Chestnut Hill wins at least share of Inter-Ac

An excited Will Emery tried his best to answer a question, but the response came out garbled.

You'll have to forgive his momentary disconnect. It's not every year Chestnut Hill Academy's football players get to experience the unabashed joy of winning the Inter-Ac League football championship.

Actually...Not every century.

CHA always has had fewer students than the other I-A schools and, thus, has twice left the football part of the league for long stretches (1936-61, 1973-2005) since beginning play in 1923.

Then came Saturday.

In beautiful weather before a large Homecoming crowd, the Blue Devils (nee Hillers) outlasted Haverford School, 27-21, in overtime, to clinch at least a tie for 2009 laurels.

The choice of verbs was because the Fords, themselves in drought mode (they've gone crownless since '71), overcame late deficits of 14-0 and 21-14 to force the extra session

One week remains. Come Saturday, CHA (4-0) will visit Malvern Prep (3-1) and Haverford (3-1) will trek to Episcopal Academy, so, yes, a scenario where half the league wins the title is possible.

Emery, a 6-foot, 260-pound senior tackle, is diving back into preparation today. But the weekend was fraught with rejoicing and satisfaction, not to mention relief, and that is all so understandable, considering the school's back-seat past. (Heck, even stuck in the trunk.)

After a pair of penalties ruined the Fords' OT possession, senior tailback Ibraheim Campbell turned CHA's first play into a 10-yard burst.

It was carry No. 39 for the day and finalized his contributions at 234 yards, all four TDs.

Campbell was smacked by one, two, three defenders on a power run to his right, where Emery was stationed. He refused to be phased, let alone tackled, and then raced to the right corner untouched.

The sideline Hillers raced down to join the on-field 11 and there was wild celebration.

" Colin Kelly and I took care of our pretty quickly, but Haverford blitzed into the hole," Emery said. "I started running toward Ibs but by that time the first guy already had hold of him. I was like, 'Whoa, this is gonna be bad.'

"I was amazed to see him break the first two tackles, then to break two others?!...That was such an awesome play by Ibs. It got us so excited. We didn't block it as well as we needed to, but to see him still make the touchdown, that was a great way to end it."

The Blue Devils' other grunts were center Chris Howard, guard Brendan Spearing and tackle Matt Levin.

The plan was not exactly top secret. Only 12 of the 51 plays were not runs by Campbell and the second half percentage was 91.3 (21 of 23).

"To us it doesn't really matter if the defense knows what's coming," Emery said. "We feel we have the ability to still get the job done. To block whatever's in front of us.

"When we're down in our stances and see guys moving around, we'll even call out the numbers of guys we're going to block."

Campbell this season has turned 195 carries into 1,700 yards and 26 TDs. His totals a year ago were 247/1,772/22.

"When Ibs gets his 200 yards and his touchdowns, we know it's because of us," Emery said. "He does a great job of making us know we're appreciated. He always talks about us in interviews."

A scoreless first half was followed by a football fan's best friends, Wild and Wooly. For CHA, Danny Gallagher posted a key 45-yard gain on a pass to Jon McAllister while Temple-bound Wyatt Benson scored once on a 10-yard shovel pass from Matt Lengel and again on a 2-yard run with 17 seconds remaining. Brian Dones got a piece of Aron Morgan's PAT, but it spun/fluttered over the crossbar just inside the right upright.

The Fords' middle TD was a 56-yard pass to Carl Walrath. Well, not to him. He caught a deflection off a three-man jump ball and ran about 25 yards.

In its previous Inter-Ac grid stints, CHA went 33-64-3. Since returning in '06, it's 13-6.

"This means a lot to us," said Emery, who lives in Glenside and is receiving contact from assorted schools and wants to major in engineering. "But as coach Knox always reminds us, this means even more to the school itself and our football alumni. We're making a lot of people happy.

"We thought all along that we could win the league title. But now we have a chance to go undefeated ]at 10-0]."

If that happens, Will Emery won't be able to talk at all.