Germantown Academy
- Thread starter Football11
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Their QB broke his non throwing hand and has been playing with a club. He's a very good player, but it has definitely limited what they can do offensively. Can't really speak for what happened defensively. I know they are very young across the board. It does speak to how competitive the Inter-AC is this year though. I believe the league won at least 75% of their non-league games and then beat each other up in league play. Penn Charter, Episcopal, and GA are very good football teams and Haverford and Malvern are two of the best in Southeastern PA. Haverford has won 19 straight games and Malvern beat good teams this year including St Joes Prep. Great year for the Inter-AC.
If Malvern and SJP played again, which team do you think would be more likely to win?
I'm assuming as a Prep fan, you want me to say the Prep. But they were "more likely to win" last time around and didn't. Kind of a pointless hypothetical.
I don't want you to answer one way or another--just to off an answer to the question.
From all I've heard of this year's Malvern-SJP game, it seems to qualify as an extremely flukey one: played in as bad a rainstorm as most people who were there said they have ever seen a game played with the Prep fumbling two punts, throwing a goal line interception, giving up a Hail Mary TD on the last play of the fist half, having a TD called back because of a penalty--and still the game was very close. All that aside, Malvern won and not just because of the mistakes the Prep made but because they did lots of things well, including holding on to the ball. But all in all, the circumstances of the game should make anyone pause before drawing much of an implication from the result.
I would say the same applies to the LaSalle-George Washington game in 2008 when weather conditions very much affected the play and the result. If those teams had played 10 times, in my view LaSalle would have won at least eight.
Looking at the big picture, it's really hard to make generalizations about the InerAc versus the PCL. Malvern beat the Prep this year but lost to LaSalle and didn't put Roman (Roman!) away until the second half. (And just who were the "good teams" that Malvern beat this year? St. Rita's lost six other games. Holy Spirit?) Father Judge gave Haverford School a very close game. And some schools in each league don't play even one game against a school in the other league. As well, as in basketball, all the games that are played are in the first half of the season.
No doubt, the Interac is generally getting better. And it's arguable that right now it's a better league than the PCL. But I would say the top three teams in the PCL are better than the top three in the InterAC and, yes, that this year's SJP team is better than this year's Malvern team despite the reusult six weeks ago.
I relate SJP-MP game to this year's Ole Miss-'Bama game and season excluding the weather factor. Ole Miss good enough to take advantage of turnovers and some freakish plays but when you look at the entire body of work, one comes to a different conclusion. Both victories were "earned" that night, must give credit, but it would be foolish to think those results would not labeled as upsets and realizing the current stature of both teams in present day SEPA.
Tulla,
Had to mention that '08 GW game!?!?
I still haven't thawed out from that one!
yesman, the wind that day in '08 was relentless and, of course, played havoc with LaSalle's passing game, which was all based on timing. But I also wonder if GW was more "up" for that game than LaSalle was. High school football is full of ups and downs and it's not hard to imagine why LaSalle was not as up for that game as GW. SJP, coming off the big win against LaSalle in '13, played a sluggish game against Frankford in the city championship. It almost certainly wouldn't have been as close if Martin had played, but that was still a very flat performance.
It would be interesting to ask our Interac friends how they would rank the PCL and Interac teams.
Thoughts on this Saturday's game? Looks like good weather.
Tulla,
Think that '08 game the first realization to my retirement to North Miami Beach. Drew Loughery was a poised field general, precision passer. Sonny Sixkiller would have had difficulty on that day throwing thru those gusts, although Wilmer as I recall did well for the few times he attempted passes.
Agree GW was more up for game, the aftermath "We shocked the world, only in the Pub"!! Beating Judge in the PCL final in a spirited revenge game, D12 final was thought to be a walkover by the experts, then a first time entry into the State playoffs. That heavily Jr. class did not make the same oversight in '09!
I likened Loughery to Martin. Poised field generals, not great power arms but knew when and where the ball had to go. Shook off the few errors they did make to re-direct their teams especially in the most crucial aspects of the big games.
Weather should be good for this Saturday. should be another 8-10,000 stoked crowd. In fairness, your boys would probably be 7+ pt. favorites, but we remain hopeful..
I was at Malvern-SJP game and there were some turnovers and SJP mistakes for sure, but there's nothing really flukey about Malvern running the ball down their throat. I don't think SJP had a very good defensive gameplan and they really didn't make any adjustments after getting gashed. Also the weather didn't really get crazy until towards end of the game when Malvern was already winning. It was not really raining at all for the entire first half.
Also, I didn't mention in my comment one time anything about InterAC being better or worse than the PCL or make any generalizations. Just said InterAC had a good season and Malvern beat SJP this year which is a nice accomplishment considering they are 2 time defending state champs. Looking at a comparison though, just looking at last 2 seasons Malvern splits with SJP and loses to LaSalle twice, with this year's game being close. HS beat a bunch of the next tier teams like Ryan, Judge, Roman, and West but haven't played Wood, SJP, or LaSalle in non-league game. HS scrimmaged LaSalle last season and actually "beat" them 17-14 but obviously its a scrimmage and not a game element. Looking at this season, Malvern and HS are in the same class as LaSalle, SJP, and Wood and would give them competitive games IMO.
Also, I didn't mention in my comment one time anything about InterAC being better or worse than the PCL or make any generalizations. Just said InterAC had a good season and Malvern beat SJP this year which is a nice accomplishment considering they are 2 time defending state champs. Looking at a comparison though, just looking at last 2 seasons Malvern splits with SJP and loses to LaSalle twice, with this year's game being close. HS beat a bunch of the next tier teams like Ryan, Judge, Roman, and West but haven't played Wood, SJP, or LaSalle in non-league game. HS scrimmaged LaSalle last season and actually "beat" them 17-14 but obviously its a scrimmage and not a game element. Looking at this season, Malvern and HS are in the same class as LaSalle, SJP, and Wood and would give them competitive games IMO.
I agree with just about everything you said. I wasn't at the game, but from what I heard from SJP people who were, SJP were less prepared for that game than they should have been and there were some puzzling, i.e. bad, coaching decisions, .e.g going for it on 4th and four from well inside SJP's own territory in the first half. And I guess point of view has a lot to do with whether the game seems flukey. From an SJP perspective, the number of errors and variety of errors seemed flukey at best. From a Malvern perspective they may have seemed to have something to do with the quality of the opposition.
No argument that MP and HS are or would be competitive this year with SJP, LaSalle, and Wood. It'll be really interesting if both Wood and SJP, which lost a lot to graduation last year, can step it up a notch or two for the games ahead.
Now that InterAC season is done I'm looking forward to some of these playoff games. Might have to hit Prep-LaSalle this week and Wood-Imhotep next week.
Hate to say it but I'll put the line at Prep minus 9. It's playoff time, crazy stuff happens. That's why they play the games!! Yesman, what's the password at The Beef and Ale??