GV Football - Game 8 vs Haverford

Game 8 was a Central League match with Haverford High coming to GV. Haverford came in 3-4 overall, and 2-4 in the Central League.

Grace on the Stand

When we were pushing band props into the stadium, I was thrilled to see our star running back, Shane Reynolds, back in uniform in warm ups for the first time since the opening minutes of game 2.

There was some extra energy in the crowd when Shane went out as one of the captains for the opening coin toss, and the fans were rewarded pretty quickly. Haverford took the opening kickoff, and after a short four or five play drive were forced to punt. The punt was a good one, and took a great bounce and roll, ending up at the GV 18 yard line.

On our first play, maybe two minutes into the game, Shane took a pitch on a wide sweep left, turned the corner, and put on the afterburners for an 82 yard touchdown run, running right through the only would-be tackler that came near him. Welcome back. The crowd erupted, and the band played Saints.

We cruised from there, with the score of 42-7 at the half, meaning a running clock for the second half. We played a variety of backups in the second half, and the game ended 55-14. Somewhere in there we had another 80 yard TD pass to Sean Gallagher who took a simple slant pass and outran the field. And a bunch of other highlights.

GV is now 8-0, and 7-0 in the Central League. We have outscored the opponents 402-98, or an average game score of 50-12. The band has played Saints roughly 57 times. Go Band!

We are now ranked 8th in the entire state of Pennsylvania. Someday Grace will hopefully appreciate how lucky she was to be a drum major for a band that played for the best football team her school has ever had. Shane Reynolds, our running back, is going to Navy to be a running back. Our quarterback, Max Busenkell, is going to Notre Dame to play lacrosse. Our wide receiver Sean Gallagher is going to Navy to play lacrosse. That doesn't happen often around here.

Next week we travel to my alma mater, Springfield. We just beat Haverford 55-14. Haverford beat Springfield last week 41-15. So.... Keep the focus. After Springfield we have a final homecoming home game against Lower Merion. After that, the playoffs.

Edits: After watching some of the YouTube broadcast of the game...  Max Busenkell threw 4 TDs to Sean Gallagher, all in the first half before sitting the second (for 29, 33, 80 and 45 yards). This gives Busenkell the all-time GV record of 18 passing TDs in a season, with two games to go. Gallagher now has the all-time record of 4 receiving TDs in a game (formerly 3 held by several players), and the all-time record for 10 receiving TDs in a season (formerly 6 held by several players). All with two games to go.