Tuesday, January 17, 2012
The Fords lost a heart-breaker, 56-54, in the final seconds.
Henry Fairfax was seething with frustration. The look on The Haverford School basketball coach’s face was mirrored by his team, who were also angry by what just happened—another close-call, Inter-Academic League loss that came after the Fords blew a 10-point second-half lead. The culprit this time was Germantown Academy, which squeaked by the Fords, 56-54, on Tuesday afternoon on a pair of James Drury foul shots with 13.9 seconds to play in the game. The Fords dropped to 12-5 overall and 2-2 in the Inter-Ac League with the defeat, which produced the best performance of Tao Xu this season. The nearly 7-foot tall junior exchange student from China scored a career-best 17 points, grabbed 11 rebounds and blocked nine shots. He was truly …
Tuesday, January 10, 2012
The Fords lost in double-overtime 61-53 in a classic.
It was one of those games Henry Fairfax will incessantly replay over in his head. A shot here. A rebound there. A deflected pass. A missed free throw. The Haverford School coach will no doubt revisit of all those little things, all the things that if at the right second, at the right moment occurred would have spelled a great early-season victory for a good, young team. Instead, the Fords lost to powerful Malvern Prep, 61-53, in double overtime Tuesday afternoon. The victory kept Malvern Prep perfect this season at 15-0 overall and 2-0 in the Inter-Academic League, while the Fords fell to 10-4 and 1-1. Ray Hollman scored 12 for Haverford School and Sammy Foreman chipped in with 10. But will stay with the Fords most, what will gnaw at them—…
Sammy Foreman is among the top ninth-grade point guards in the country.
Sammy Foreman wasn’t a morning person. He became one, though. He’s grown accustomed these last two years of rolling over every morning and slamming down on the alarm clock each time it wakes him up at 5 a.m. It’s one of many sacrifices the exceptional Haverford School 5-foot-11 freshman point guard makes daily, something a little unusual. Haverford School is experiencing a renaissance on the basketball court. The Fords are 10-3 overall and 1-0 in the highly competitive Inter-Academic League. Their 10 victories equal the sum of their total number of wins last season. Tao Xu, the 6-foot-11, 265-pound transfer student from China, has had something to do with that. But at the eye of this resurgence is Foreman. He makes a three-hour roundtrip …
Thursday, December 1, 2011
Tao Xu is rapidly adjusting to American basketball.
There was a stir among the larger-than-usual crowd for a Haverford School season opener. Then he walked on the court, and the answer came: They were there out of curiosity to see Tao Xu, the 6-foot-11, 265-pound transfer student from China. Instead, what the crowd saw was quite possibly the best Haverford School team in decades. The Fords led from start to finish in their season opener, putting a hurting on New Beginnings, a charter school from Chester, 83-56, Wednesday afternoon. Haverford School was led by senior Zach Thomas, who dropped in a game-high 23 and sophomore Eric Anderson chipped in with 19. Xu finished with two points and two rebounds, but he magnetized every onlooker each time he ran up and down the court. Including one area…
Thursday, November 17, 2011
The Fords seniors leave winning two league titles.
For some, it was difficult to reflect on the many, many good things they achieved, because the scoreboard on a breezy, chilly gray Thursday, November afternoon read: Cardinal O’Hara 27, Haverford School 17. Dusk was setting in as Haverford School coach Mike Murphy was telling his team—specifically his seniors—how proud he was of their season and careers at Haverford School. All most of the seniors could do was look down, when actually they had a lot to look up about, like two-straight Inter-Academic League championships, and turning the Haverford School program around in their three years many of them had as varsity players. “This was a rough way to finish, but I had fun my senior year, we did do a lot of great things here,” Fords’ …
Tuesday, November 8, 2011
Below is a listing of how some of the top teams in the area played after week 10.
Patch Top Teams A look at where some of the top teams in the area stand. Week 10 1. Springfield (8-2) vs. Academy Park 2. Marple Newtown (7-3) vs. Strath Haven 3. Conestoga (7-3) Season over 4. Haverford School (6-3) at Episcopal Academy 5. Cardinal O’Hara (5-5) Idle 6. Delco Christian (7-1) vs. Calvary Christian 7. Haverford High School (5-5) vs. Sun Valley
Monday, November 7, 2011
The Haverford School junior has college recruiters noticing him.
He was tough to ignore on Saturday because he was omnipresent. Wherever a Malvern Prep player was with the ball, so was No. 47, Haverford School junior Matt Galambos. He made a game-high 12 tackles. He intercepted a pass for a touchdown—the first pick-six of his high school career—and when he wasn’t doing all of that, he was catching passes and causing problems all afternoon for perennial Inter-Academic League power Malvern Prep. As a sophomore, the 6-foot-2, 215-pound linebacker made first-team all-Inter Ac. He’s going to be all-Inter Ac again this season, but it’s coming with a little more added attention. College recruiters are noticing. Penn State, Wisconsin, Boston College, Maryland and Temple have shown interest. It should rise once …
Saturday, November 5, 2011
Early mistakes cost the Fords.
The postgame talk was quiet, subdued, interrupted by sporadic sniffles and a few muffled groans. Haverford School took its 17-14 Inter-Academic League loss to Malvern Prep hard—very hard. The Fords played well, exceptionally well, but a number of early mistakes wound up costing them, and consequently, cost them any chance of a third-straight Inter-Ac Title. It was just a bitter, bitter defeat to swallow, since it literally came down to the few inches it took a 36-yard field goal attempt to skid off the crossbar and fall over for the difference. The loss snapped Haverford School’s streak of two-straight Inter-Ac titles, with two games left for the Fords against rival Episcopal Academy and Cardinal O’Hara in a makeup game from postponement …
Wednesday, November 2, 2011
A lot of players of the week are from Haverford High School and the Haverford School.
Each week the Delaware County Coaches Association meets at Moe’s Bar and Grill in Springfield to select the top players of the last weekend’s games. These are those players from the respective Patch areas: Central League MVP: Joe Viviano (Conestoga) Quarterback: Joe Viviano (Conestoga) Wide Receiver: Devonte Carter (Conestoga) Honorable Mention: Linebacker: Matt McLaughlin (Episcopal Academy) Defensive Back: Ian Strain (Episcopal Academy) Honorable Mention:
Tuesday, November 1, 2011
Below is a listing of how some of the top teams in the area played after week 9 and who they're playing next.
Patch Top Teams A look at where some of the top teams in the area stand and who they're playing next. Week 9 1. Marple Newtown (7-2) at Springfield 2. Springfield (7-2) vs. Marple Newtown 3. Conestoga (6-3) at Upper Darby 4. Haverford School (6-2) at Malvern Prep 5. Cardinal O’Hara (5-4) vs. Monsignor Bonner 6. Delco Christian (7-1) Idle 7. Haverford High School (5-4) vs. Garnet Valley
