inter-Ac records. They are as follows:

Career rushing- 4045 yards

Season rushing- 2198 yards

Season TDs- 31, 29 rushing, 1 receiving, 1 kick-off return

Season Rush TDs- 29

Game TDs- 6, tied with Matt Blewitt GA

Points Season- 190

With records come multiple post season and post career recognitions. Because there were so many I hope I got them all.

All Inter-Ac 1996,1997

**LEAGUE MVP 1997**

1st Team All City, 1996,1997 Daily News

1st Team All Area, 1996,1997 Philadelphia Inquirer- *same backfield with Arlen Harris from Downingtown.

1st Team All Decade All Inter-Ac 1990-1999

**PLAYER OF THE DECADE All Inter-Ac 1990-1999**

1st Team All Decade All-City- 1990-1999

1st Team 30 Year All Malvern Prep team

1st Team 35 Year All Inter-Ac

1st Team 40 Year All Inter-Ac

1st Team 50 Year All Inter-Ac

3rd Team 50 Year All-City

Some perspective here. The 1st team RBs were Kevin Jones O’Hara ’00, Eddie Gaskins Frankford ’87, Blair Thomas Frankford ’94. The 2nd team RBs were Curtis Brinkley West Catholic ’03, D’Andre Swift SJP ’16 and Jerry Butler Washington ’04. Kevin Jones, Blair Thomas, Curtis Brinkley and D’Andre Swift all went onto the NFL. Career rushing marks were Brinkley for 7,413 yards, Gaskins for 6,122 yards and Jones for 5,728 yards. D’Andre Swift rushed for 4,273 yards. His yards could have been significantly more but he never really got the touches until playoff time. If a bunch of guys in front of you went to the NFL I would say that you are in pretty good company. I could make the argument that Chris could have been 2nd team as his career rushing yards were over 1000 more than Butler but being top 9 is certainly a reflection of his talent and his career marks. Keep in mind too that this list is pulled from every single running back whoever played in the Catholic League, the Public League and the Inter-Ac from 1970.

Well, there you have it. Any questions? Like many Malvern players, if you had the chance to catch Chris Downs in a game you were treated to quite a show. With the change in high school offenses from run to pass I am betting that many of Chris’s school and league records will stand for a very long time. Congratulations Chris Downs, the best of the best Malvern Prep running backs.

More to come……………

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1995 TEAM PAGE CONTINUED

** Stats are pulled from various sources. My go-to guy has been Ted Silary. The above stats are as close as I can get them and I think they are pretty accurate. I will continue to dig for data and information and will update as I can validate what I find.

POST SEASON RECOGNITION

ALL INTER-AC OFFENSE

John Heavens, Steve Galczenski, Brooks McDonald- Offensive Line

Dave O’Brien- Receiver

Toby Booker, Derrick Downs, Joe Nangle- Running Back.

ALL INTER-AC DEFENSE

Mike Pinto- Defensive Line

Doug Borgerson- Defensive Back

**DERRICK DOWNS AND STEVE GALCZENSKI- LEAGUE MVPS**

ALL CITY

Derrick Downs DB, Steve Galczenski OL- 1st Team

Dave O’Brien REC, Toby Booker RB- 2nd Team

John Heavens OL, Doug Borgerson QB- 3rd Team

Joe Nangle RB- Honorable Mention

DERRICK DOWNS-DAILY NEWS INTER-AC PLAYER OF THE YEAR

All DECADE INTER-AC (1990- 1999)

Derrick Downs DB- 1st Team

Toby Booker RB, Steve Galczenski OL- Honorable Mention

35 YEAR AND 40 YEAR ALL CITY (as selected by Ted Silary of the Daily News)

Derrick Downs DB- 3rd Team

35 YEAR AND 40 YEAR ALL INTER-AC

Derrick Downs DB- 1st Team

A NOTE FROM FATHER DUFFY

“Congratulations Gamp, coaches, moderator and team. This was a wonderful, exciting, exhilarating Malvern football season. Excitement abounded and if you took your eyes away from the field for a second, you would probably miss a big play. The team was the star and we are all very proud of your efforts. The Malvern family all benefitted by such a great season.”

Reverend David Duffy, President

CONGRATS FROM JIM STEWART

“The team adhered closely to the mission statement of Malvern Prep- to strive for excellence, in a caring way, through the example of Christ, in exceptional love. We could not be more proud of our student-athletes and coaches.”

Mr. Jim Stewart, Headmaster

WORDS FROM FRANK RYAN

“This team took nothing for granted, kept their eyes focused on the task at hand for each game, and exhibited a tremendous amount of class, on and off the field. It was a season no one wanted to see end. It brought tremendous prestige to the school and to the players and we thank them all for their hard work and sacrifice.”

Frank Ryan, Athletic Director

GAMP’S THOUGHT

“I would wish this football team on any coach, just once in his career.”

Gamp Pellegrini, Head Coach

SEASON HIGHLIGHTS

What better way to review the season than in the words of Toby Booker, the Lightning Half of Thunder and Lightning. This was pulled from the yearbook.

What comes to mind when you think of a “phat” season? Is it winning the league championship, receiving a high ranking, or even finishing the season undefeated? Well, this season the Friars did it all. Led by Co-Captains Toby Booker and Steve Galczenski, the 1995 team won the Inter-Ac title, received a number one ranking in Southeast Pennsylvania and finished the season with an unblemished record- ten wins and zero losses.

The start of the 1995 season would be the Friars biggest challenge. On their schedule they were expected to play powerhouse Valley Forge Military Academy team, next West Chester Henderson, followed by Downingtown and Loyola High School of Maryland. This wouldn’t be easy for the Friars, but they would survive. Going into league play, the Friars would have less of a challenge, yet would remain focused on their “perfect season”. This team featured one of the most explosive backfields in the state, consisting of an all senior lineup. At quarterback was all around Doug Borgerson, Joe Nangle the human wrecking machine at fullback and the halfbacks were “Thunder and Lightning” Derrick Downs and Toby Booker. But these weren’t the only weapons in the Malvern arsenal. Other senior contributors on both sides of the ball were John Heavens, Steve Galczenski, Dave O’Brien, Mike Trevisan, and Brendan Nicholas. The Friars offense was unstoppable and nothing passed on the team’s defense.

The Friars underclassmen did their part too. Some of those players were juniors Marlon Miller, Dominic Cusano and sophomores Dan Bonner and Jim Woodward. Sleeper of the year was Mike Pinto who came up extremely big at defensive tackle and received All Inter-Ac honors.

The keys to this “perfect season” were hard work, dedication and determination. The Friars survived the test and achieved this rare accomplishment. Although the team suffered some blows, it still managed to stay on its feet and go to become what some believe is one of Malvern’s greatest teams.

DEFENSIVE NOTES OF INTEREST.

When you review an undefeated team, you know that to be undefeated, the team had to be very good on both sides of the ball. The 1995 team showed that the defense was up to the task. The big blue D carried the early load while the offense was finding their rhythm. Opposing offenses totaled a meager 98 points on the year. These Friars knew that the1st four, non-league games were going to set the tone and what a tone it was. They only gave up 8 points over their 1st two games and 33 over the 1st four games.

MP held VFMA to 28 yards of offense in the 2nd half in an opening 18-8 win over a very tough squad. They shut out Chest-Mont rival Henderson 12-0 and then avenged two previous year losses to Loyola and Chest-Mont power Downingtown. Loyola only generated 111 yards of total offense, 45 of those yards coming on their lone TD. If you are doing the math that is 66 net yards the rest of the way. The Silver and Blue continued their dominance as they rolled through the Inter-Ac schedule. The scores were as follows after 3 quarters- GA 48-7, EA 42-0, Haverford 41-0. Penn Charter had a pretty good team that year. QB Larry Storm (great football name) was 2nd in the city in passing with 1810 yards and receiver Tyrone Tolbert led the city, averaging 102 yards a game. In this game the Friars were unphased and kept to the task at hand. They were up 27-6 in the 3rd and played a strong 4th. A Mike Trevisan late pick sealed the deal and the win. For the year, Malvern only gave up 13 TDs and on average about 186 yards a game. When opposing teams only gain 3.4 yards per carry they are going to be forced to throw. That did not work too well either. Opposing QBs only completed 45% of their passes and got picked off 15 times. The pick parade was led by QB/DB Doug Borgerson with 6, followed by Josh Gulbrandsen and Brendan Nicholas with 2. Derrick, Steve Gal, Mike Pinto, Eric Daciw and Mike Trevisan chipped in with 1 each. For the record, the 2018 team leads with 20 picks in a season. Doug’s 6 picks in a season ties him for second all-time with Jordan Majors and John Nassib. DJ Driscoll leads the pack with 7. Jim Keaveney led the sack parade for the 1995 squad with 4½ for the year. He had an ESPN type moment in the league clinching win over Haverford School. Jim got his own paragraph in the newspaper description of the game. I had to include it because I have never seen such an in depth description of one play. Here goes- “Late in the 3rd quarter Malvern’s Jim Keaveney came up with the game’s best defensive play. As Fords quarterback Jim David rolled out to pitch the ball, Keaveney knifed through the line, grabbed the quarterback, swatted the ball out of his hand, scooped it up and rumbled 17 yards for a touchdown and a 35-0 lead”. He is a defensive lineman. He did not “sprint” or “dash” to the goal line, of course he “rumbled”. Great play Jim!

OFFENSIVE NOTES OF INTEREST

Where do I start. Is it Thunder and Lightning? That the team averaged 32 points a game? 367 yards of total offense per game? Doug Borgerson 20+ yards per completion (chunker)? Dave O’Brien’s 26 yards per catch (chunker)? Multiple 100 yard games by Toby, Derrick and Joe? Thunder and Lightning with over 1600 combined yards rushing and a total of 22 TDs?

The skill on this team was good. I mean ridiculously, really good. Doug at QB, Toby and Derrick at RB, as Toby states, the human wrecking machine Joe Nangle at FB, and Dave O’Brien at TE. WOWSER. So many weapons. Each and every guy could hurt you and throughout the season they did. Derrick 7.5 yards a carry (honorable mention chunker),Toby 8.8 yards a carry (chunk status), Joe 6.1 yards a carry and Doug at a gaudy 10.7 (chunker). If you give each guy a carry you have 3 first downs and 32 yards of rushing on 4 attempts .Yeah, I would probably do that. Took the O a few games to unleash it against some early tough defenses but you knew something special was brewing. In the opener Doug goes 6-9 and a TD pass to Derrick. Toby scores twice. Against Henderson, the team rushes for 272 yards. Derrick rushes for 135 and two scores. Then came Chest-Mont power Downingtown. If you ring up 34 on a D’town team you know something is about to explode. In the previous year Downingtown lost in the state final, ONLY went 8-3 in 1995 ( ranked 6th in SEPA) and won the state title in 1996. That is a pretty good three year run. They had Dan Ellis at QB( Pennsylvania player of the year in 1996) and Arlen Harris (future NFL’er at RB). If you are a fan of local high school football you know exactly how good those two players were. The box score showcased what was going to happen the rest of the year and illustrated why these guys were so dangerous across the board. Opponents were in real trouble. In the game the Friars rang up 418 yards of offense and it broke down something like this- Borgey was 7-11 for 171 yards and 2 TDs, one to O’Brien and one to Downs (Chris also had a rush TD). Booker rushed for 109 yards and 2 TDs. On the day Dave caught 4 balls for 62 yards. I think when D coordinators saw the stats for this game they started to say “uh-oh”. Next up was a methodical 19-8 revenge win over Loyola. The Friars racked up 390 yards over all and pounded out 277 of them on the ground. The distribution of yard follows a distinct pattern. Derrick had 85, Toby 76, Joe with 65 and Doug with 51. Oh yeah, and Dave O’Brien caught a TD pass. Now I can see why Gamp said he would wish this team on any coach just once in a career.

Then the flood gates opened and the hammer came down. Over the remaining 6 games the Friars topped the 40 mark 5 times. The average score in Inter-Ac play was 41 to 11. That is a bit of the offense and defense coming together, don’t you think? In the GA game MP rushed for 335 yards as Nangle and Downs score twice and Booker once. Sound familiar, again? The Friars clinched the league title with a decisive 48-12 win over the Haverford School. Haverford School got the bright idea to load the box and dare MP to throw. Bad idea. I guess they thought Doug couldn’t throw? Bad idea. On the year Doug only threw 61 times because Malvern didn’t have to. I mean, would you throw if you could turn around and hand the ball to 2 guys called Thunder and Lightning and a guy called the human wrecking machine? So how did the strategy work? Doug was 5 for 6 for 178 yards and 3 TDs- one each to Downs, O’Brien and all-purpose wideout Mike Trevisan. Another completion to Dave O’Brien set up the 1st TD, a Joe Nangle 5 yard run. Doug put an exclamation point on his banner day with a 3rd quarter 72 yard TD scamper. Game over and another title for the Friars. The bow was put on this perfect season with a TG 40-7 romp over Carroll. How do you think the box score looked? Nangle 98 yards 1TD, Downs 45 yards 1TD, Booker 114 yards 1 TD, Borgerson 46 yards 2 TDs, one run and one pass. Guess who had the receiving TD? Dave O’Brien, of course. Could this undefeated year finish any other way?

“SPECIALS” NOTES OF INTEREST

As if he wasn’t busy enough being a receiver and defensive back, multi-talented Mike Trevisan handled the punting duties. As you might imagine with this team, Mike was not very busy at all. Malvern only punted 14 times on the year but Mike had a very solid 32.6 yard average. The leading punter in the area averaged 34.7 yard per kick. In comparison it looks like Mike’s punting was pretty spot on. On the other hand, kicker Ryan McFadden was very busy. On the year he split the uprights 32 times. Didn’t kick any field goals. Didn’t need to.

MY BIG FATTIES

You don’t rack up 2800 yards rushing, 3600 yards of total offense and average 32 points a game without the big boys up front. Shout out to my big skill fatties- Tackles Jim Woodward, Rob Moser and John Heavens, guards Steve Galczenski and Marlon Miller and center Dom Cusano. I mean 7.7 yards a rush over 10 games? Really?? That means on average, most times you are looking at 2nd down and 2-3 yards to go. That puts a ton of pressure on opposing defenses. You do not reach that very gawdy figure without some road graders up front. Props to honorary big fatty TE Dave O’Brien. When he was not blocking, Dave accounted for almost 50% of Borgerson’s passing yards and made the opposing defenses pay dearly every time he caught the ball.

ROLL CALL

And as I will do with all the highlighted teams, one last roll call of the seniors in their very special season.

Brendan Nicholas, Dave O’Brien, Derrick Downs, Ryan McFadden, Scott Pomante, Doug Borgerson, Toby Booker, Bob Jordan, Joe Nangle, Pete Loveless, Peter Flick, Matt Riley, Steve Galczenski, Rob Moser, Mike Pinto, John Heavens, Brooks McDonald, Ted Wing, Mike Trevisan, Jim Keaveney.

PHILADELPHIA INQUIRER SOUTHEASTERN PA.

FOOTBALL TOP 10

FINAL 1995

Your hard work paid off. You will never forget this season. And as Toby said “one of Malvern’s greatest teams”.

Yes, you were.

Brothers forever

POSTSCRIPT

I want to thank Toby Booker and Steve Galczenski for digging into their archives of information on the team and sending it to me. It was a huge help in completing this tribute. Nice to see that years later the Captains are still stepping up.

More to come……………

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