Banyard Stadium was filled with students and spectators on Saturday night when No. 1 William Penn defeated the defending state champions, Salesianum No. 2, 16-10. Howard High School transfer student, Marvell Watts, made the winning play for The Colonials by returning a third-quarter kickoff 96 yards after Sallies had just tied the game.

The Colonials (2-0) beat St. Marks 24-0 last Saturday for their first season-opening win since 2006. The win against Salesianum (1-1) was their first time defeating Sallies since 2005. Leading the way for William Penn was Reggie Carroll, who rushed 26 times for 157 yards and a touchdown.

The first significant play of the game was the interception by William Penn’s Zach Burton late in the first quarter. Carroll’s 28 yard rush into the endzone put The Colonial’s up 7-0 with 9:45 left in the second quarter. With 45 seconds to go in the first half, Salesianum’s Kyle Cathers recovered a fumble for Smith to kick a 34 yard field goal which put the score at 10-3 to go into the half.

With 1:31 left in the third quarter, Sallies was trailing 10-3. Then, Michael Sanzone scored a 10 yard touchdown on fourth-and-8, and the score was tied at 10 after Sean Smith’s extra point kick.  William Penn linebacker, Charles Hope, hit Colby Reeder at third-and-4 for a 4 yard loss. Then Sallies turned it over on downs when Carroll broke up a pass in the endzone with 5:03 left to play.  Sallies’ Zebulon Wright recovered a fumble with 4:10 remaining. Sals did nothing after that, as three passes fell incomplete and a run lost 4 yards. With 19 seconds remaining, the Colonials had one last punt to Sallies, but Sals was unable to get a final pass.

Leading Sallies was Reeder with 19 carries for 88 yards, but they only completed 6 of the 23 passes for 59 yards.  Padua freshman, Kathleen Melia, comments, “Although Sallies lost, I still had a great time with my friends supporting our brother school.” It was an overall great matchup and there are many hopes that these two teams will meet again this season.