by Tom Utescher

After opening the squash season with an 8-1 victory over Penn Charter on November 25, the Germantown Friends boys team tackled two of the best franchises in the Philadelphia area last week.

At Springside Chestnut Hill on Wednesday, the Tigers fell to the powerful Blue Devils, 0-9. Back in the friendly confines of the Germantown Cricket Club two days later, GFS had sophomore number one Calvin McCafferty win his match in three straight games, but visiting Haverford School captured all of the other bouts to take away an 8-1 win.

McCafferty also had a successful outcome back in the Penn Charter match, and the other GFS winners against the Quakers were Ben Caraballo and twin brothers Anand and Satya Butler, who are all juniors, sophomores Felipe Sanz and Silas Shah, and freshmen Jack Lentz and Garrett Melby. The Butler brothers are the GFS team captains this season.

Last Wednesday, Springside Chestnut Hill played a line-up that mixed regular varsity players and “B” team athletes, but the Blue Devils were still too strong for the visiting Tigers. Recording the wins for SCH were (in descending order) senior Sean Kenny, freshman Chris Dalglish, junior Brian Hamilton, freshman Zane Jeka, sophomore Harrison Kapp, freshman Luke Stauffer, sophomore twins Andrew and Eric Dolente, and junior Mac McHugh.

When GFS hosted Haverford on Friday, neither Satya Butler nor Shah were available to play for the Tigers, so players had to bump up from farther down the team ladder.

McCafferty saved Germantown from being shut out by the visiting Fords, winning the number one match, 11-2, 11-6, 11-7 over senior Thomas Walker. In a number two bout between juniors, the Tigers’ Caraballo succumbed, 10-12, 8-11, 8-11 to Haverford’s Jay Losty, whose older sister, Margaux, plays in the top spot for the Penn Charter girls team.

Two freshmen met at number three, where visitor Duncan Joyce took the first two games from GFS’ Lentz, 11-6, 11-8. In the third game, Lentz fought off several match points to prevail, 15-13, then Joyce carried the fourth round, 11-9.

The lone Butler brother in action, Anand, played at number four against Fords senior Dylan Henderson, who opened with an 11-7 win.

Next, Butler had game point pending at 10-8, but Henderson recovered to win, 14-12. In game three, the score seesawed up to 7-7, then the Haverford senior secured the next four points to end the affair.

In the fifth position, the Tigers’ Sanz fell to fellow sophomore Justin Shah, 7-11, 5-11, 8-11, and at number six, Melby, a freshman, had to face a senior, Henry Ortmeyer, who won for the Fords, 11-2, 11-3, 11-6.

The visitors also had an age advantage in the seventh and eighth matches, with a junior topping a freshman in each instance. Number seven Jack Soslow defeated Germantown’s Jake Schwartz, 11-3, 11-7, 11-3, and Haverford’s eighth man, Arjun Dravid, went by Jeremy Berman of the Tigers, 11-2, 11-2, 11-0.

The number nine match featured two ninth-graders, and here visitor Will Glaser wrapped up an 11-2, 11-0, 11-1 win over Noah Gansallo of the host team.

The two tough opponents GFS faced last week will meet one another this Thursday (Dec. 12), when Springside Chestnut Hill travels to Haverford School.