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Malvern Prep Defense Looks Impressive in Victory over Imhotep

Tagged under: District 12, News, Non-PIAA

| September 13, 2025

MALVERN: The popular saying in football is Defense wins championships and when you are program like Malvern Prep who have won at least a share of the Inter Ac League 37 times in its storied history you know a thing or a two about winning championships. On Friday night in the much-anticipated matchup against Philadelphia Public League Powerhouse Imhotep the Friars defense showed that it’s more than capable of being able to add its own chapter to Malvern Prep history shutting down the high-power Panthers offense on their way to a convincing 35-7 victory at Quigley Field Friday Night.

On this night the leader of Friars Defense was Will Simmonds. Last season Simmonds made a name for himself playing specials team while being behind current UNC Tar Heel Jake Bauer on the Friar Depth Chart. Simmonds who was celebrating his birthday on Friday was a terror all night for the Friars.

“When we came to the 10-yard line (pregame) and prayed, I prayed to God saying, ‘please, on my birthday, let me have a good game,’” Simmons said. “And he blessed me and let me have a good game.” Simmonds said postgame.

Right from the start the Friars defense set the tone on the game’s opening possession when on the games third play Jack Schuster intercepted Charles Belser and returned it for a 35-yard touchdown. Belser was forced into action at QB for the Panthers after Joey McLeish was injured in the Panthers game with DeMatha last week.

“Its always good to get that out of the way early, I saw the ball, out of two guys in my zone I saw the one guy coming up on the seam and I jumped it and the rest is history.” Schuster said of his pick six.

On the ensuing Panthers drive they marched down the field with a 65-yard drive that was capped 6-yard touchdown run by Syeer Coleman.

But the Friars responded on their ensuing drive marching 71 yards on eight play with Cade Cooper doing an amazing job hauling in a Jackson Melconian pass with a defender all over Cooper for a 22-yard touchdown.

In the second quarter, the Friars offense led up front by Tyler Graham, Ronan Burke, Brian Johnson, Adam Briggs and Bryce Willey paving the way exploded for three rushing touchdowns. Two of which was from Minnesota commit Zeke Bates whose 93-yard touchdown and his 3-yard touchdown runs sandwiched a 9-yard touchdown by Danny Riely. In total the Friars offense rolled up 336 yards of total offense including 225 yards rushing. Bates led the way with 153 yards on 13 carries.

While the Friars offense did its damage in the first half the Friars dominated the Panthers all night limited the Panthers offense to a mere 52 yards rushing and a total of 158 yards while not letting the Panthers near the endzone the rest of the game. Pair of D1 commits Jackson Ford (Penn State) and Max Mohring (Kentucky) also shined on for the Friars D.

“I thought they were ready to go defensively,” Friars Head Coach Dave Gueriera said on his defense. “(Imhotep) had a new quarterback in, so we kind of had to adjust on the fly a little bit, what we practiced all week. I thought we did a great job. I thought we were relentless.”

With the win the Friars have won 2 in a row since dropping a heartbreaker to LaSalle in their opener and will look to extend their winning streak when they host Delaware Powerhouse Salesianum with kickoff scheduled for 7 pm Friday night while the Panthers fall to 1-3 and will look to get back into the win column when open up Public League play by hosting Northeast on Saturday with kickoff being scheduled for 2 pm.

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