You're Joey Sankey. Are you staying with football?

"Most people really seem to be surprised that I'm still playing," Sankey said. "Even coach [Jeff] Humble was asking me last spring, 'Are you going to play anymore?'

"I love football. You can get injured doing anything. I'd rather risk my body doing something I love."

Sankey is a junior at Penn Charter and his dimensions are only 5-5, 150.

That body didn't prevent him from earning a lacrosse scholarship offer from North Carolina last July (of course, he accepted) and yesterday it didn't keep him from pacing the grid Quakers to a 37-20 win over visiting Episcopal Academy in an Inter-Ac League game.

Among his contributions were three catches for 71 yards, one of PC's two interceptions (Michael Brown had the other) and a team-high seven tackles, with two of those going for losses. He's everything from slotback to wideout to running back on offense and a cornerback on defense.

"The interception was like the one I had against Malvern," Sankey said. "Since I'm so small, I think the quarterbacks lose sight of me. I can just come up into the flat and pick it off."

As Sankey acknowledged, there were easier places to be these last 2 weeks than the hallways of Penn Charter.

And the classrooms . . . And the lunchroom . . . And any locale you can mention.

OK, so the place isn't quite Malvern Prep when it comes to upper-echelon football. But it often fares well and almost never fails to slap together an entertaining, even potent, offense.

But in their previous two games, the Quakers were thumped by Haverford School, 34-0, and then by Chestnut Hill Academy, 45-0, and that marked the first time they'd suffered consecutive shutouts in league play since 1953 (and 1970 overall).

"It was really rough around school," Sankey said. "Even people who don't know anything about the sport were saying things. And since a lot of teachers are alumni, we were hearing it. This school has had a lot of success. Not only did we lose two in a row, but they were shutouts.

"We had a rough week leading up to Haverford. Between the swine flu and the fact that the freshmen were on retreat, we only had about 15 kids at practice every day. Hard to be prepared.

"This week, coach Humble was reminding us that PC hasn't had consecutive losing seasons since '51 [the last of three]. We were so motivated to win this game and now we have to beat GA next week so we can finish .500."

As Sankey well knows, GA is Germantown Academy. His brother, Harry, enjoyed sports success there and Joey was enrolled from the fifth through eighth grades.

"It was mostly a transportation thing," said Sankey, who lives within footsteps of Archbishop Wood in Warminster. "It's a much longer drive to PC, but we decided I'd try it. My dad [Harry] also went to PC. He does some lacrosse coaching and he's friends with PC's coach, Pat McDonough. I always liked it better than GA, anyway."

In this one, PC stormed to a 23-0 lead on two touchdowns by Jim Lamb (one apiece rushing/receiving), a 50-yard run by Michael Brown (14-182) and a 30-yard field goal by Robert Friskey. John Loughery finished 12-for-22 for 148 yards and two scores (other to Mick Foley) and he added the final TD on a 2-yard run.

For Episcopal, Brian Ruditys ran 21 times for 121 yards and a score, while also snagging a TD pass from Taylor Wright (10-for-24, 153 yards, two TDs).

The bum collarbone cost Sankey, an attack, about half of the '09 lacrosse season.

"It was really surprising to get the chance to make an early commitment to such a nice school," he said. "People are starting to say it's better to be big in lacrosse. I don't see it as an advantage. You don't get hit. I feel that being small helps me get around people."

Yesterday, he helped PC get off a bit of a football schneid.