REVIEW OF THE 1995 UNDEFEATED FOOTBALL FRIARS

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……………

05.22.21

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