MALVERN, PA — Malvern Prep coach Dave Gueriera faced a challenge this season: Reconstructed his offensive line. Gueriera had two returning starters in left tackle Bryce Willey and left guard Brian Johnson, and holes to fill at the other three positions. What Gueriera did know was that Adam Briggs, Ronan Burke and Tyler Graham were high-caliber athletes who could move people.
It took the summer for the group to come together as a unit, and for Johnson to adjust from playing guard to making the offensive line calls at center.
If the Friars are going to three-peat as Inter-Academic League champions this season, that quintet will need to play as well as they played Friday night, moving around a good Imhotep Charter team to win 35-7.
Behind left tackle Willey, left guard Briggs, center Johnson, right guard Burke and right tackle Graham, the Friars amassed 366 yards of total offense, 225 coming on the ground. In three games this season, Malvern Prep has totaled 1,194 yards of total offense, averaging a staggering 398 yards of offense per game.
Much of the credit has to do with the quick cohesion of the Friars’ offensive line.
“Brian has been doing great, Willey has played at a super-high level, and my offensive line coach Jeff Carroll does a fantastic job with them,” Gueriera said. “They can move, they’re all strong, and they are a really athletic group. You can run outside knowing these guys can block it. Bus (Johnson) is a really, really good player, and if you don’t have a center, you don’t have an anchor.”
Willey, who is going to Bucknell, stressed getting the reps in over the summer was beneficial. Johnson had the biggest adjustment. He had to learn the whole offensive line, and being a vocal leader, calling out the linebackers and the switches.
As a group, Willey feels there is still improvement to come.
“I think we learned from the La Salle game (a 42-35 season-opening loss),” Willey said. “I learned just to keep your head up and keep playing. Our goal is to win the Inter-Ac again, and go undefeated the rest of the season. I wish we could play for the state championship, like the other teams in the area, so we’ll focus on winning another Inter-Ac chip.”
Against Imhotep, Malvern never trailed. Imhotep was forced to start Charles Belser, the gifted linebacker who is getting major Division I looks, in place of the injured starting quarterback Joey McLeish, who is also the Panthers’ punter.
It wasn’t a good start for Belser, whose first pass was a 35-yard pick six by Malvern’s Jack Shuster. Though overall, Belser did not do badly. He rallied the Panthers on the next drive, setting up Imhotep’s lone score, a Syeer Coleman six-yard TD run, with a 51-yard completion.
From then on, it was all Malvern Prep, which scored on four of its next five possessions. The Panthers did not help themselves. A faulty snap on a punt led to a short field and a Malvern score, a Imhotep kickoff return for a touchdown was called back due to an illegal block in the back, and the Friars scored on a third-and-12 play.
“No excuses, we have a lot of things to fix,” Panthers’ coach Devon Johnson said. “We’ll be okay. We’re not healthy right now, and that’s caused a trickledown effect. but there are no excuses. We have been here before, never 1-3, but the mistakes we are making are small, correctable mistakes. We had a lot of good things, too, like the way Belser stepped in and how (Kassan) Chappelle played, and he’s only a sophomore.”
Johnson said he’ll hit the reset button and set his team’s focus on preparing to defend its Philadelphia Public League championship.
Scoring Summary
Imhotep Charter (1-3) 7 0 0 0-7
Malvern Prep (2-1) 14 21 0 0-35
1st Quarter
MP – Jack Shuster 35 INT return (Ian Gopez kick), 10:33
IC – Syeer Coleman 6 run (Kassan Chappelle kick), 8:18
MP – Cade Cooper 22 pass from Jackson Melconian (Gopez kick), 4:28
2nd Quarter
MP – Zeke Bates 93 run (Gopez kick), 7:34
MP – Danny Riely 9 run (Gopez kick), 4:28
MP – Bates 3 run (Gopez kick), :39
Joseph Santoliquito is an award-winning sportswriter who has been covering high school football since 1992 and is the president of the Boxing Writers Association of America. He can be followed on Twitter @JSantoliquito. Follow EasternPAFootball.com on Twitter @EPAFootball.