Garnet Valley Defense Shuts Down High Flying Strath Haven Offense to Stay Undefeated @GarnetValleyFB @GVAthletics @SHHSPanthers

Tagged under: District 1, Gameday Hub, News

Alec Eskin | September 25, 2021

Picture taken by Tbone Smith (@trsmith296)

By: Alec Eskin

This game was one that was talked about all week in Delaware County, two undefeated teams squaring off in one of the most hyped up games of the year. This even got the attention of Sixers point guard Tyrese Maxey who attended tonight’s game. It had a great atmosphere with Strath Haven’s large high school band and middle school band being in attendance. But tonight, most of the cheering came from the visiting sidelines as Garnet Valley won by a final score of 42-7. Lets go into a deeper recap of both teams’ nights . . .

Garnet Valley was able to stop one of the most if not the most effective offense in the Central League. The defensive line all game was able to contain start running backs Chase Barlow and Matt Shuler who have been fantastic all year. The highlight of the night on defense was the interception on a tipped ball by Drew Jackalous. One of the most efficient nights on that side of the ball. On offense, the story was a lot of the same. Jason Bernard and Ryan Saunders on the ground played like they were shot out of a cannon all night. Bernard had one touchdown while Saunders had two on the ground. Max Busenkell played a very good game with one running touchdown and one passing touchdown to Sean Gallagher. The offensive line for the Jaguars consistently opened up holes all night and way key in this big win for them.

For Strath Haven, they will have some things to learn from this game. Overall, the played fundamentally good football and did not turn over the ball a lot or make many mistakes. But, on offense, they were not able to move the ball down the field. It was a struggle all night for the Panthers to gain a huge chunk of yardage at one time. They were able to break through late in the 4th quarter on a 5 yard touchdown run by Chase Barlow. On the defensive side of the ball, it was a similar story. After causing an early fumble at midfield late in the 1st quarter, there was not a whole lot that went their way. Most of Garnet Valley’s yardage came on the ground and the lines on both sides of the ball for the Panthers had a lot to handle. Again, this has the makings of a good team, so I would expect that they will be able to make some adjustments and play much better going down the stretch.

Garnet Valley moves onto 5-0 and will play at Ridley on Friday at 7:00 PM. Strath Haven will play at Springfield on Friday at 7:00 PM after dropping to 4-1. This is shaping up to be a fun second half of the season for both these teams.

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