Carey's Corner
FROM THE MALVERN ARCHIVES
A LOOK BACK
April 2021
In the Olympics you have the standard of the top three- gold, silver and bronze. On ESPN and various other recognitions of accomplishment you have the proverbial Top 10. For this article on MP football running backs, I looked at the top 6 performances and/or performers. It gives me the opportunity to recognize and include the accomplishments of a few more players. It is a very tough chore to try and narrow down the list of running backs who graced the field at Malvern. All I can say is wow. There are guys who are not on these lists who would still be a WHO’S WHO of Friar running backs. This is called “Get Me a 6 Pack- Running Backs” but I easily could have gone to a twelve pack or even a case with the multitude of excellent RBs the Friars have had over the years.
The attempt here is to compile stats for a game, a season, a career- yards and TDs and anything else I could find. If any of the stats look off or there is additional stat information to add please send to Rcarey5171@aol.com. I will update and add. Thanks for your help.
Thanks again to Ted Silary at (www.tedsilary.com). Most of these stats are from 1982 and forward. Working on previous years.
Here goes.
RUSHING YARDS GAME- TOP 6 PERFORMERS
Average is 36 points a game and a 13-1 record. The Inter-Ac was happy to see these players graduate.
RUSHING YARDS SEASON
RUSHING YARDS CAREER
503 carries - 4045 yards- 8 yds/ carry- career chunker
458 carries- 2,880 yards- 6.3 yds/carry
254 carries- 2,330 yards- 8.8 yds/carry- career chunker
315 carries- 2,175 yds- 6.9 yd/carry- close enough for me to call Zac an honorable mention career chunker (7 yards a carry)
354 carries-1,960 yards- 5.5 yds/carry
427 carries- 1852 yards- 4.3 yds/carry
RUSHING TOUCHDOWNS SEASON- TOP 6 PERFORMERS
RUSHING TOUCHDOWNS CAREER
OTHER NOTES OF INTEREST
When you look at the top 6 performers in a game I guess you can conclude that when you pound the rock Malvern can score and can win. TJ Cascio tallied his 26 TDs on 213 carries in 2001 and 2002. That is a TD every 8 carries. Money in the bank player inside the red zone. What is amazing about Chris Downs two year totals was that he was a reserve running back on the 1995 undefeated team. The two guys ahead of Chris? Derrick Downs and Toby Booker. If you ever saw Toby and Derrick play you might understand. In this man’s opinion they may be the best halfback tandem in MP football history and certainly during the Gamp era. This is a halfback-halfback tandem not a halfback-fullback tandem ( more typical of the Gamp Wing-T teams). There was a reason they were called Thunder and Lightning.
Picture this, you are the MP coaching staff and watch Toby and Derrick graduate. As a coach you are figuring out what is next and the next happens to be Chris Downs! Talk about next man up. Derrick, Toby and the 1995 undefeated team will be featured in the upcoming tribute article and team page. Because Chris is the all-time leading rusher in the IA and set multiple records along the way I will be doing an upcoming article highlighting his extraordinary two year run. Seriously, how could I not do an article about Chris? I have already started digging into articles. You won’t be disappointed. Stayed tuned for both.
Brian Gallagher was a workhorse running back. In 3 games in 1999 he carried the ball 33x against WC East, 30x against Penn Charter and 29x against EA. He also holds the team record for carries in a season with 277. Would guess Gal was pretty tired after most games.
I was at the Malvern Penn Charter game in 2019. Lonnie put on a show, a one for the ages kind of show. Penn Charter tried everything and could not stop him. He rushed 17x for 251 yards and 4 TDs. He almost double chunked that day with a mind boggling 14.7 yards a carry and completed 7 of 11 passes for another 88 yards and a passing TD. For the day 339 yards of rushing and passing yards and he accounted for 5 TDs. If you ever saw Lonnie play, it was worth it.
O’Shaan Allison was a four year contributor, and contribute he did!. That accomplishment puts him in very rare company in the MP football program history. Zac Fernandez for 3 years. You might say these guys were a dynamic duo. In Zac’s sophomore season he led the team with 615 yards rushing. O’Shaan, as a freshman, was one of 5 guys over 100 yards for the year. He contributed 126 yards. It flips the next year with O’Shaan having a breakout sophomore year with 1522 yards and Zac with 370 yards. In 2016 it flips one more time. O’Shaan gets hurt and misses the last half of the season. As a senior, Zac carries the load and rushes for 1,196 yards. Can’t imagine what the totals would have looked like if both played all 10. Before he got hurt O’Shaan had 204 yards. In 2017 Zac had graduated and O’Shaan steps up again and rushes 181x for 1028 and 11 TDs. In 7 of the10 games he rushed for over 100. 5 of those games were in the all-important Inter-Ac. MP runs the table and wins another title. Great player and a great way for O’Shaan to end a very productive career.
That explanation was a little busy. Hope you could follow it.
Speaking of dynamic duos, Mike Ambrose led the team in rushing in both 1998 and 1999.The QB in both of those years was Mike Ryan. Mike showed up in the QB 6 pack. In those 2 years Ambrose rushed for 24 TDs and Ryan threw for 20 TDs. Nice balance.
Troy’s exploits were previously featured in the October article titled “By the Numbers”. What a stretch of games he had. In the article I referenced his senior year you tube highlight film. Would again recommend that you check it out if you haven’t already. I do not impress easily and that highlight film was impressive. Can’t tackle what you can’t catch.
Jimmy Cotton was an honorable mention career chunker averaging 7 yards a carry over 2 seasons. Not an easy feat. Jimmy added 17 TDs in that same span. Shawn Wilson duplicated Jimmy’s feat of leading his team in rushing and TDs in 2010 and 2011. Shawn just missed being a career chunker but still averaged a more than respectable 6.4 yards a carry. Neil was a major contributor on Gamp’s undefeated 2008 team. Neil’s do it all kind of year, will be highlighted in an upcoming tribute to that 2008 undefeated season.
All Mike Augsberger did was lead the ‘86 team in rushing and passing, was co-MVP in ’85 and solo MVP in ’86. In that two year span MP was 17-2-1, with one outright IA title and a co-championship. Busy guy! And speaking of MVPs, Brian Gallagher, Derrick Downs, Chris Downs, Zac Fernandez, Troy Gallen were also named the league’s best.
Last but not least, “The Bobby Hill”. Another one of those multi-talented lax-football guys who excelled at both sports. Coached both Bobby and Shawn. Bobby’s senior year he was pretty much held together with duct tape. Battled every game and became a 1000 yard rusher on a mix of sheer guts and talent.
More to come……………
04.23.21
