Malvern Prep puzzles Germantown Academy
amarcus@montgomerynews.
com Playing the new brand of Germantown Academy IRRWEDOO unGHr firsW yHDr head coach Matt Dence has hHOSHG WhH 3DWrLRWs HTuDO WhH amount of wins from last sHDsRn (WhrHH) Ln WhH firsW four weeks of action this season. However, on Saturday Malvern Prep was able to get the Patriots away from their game plan and it resulted in a 24-7 loss, the second of the season.
The Friars (4-2) found the end zone on the opening drive and in order to rally back the Patriots (3-2) tried to play an up-tempo style of offense, something they assumed their InterAc foe would not be prepared to defend. However the fast pace air attack was not something the offense was completely comfort- able with and it resulted in fiYH WurnRYHrs.
“Put the turnovers on me,” coach Dence said. “We wanted to go up-tempo to make them adjust and because of that I don’t think Hayes (Nolte) felt comfortable with some of his reads. HH Ls D hHFN RI D TuDrWHrEDFN and those turnovers are on me.”
As senior wide receiver Joe Taylor jogged outside of the hashes and placed his toe on the line of scrimPDJH hH JDYH RnH TuLFN JODnFH LnWR hLs MunLRr TuDrterback Hayes Nolte. While the running game was effective in spurts, the passand-catch tandem knew they needed to make some noise if they were going to rally from a 14-0 halftime GHfiFLW.
“The ground game was not getting the big chunks of yards that we needed,” Tay- lor said. “We had to go to the air, but time ran out. I trust Hayes can get me the ball in any spot.”
Taylor sat down in open space against the Friars’ zone defense and reeled in IRur FDWFhHs IRr 52 yDrGs. However the Friars were not always playing the same scheme and it forced a handful of incompletions and three interceptions. The Friars’ senior Joe Carlini had two interceptions and Eric Purnell came away with the clincher in WhH finDO sHFRnGs RI SODy Rn pass just out of the reach of Taylor.
“I feel coach has the confiGHnFH Ln PH WR JR WR PH in big spots,” Taylor said. “I don’t know if I am the go-to guy, but I have confiGHnFH , FDn PDNH D SODy. But we called a play that would work on man defense and they dropped back into cover three. It was a good job by their defensive coordinator.”
1ROWH finLshHG 13-RI-32 for 126 yards. Robert Gorman scored on the opening GrLYH RI WhH WhLrG TuDrWHr after the Friars fumbled the opening kick on their own 26 yard line. The Patriots looked to decrease the Friars’ lead to one a score game early in the fourth TuDrWHr, EuW WhH 3DWrLRWs fumbled on the one yard line and the Friars’ Hunter Paulus recovered in the end zone for the touchback.
“We played catch up, but we never gave up,” Taylor said. “Offensively we moved the ball, but we need to tighten up on defense.”
After the untimely turnover the Friars used their deceptive Wing-T offense WR GrLYH 80 yDrGs IRr WhH final points of the afternoon. It
was Connor Bohs one yard run that sealed the win. Bohs had 109 of the Friars 251 rushing yards.
“We really wanted to get off to a good start because they are a team that wants to get out ahead and control the clock,” Dence said. “The Wing-T has become one of those offenses that only a handful of teams run and run well. They did a really good job disguising it, but I am proud of our kids. We fought hard.”