BY MIKE LIVINGSTON
(Photos by Ryan Nix for PSD)
PHILADELPHIA, PA - In a battle between two undefeated Inter-Ac hopefuls, the Springside Chestnut Hill Academy Blue Devils (SCH) and The William Penn Charter Quakers (PC) went head-to-head to open the 2024 Inter-Ac slate.
The Blue Devils however came out on top with a grinding 21-7 victory behind a few explosive plays on offense and a hard-nosed defensive effort.
“It doesn’t get much better than Inter-Ac Football for me,” said Devils head coach Richard Knox. “I personally don’t believe there is a better league in the state. I know some of us are smaller schools and we might not get the recognition we deserve as a league cause we’re not in the PIAA and all that kind of stuff. I mean that was an unbelievable football game, because you could watch that football game and compare it to really any other game in any other league across the state and that’s about as good as your going to get.”
The Devils, coming off a 4-6 season, haven’t had a winning record since 2019. Nonetheless, with one of their best corps of players in years and some high talent guys on both sides of the ball, SCH is looking to make some noise in the league.
“These kids really like and respect each other,” said Knox. “Not everybody is best friends, but this is a really tight knit group of kids that wants to play for each other. We also got a good bit of team toughness. Though a big difference from other years is the lines that we have, the fact that we have lineman were playing both ways and their big, rugged kids. Penn Charter has had a lot of success running the ball this year and we were able to shut that down.”
Shut it down they did, perhaps the most feared weapon the Quakers possessed: senior running back Eian Kilpatrick was shut down in nearly all facets of the game by the Devils run defense especially early on.
After receiving the opening kickoff, it didn’t take long at all for the Devils to get on the board with a 37-yard touchdown run from senior running back Finn Whittle who gave his club the 7-0 lead.
For the next few drives, the defense traded blows as Penn Charter attempted to get Kilpatrick going to no avail. Kilpatrick, a two-way guy, has been a one man show for the Quakers this year. With 72 carries for 516 yards on the season, the runner had been unstoppable in most spots until Thursday afternoon. The SCH defense allowed nearly nothing through aside from the occasional outside run that broke free.
Springside Chestnut Hill Sr. RB Finn Whittle puts the Devils on the board first with a 37-yard TD. (Photo/ Ryan Nix for PSD)
Penn Charter senior running back Eian Kilpatrick vs. Springside Chestnut Hill. (Photo/ Ryan Nix for PSD)
It wasn’t until the second quarter that we would see our second score of the game. That came on a 33-yard touchdown pass from junior quarterback Liam Zelman to junior wide receiver Aaron Clark that gave the Devils a 14-0 lead.
The SCH defense continued to hold firm through the quarter and down into the final seconds. However, on a 4th and 19 from the 27-yard line with just eleven seconds to go in the half, Penn Charter elected to go for it and not settle for the points. They did this with a 27-yard pass from junior quarterback Tom McGlinchey to senior wideout Tate Taylor for the touchdown. That brought the score to 14-7 heading into halftime.
“Those fourth down stops were amazing,” said Knox. “Having stops like that, you can’t script that cause you don’t know what you're getting into a game. Though getting stops like that was absolutely huge.”
The pressure only seemed to make SCH fight harder as the second half got underway. The Devils defense proceeded to stop nearly every PC drive dead in its tracks.
The Quakers defense was able to hold strong for most of the second half.
Springside Chestnut Hill Academy Jr. QB Liam Zelman after TD pass to Jr. WR Aaron Clark. (PSD photo by Ryan Nix)
Penn Charter Jr. QB Tom Mcglinchey in game vs. Springside Chestnut Hill Academy. (PSD photo by Ryan Nix)
However, they lapsed in the 4th quarter when Zelman completed yet another score to Clarke, this time from 25 yards out for the score. This gave the Blue Devils a 21-7 lead with just seven minutes left in the ballgame.
The Devils defense went back out and went to work, getting the ball in the offense's hands again with five minutes to go as Zelman and Whittle ran the clock all the way down, to seal the win.
With the win, the Devils stay undefeated with a 6-0 mark as they prepare to face Germantown Academy next Saturday. While Penn Charter takes their first loss and falls to 5-1 on the season. They will look ahead to next Saturday’s matchup with Episcopal Academy.
“We’re taking it all one week at a time,” said Knox. “We’re 6-0 right now and we know every single week is going to be a dogfight like this, so we got to be ready.”