Garnet Valley Beats Haverford to Get to Central League Championship Game

Tagged under: District 1, Gameday Hub, News

Alec Eskin | November 20, 2020

This was that most important game for both teams this year. It would all come down to this to see who would be the champion of Central League 6A and who would advance to the championship game. Both teams were fired up coming into this game as Garnet Valley wanted to keep their Central League winning streak going and Haverford wanted to avenge for their close 35-28 loss last year. It was a hard fought battle, but Garnet Valley emerged victorious by a final score of 39-8. Lets go into a deeper recap of each team tonight . . .

Garnet Valley had their toughest game of the year. Offensively, the had some trouble moving the ball down the field as Haverford had a stingy defense. But, as the game work on, the offensive line for Garnet Valley wore out the Haverford defense and broke the game open. The highlight of the game for the offense was the trick play from Shane Reynolds to Sean Gallagher. Actually, Reynolds had more passing yards on the night than McGarrey. Then, Reynolds started off the game with a 50 yard touchdown run. He has been one of Garnet Valley’s star players on offense this year. The defense had a very good night against a potent Haverford offense. They would bend but not break during the game. As Haverford got into Garnet Valley territory, the defense would stiffen. The highlight of the night came in the fourth quarter when Alex Nicolaides returned an interception 80 yards to the house putting GV up 32-8 and effectively icing the game for all intents are purposes. This was Garnet Valley’s smallest margin of victory all year with them winning tonight’s game by 31 points. Overall, an exhilarating and a great night to cap off their regular season.

Tonight marked a weird and a rough night for Haverford. To start off, before that game, their head coach Joe Gallagher was forced to quarantine after being exposed to someone who had a positive COVID-19 test. So, they had their DC, Dan Milewski be the intern head coach for that game. The offense had a quick touchdown on their second drive on the game on a 6 yard touchdown pass from Tommy Wright to Will Higson. Other than that, they were not able to penetrate the end zone again. They were able to get traction, but one they got inside the GV 40 yard line, their drives seemed to stall. They had trouble getting their red zone offense going all night as they were held to a season low eight points. However, Jimmy Wright was able to use the ground and pound method to get up the field and gain chunks of yards. Their offense had potential for the future as they look to get back to where they were offensively last year. On defense, they were able to keep themselves in the game through out the entire first half. But, Garnet Valley’s smash mouth offense eventually wore them out in the second half. The Ford’s defense was able to limit the pass for the most part tonight but allowed quite a bit of yards on the ground. They were able to pick Garnet Valley off in the red zone at the end of the first half. So, they do have potential, but it will have to wait to be put on display again until next year. Overall, the Ford’s have a good team, but they will have ground to make up after losing star players Shane Mosley and Trey Blair to college. Still, there is a lot of potential there.

Garnet Valley will play their Central League Championship game on Wednesday at 7:00 PM at home against Marple Newtown. They beat Springfield tonight 24-21. So, they are the champions of the 5A Central League division. This should be a good game. Haverford’s opponent, day, and time of their next game are still to be determined. Once the brackets come out, then the Fords will have a better idea of what they will do next. Both teams have a 110% percent effort until the very end and both should congratulate themselves for great seasons. I will be covering the championship game next week against. Should be a good one!

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