Daily Local News (West Chester, PA)
COATESVILLE KEEPS ROLLING; IMHOTEP RUNS OVER MALVERN
Friars fall hard at home to powerhouse Imhotep Charter
MALVERN >> Imhotep Charter showed the fans at Quigley Field Friday evening why it is one of the best high school football teams in Pennsylvania, defeating host Malvern Prep, 48-7, in a nonleague matchup.
“You can’t take a wrong step against them, or you’ll pay for it,” said Malvern Prep head coach Aaron Brady. “They’re fast, and they have a lot of speed everywhere — particularly their quarterback [senior Nasir Boykin]. Give Imhotep credit — they made all the plays.”
Imhotep Charter (5-0) has outscored its opponents 260-13 this season. Malvern’s record dropped to 3-2.
Imhotep scored on its first two possessions. The first was a sevenplay, 63-yard touchdown drive highlighted by two long runs by Boykin totalling 46 yards. The second touchdown drive was an eight-play, 69-yard march highlighted by a 44-yard run by senior running back Amir Lewis.
Trailing, 16-0, Malvern Prep briefly made it interesting midway through the second quarter when senior running back Zac Fernandez broke free for a 45-yard touchdown run, breaking several tackles along the way. The Friar touchdown drive began when senior cornerback Dan Sullivan intercepted a Boykin pass at the Malvern 20 yard line.
“We had some [positives] tonight,” said Brady. “Zac’s run did us some good, Dan Sullivan had a solid game and I thought linebacker Cole McCabe played well.”
Right after Malvern cut the visitors’ lead to 16-7, Imhotep came back for a sixplay, 78-yard touchdown drive that consisted essentially of two big plays — a 42yard run by junior running back Kristian Marche, and a 44-yard pass from Boykin to senior back Aamir Brown.
Imhotep went into halftime with a 24-7 lead, then with 4:26 left in the third quarter, Marche broke loose for a 70-yard touchdown run to make it 30-7.
“We were excited coming into this game,” said Imhotep head coach Mark Schmidt. “Our defense played really well today, and our offensive line took a step up tonight.”
Boykin said, “We had a tough week of practice before this game, with the offensive linemen working hard on their blocking schemes.”
Both head coaches praised the work of Imhotep senior nose guard Jalen Denby, a 345-pounder.
“We had four plays where, if [Denby] had not made the tackle, we would have been out of the gate,” Brady said. “He had a great game.”
In the waning seconds of the third quarter, Brown gathered in a 15-yard touchdown pass from Boykin to make it 36-7.
Boykin started that touchdown drive with a 30yard run. It was one of several long runs the Imhotep quarterback made through the Malvern defense Friday night, when he wasn’t delivering the ball to one of his game-breaking teammates.
Early in the fourth quarter, Imhotep’s CJ Walton III intercepted a Malvern pass at the Friars’ 40 yard line. Eight plays later, junior Myles Nicholson ran for a 22-yard touchdown to make it 42-7.
With less than 30 seconds left in the game, Imhotep had a first-and-goal on the Malvern 5 yard line and gave the ball to junior running back Antwon Keys, who ran it in for a touchdown to make it 48-7 with 5.1 seconds to play.
“I told the players after the game that our first season, the non-league part, is over, and now we start the Inter-Ac season,” Brady said. “We played two of the top teams in the Mid-Atlantic region, and we’re 3-2. We have a bye week, and we’ll watch film, and we’ll see where we need to improve.”