REVIEW OF THE 2008 UNDEFEATED FOOTBALL FRIARS

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.

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.

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.

09.14.21

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