Garnet Valley Beats Rival Ridley to Move to 4-0
Tagged under: District 1, Gameday Hub, News
Alec Eskin | November 14, 2020
Tonight brought some cold and clear weather after a long week of rain to Friday Night lights. The Garnet Valley Jaguars and the Ridley Green Raiders faced off in their classic Central League rivalry game. Garnet Valley came into the game undefeated and looking to stay that way. Ridley was coming off of their first loss of the year to Haverford and were looking to rebound. The excitement was soaring for both teams but in the end, Garnet Valley came out and with their stout defense and smash mouth offense beat the Green Raiders 44-0. Garnet Valley was up 24-0 at the end of the 1st quarter after three quick strikes to start off the game. Then, there were only a combined 20 points for the rest of the game after that, all of which were scored by Garnet Valley. Overall, a night that Garnet Valley will never forget and for Ridley a night they might not want to remember. Lets go into a deeper recap of both teams nights. . .
Garnet Valley once again came out on firer on both sides the ball and with a little bit of razzle dazzle this time. The highlight of the night for the offense was a 35 yard touchdown pass on a pitch from Kevin McGarrey to Shane Reynolds, then passed it to Brian Bradley. However, their 1st three drives all results in touchdowns and good two point conversions. While the trick play may have been exiting to watch, those first three drives may have been more important in the success of Garnet Valley’s offense. Some other highlights were a 64 yard touchdown pass from Kevin McGarrey to Sean Gallagher for 64 years as well as a 33 yard touchdown run by Cullen Mink. On the defensive side of the ball, the Jaguars were equally as good, they threw their first shut out of the season and have only allowed 18 points all year. They were consistently getting in the Ridley backfield and kept forcing them to punt. Their highlight of the night was an interception by Sean Williams when Ridley was in the end zone and he returned out to the Ridley 45. Overall, nice, classic, 110% effort by the defense all night.
Ridley did not have a very good night on wither side of the ball as they dropped their second one in a row tonight. On offense, they did not get much going all night. The one positive on offense they had was a few nice runs by Tahir Mills as he got 114 yards in the game. He was quick, was able to find open spaces, and was hard to tackle. The Ridley offense has some potential but has hit a little bit of a wall in the last two games as they have only scored a combined three points in that span. However, they have a lot of speed and if they fix a few things, they could be dangerous. Then, it was pretty much the same story on the defense side of the ball. They got caught flat footed to start off the game as they let up 24 points in the first quarter. However, they started to settle in and forced two fumbles which set their offense up deep into Garnet Valley territory each time. So, they showed some flashes, but it was too little too late when it happened. But, there is a lot of potential for Ridley on that side of the ball as well.
Garnet Valley will play at Haverford in the regular season finale on Friday at 7:00 PM as this will be the game which decides who will get the #1 spot in Central League 6A and the ticket to the Central League Championship Game against the top 5A team in the Central League. Both Haverford and Garnet Valley are 4-0. Ridley will try to finish up the season strong against Harriton at home on Friday at 7:00 PM. Ridley is 2-2 and Harriton is 0-4. A good fight from both teams tonight in this shortened season which will be coming to a close in two weeks. For all Central League teams, this is shaping up to be a fun final week of the regular season.
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