Penn Charter's Edward Saydee has been a standout all season, and it was no different on Saturday. The Temple-bound senior ran for 277 yards (and gained 320 from scrimmage) and had a hand in five touchdowns.

by Jonathan Vander Lugt

If you thought for a minute that Penn Charter’s game against Germantown Academy was going to be about anything other than the play of senior running back Edward Saydee, you’d be wrong.

You’d be forgiven, considering the circumstance around the game. It was easy to get distracted; PC quarterback Kyle Jones has taken the spotlight off Saydee of late, giving Penn Charter’s offense a dimension it didn’t have in the season’s first half. The game itself was the 132nd iteration of the Inter-Ac’s premier rivalry, and Germantown Academy wasn’t without motivation in its own right. Coming in at a disappointing 1-3 in the conference, the Patriots were looking for something to hang their hats on.

Regardless: distractions, circumstance, whatever - you’d still be wrong. In his last game wearing a Quaker uniform, Saydee rumbled to 277 rushing yards (320 from scrimmage) and scored five touchdowns in Penn Charter’s 41-14 blowout.

“It’s so emotional, I can’t even explain how good it feels,” Saydee said. “A few years ago, I was in the ninth grade at Prep Charter, and I got the opportunity to come to Penn Charter and it was the best decision of my life. I wasn’t expecting it to be like this, and it flew by real fast.”

Halfway through this season, Saydee broke the school rushing record, and now holds the school’s single-season mark with totals of 3,514 (in addition to the 323 he accumulated at Prep Charter before transferring) and 1,446, respectively. He also finished with 25 total touchdowns: 19 rushing, two receiving, two on kick returns, one on a punt return and one on an interception return.

“It means a lot. I appreciate the effort everybody put in for me - my quarterback, offensive line, coaches and even the PC community. They’ve done a lot for me and I’ve tried to return the favor.

The game was close enough through about a quarter and a half. Though Germantown Academy’s offense struggled to get much going, it remained a one-score game given that Penn Charter’s only touchdown to that point was Jones’ 5-yard trot in the first.

Looking for momentum, the Patriots punted Penn Charter all the way back to its own four-yard line. From there, Saydee got to work.

“That was a big drive,” Saydee said. “We just took our time, and controlled the pace of the game. We ran it until we saw an opening.”

On third-and-four from the Quaker 11, Saydee took a handoff and bullied for 15 yards, carrying a handful of GA defenders along the way for at least half the play. Five plays later, he caught a screen and dashed for 43 yards to put PC up by two scores before the half.

“I saw the defense blitzing,” Saydee said, “and I knew that Kyle knew it so I tried to stay patient.”

In a normal game, those might be a given player’s two best runs. Saydee, however, is not a normal player - touchdown scores of 80, 33 and 61 yards came on three of Penn Charter’s first four drives in the second half.

Germantown Academy's Trae Vance finished the season with an 18-carry, 119-yard effort. The junior finished the year with 1,103 yards on the ground and nine touchdowns.Sports

With the Quakers up 34-0, GA scored on a seven-yard loft from Matt Brittingham to Hans Lillis, but Saydee bounced right back with a four-yard run on the next Quaker drive, his fifth touchdown of the day.

Brittingham found Tayshaun Mack for a 28-yard score three drives later, but the game was well out of reach by that point. Penn Charter had beaten its rival for the second consecutive year to finish the year 8-2, and 4-1 in the Inter-Ac.

“We came a long way,” Saydee said. In the decade prior to Saydee’s tenure with the Quakers, Penn Charter finished with a winning record in the league just twice. The last two years have featured a 17-3 overall record, along with an 8-2 mark in the conference.

“I had heard about us not being too good in the years before I came here,” Saydee said, “but we’ve gotten better and better.”

Bound for Temple next season, it’s unclear what position he’ll play for the Owls. He patrols the defensive backfield at safety in a similarly elite fashion, and it’ll be a hard choice for head coach Geoff Collins given the season he just authored.

“I wasn’t emotional coming in - I never am before a game, I try to stay calm,” Saydee said, “But seeing the clock wind down, I just knew that it was my last one so I had to give my heart to it.”

On the other side, Germantown Academy left disappointed. The Patriots rolled to a 5-0 start before sputtering to 6-4, and tied for last in the league at 1-4 with Springside Chestnut Hill and the Haverford School.

“I don’t know if I’d feel any better if we lost 41-40,” GA head coach Matt Dence said. “I feel bad for the kids. No one wants to lose like this.”

Junior Trae Vance finished the day with 119 yards on 18 carries, along with another 49 through the air on a pair of catches. He was a standout from start to finish for GA, and tallied 1103 rushing yards and nine touchdowns on the year.

Brittingham, starting his fifth game in place of Jordan Longino, struggled to a 10-for-22, 127 yard day. The senior has performed admirably as a relief pitcher, but while Dence has maintained all year that he likes what Brittingham provides on offense, it’s hard to deny that Longino’s injury didn’t change the complexion of the Patriots’ season.

“He’s different from Jordan,” Dence said, “and it’s as much on me as much as it is anyone else. I wanted to plug Matt in where he didn’t fit.”

“I think we should have changed more of our offense to get him more comfortable,” Dence went on. “But he’s a competitor. He’s prepared like a number-one quarterback all season. I just didn’t prepare an offensive game plan well enough to support him.”

Despite the sour end, Germantown Academy does have hope for next year. The Pats are losing talent along the offensive line, but will have Longino, Vance, do-it-all back Lacey Snowden and top receiver Jerry Griffen-Batchler back next year.

“This is a great group of young guys,” Dence said. “And I’m not just saying that as ‘coach talk.’ They’re good kids.”

“This might be the most selfless team I’ve ever had,” he went on. “I didn’t have one guy that demanded the ball or asked for a bigger role. They’re a group where you can absolutely tell that they love each other.”

“They love the coaches too, and I’m pretty sure they care about me,” Dence said. “I certainly care about them. It’s a good group, and I’m really going to miss our seniors.”

Around the Area:

This past weekend marked the end of the season for each of the Local’s other area teams.

After mustering a 27-24 win last week over the Haverford School, Springside Chestnut Hill bowed out to Malvern Prep to close its year. SCH took the first lead of the game on a touchdown pass from Aaron Angelos to Ke’Shawn Williams, but eventually succumbed to a 14-7 deficit by halftime. The Friars would go on to win 41-20.

Though the Blue Devils went 1-4 in the conference, it could have just as easily been 3-2 or 4-1. Close losses in the first two league games, combined with Angelos’ absence against Penn Charter, soiled what was once a promising season. There are highlights, however: SCH may have five all-league skill position players in Aaron Rascoe, Rob Gentile, Pat Elliott, Angelos and Williams. Williams, a junior, stood out in particular; his 1,066 receiving yards broke a league record, to go along with 11 touchdowns through the air (he notched five more on the ground and one on a kick return). Angelos finished the season with 1,834 yards passing and 21 scores.

La Salle, looking to upset national power St. Joe’s Prep in the Philadelphia Catholic League AAAAAA final, came as close as anybody has all season. The Explorers led 13-10 as late as the fourth quarter, but SJP notched a pair of quick scores to win, 23-13. On a night where neither team could get much going, quarterback Sean Daly led the way for La Salle with 149 yards and a score on 9-for-20 passing. Its losing record (5-6) belies a talented Explorer team - La Salle had a non-conference schedule featuring the best Philadelphia Public League team (Imhotep Charter), the best Inter-Ac team (Malvern Prep), and the best team in the Suburban One Continental conference (North Penn), not to mention two league tilts against the Prep.