Berman tops another strong Haverford School team

   With graduated three-time All-Delco Scott Jaster, reigning Daily Times Player of the Year Cole Berman and graduated All-Delco Timmy Brooks leading the way, The Haverford School absolutely dominated the Inter-Ac League, probably the best scholastic golf league in Pennsylvania, a year ago on its way to a third straight title.

   And with Berman, a two-time Inter-Ac Tournament champion, returning for his senior season, you can expect more of the same this fall. It might be difficult to match last year’s 30-0-0 run through the six mini-tournaments that comprise the Inter-Ac’s regular season, but Gerry Rooney’s Fords have another powerhouse lineup.

   It starts at the top with Berman, who committed to Georgetown last spring, then went out and had a  very strong summer. The highlights were a berth in match play at the U.S. Junior Amateur at the Martis Camp Club in Truckee, Calif. and a second-place finish at the North & South Junior at the Pinehurst Resort in North Carolina.

   But he also qualified for match play at the Golf Association of Philadelphia’s Amateur and Junior Boys’ championships and had high finishes in several American Junior Golf Association events. He appears headed for his second straight GAP Junior Player of the Year honor.

   Once again, however, the Fords lineup will run deep even with the loss of two All-Delcos in Jaster and Brooks to graduation. Seniors Jake Van Arkel and Ryan Tetrault were on the All-Delco second team. Juniors Jay Losty and Otis Baker and sophomore Max Siegfried all had strong seasons.    Berman, Van Arkel, Tetrault, Losty, Baker and Siegfried were among the eight Fords who finished in the top 15 in scoring compiled from the six regular-season mini-tournaments.

•  Episcopal Academy loses a trio of good players in Alex Dupre, Sean Fahey and Kevin Flannery. You will likely see them on the rosters of Furman, Dartmouth and Cornell,  respectively, at some point in the future. A measure of the strength of the Inter-Ac can be found in the fact that Fahey and his fellow Dartmouth recruit, Haverford School’s Jaster, qualified for this summer’s U.S. Amateur at separate sites. Not many scholastic leagues around the country could boast of two U.S. Amateur qualifiers among its recent graduates.

   Andrew Jannetta and Matt Robinson are the senior co-captains for Doug Borgerson’s Churchmen. Seniors Chris Marino and Mark Washington will also by vying for spots in the lineup.

   Trey Croney, who had a strong summer, heads a talented group of juniors that includes Joe Chambers, Jack Cassidy, Brian Lucey and Jack Royer. Episcopal may also get some help from a trio of talented youngsters: Sophomore Cole Testaiuti, freshman Matthew Marino and eighth-grader Jonathon Perry.

Central League

• Radnor finds itself in an annual tussle with Conestoga for top honors in the Central League and that will likely be the case again this fall, although there’s a couple of teams emerging in the early going as possible contenders.

   Despite losing All-Delco Carey Bina, Andy Achenbach’s Raiders will be formidable once again. They are led by junior Paul Yun, who held the first-round lead at the District One Tournament as a sophomore. He faltered in the second round, but still earned a ticket to the Class AAA East Region Tournament before falling short of making the PIAA Tournament.

   Seniors Austin Dunlap and Jack Fischer were District One qualifiers a year ago and senior David Macomber, Michael Sydnes, Jake Liberman and Tom Hamilton have been involved in the scoring early on for Radnor.

   Conestoga won the league title a year ago, although runnerup Radnor got a little revenge by finishing three shots ahead of the Pioneers in the District One team competition.

• Springfield is a team that is off to a hot start with wins in its first five Central League matches behind the brother tandem of senior Brian Todaro and freshman Andrew Todaro. Seniors Chris Strawley and Ken Lynch have also been solid early. Senior Samantha Miller, who made big strides while playing a lot of golf this summer, has been a contributor for the Cougars and could be a factor among the girls in the postseason.

   Seniors Dan Kelley and Andrew Pertaneau and sophomore twins Derrick and Dillon Baum add some depth for Springfield. Veteran Cougars coach Jim Heller had a state qualifier a year ago in All-Delco Kyle Hakun.

• Marple Newtown is led by senior Sam Soeth, an All-Delco as a freshman and a three-time district qualifier who consistently lands at the top of the lineup for the Tigers. Soeth is backed up by Joey Delfranco, Seamus Foley, Matt Deacon, Matt Young and Michael Doyle.

• Strath Haven’s top player is senior Nolan Dirienzi, a district qualifier a year ago. Senior Bryan Leonard and junior Matt Painter are the top returning veterans behind Dirienzi, but coach Kevin Kochersperger has some depth this fall, including seniors Danny Gibbs and Dan Enterlin and improving junior Sam Brancazio.

   Strath Haven’s youngsters may also be heard from this season. Among them are sophomores Chris Byrd, Anders Camp, Sam Riches, Alex Brown and freshmen DJ Shelton and Nolan Dirienzi’s younger brother Chris.

•  Garnet Valley has a lot of experience with returning district qualifiers in seniors John Concannon and Jack Highfill as well as seniors Jake Hudock and Cameron Shah and junior Michael Stanilka. Juniors Tim Reeves, Evan Riper and Colby Schreiber have also been posting some nice scores.

   Junior Annika Vandayar also contributes for Garnet Valley. She is also a two-time district qualifier and will be hoping to make noise in the postseason. Like Springfield’s Miller, Vandayar’s improvement has been evident in her tournament results this summer, including an 11^th-place finish at the Pennsylvania Junior Girls’ Tournament.

•  Penncrest is led by senior Ethan Heller, who represented the International Junior Golf Tour in a team competition in Scotland this summer. Junior Griffin Colvin was a district qualifier a year ago. Other top contributors in the early going for the Lions have been juniors Cace Strother, Michael Chang and Nick Whalen and sophomore Jessica Davis.

• Ridley will be led by senior captain James Geiger, a four-year varsity performer. He will be backed up by sophomores Greg  Myers and Eric Magro and junior Kyle Fiorelli.

• Upper Darby has five seniors, Ranier Gran, Brian Sloan, Dan Walsh, Zac Walsh and Alex Walsh, who will be bolstered by some talented youngsters, including sophomores Mike Wolf, Vincent Lucchesi and Sean Walsh and freshmen  Hunter Taylor and Tommy Reif.

• Haverford has been led by Ian Corcoran, Francesco Campese, Frank McVeigh and Peter Santori in the early going. Keenan Eichman also contributes and came up just short of qualifying for the girls District One Tournament a year ago.

Catholic League

• Cardinal O’Hara got off to a blazing start with its only Catholic League loss to neighboring rival Bonner-Prendergast. Bob McGowan’s  Lions have been led by talented sophomore Alec Kerr. He’s backed up by seniors Kevin George, Steve McAlee, Nick Familetti, Ryan Garrity and Nick Monaghan  and junior Shane Dougherty. 

   Providing depth for the Lions are seniors Matt Penza, who pulls double duty as the fullback for Dan Alego’s O’Hara football team, Chris Manning and Michael Donahue and juniors Danny Szkudlatski and Andrew Fisher.

• Jack Glacken’s Bonner-Prendie team is led by junior Quinn Dolan, who has been one of the Catholic League’s most consistent performers in his first two seasons.

   Backing up Dolan in last week’s win over O’Hara were juniors Bryan Andrusko, Mike Ransone, Dan Goggin and Alex Brady and sophomore Brian Kilroy. Senior Mike Grosso is also part of the Friars’ rotation.

   Senior Anna Haley won the Catholic League girls title a year ago. She will be looking to improve her scores with an eye toward a spot in the PIAA Class AAA East Region Tournament.

• Archbishop Carroll is led by junior Mike McCarthy, who was a varsity starter in each of his first two seasons. He was a member of a Carroll team that earned a spot in a PIAA Class AA team subregional last fall for coach Kevin McCarthy. Other returning players are senior Steve Trulli, junior Matt Burns and sophomore James O’Toole.

   Juniors Ryan Peabody and Robert Nolan and sophomore Brendan George are also contributing as are a couple of first-year seniors, Jim Myers and T.J. Luskin.

Del Val League

• Glen Mills won the league title a year ago, but Steve Natalie has no players returning from that team. He is seeing some promise from sophomores Noah Weber, Joshua Gonzales and William Toy.

• In  Chichester’s first couple of matches, first-year coach Brian Messick’s Eagles have been led by a player with a familiar name in Delco golf circles. Freshman Caprian Kan, the younger sister of Chichester’s 2010 PIAA champion Aurora Kan, has been honing her game on the Philadelphia Section PGA Junior Tour and keeps making steady progress.

   The Chichester roster also includes seniors Dan Murray and Barry Cooke, juniors Zach Potter, Tyler Walker, Joe Kok and Josh Speakman, sophomores Nico Lelii, Mike Franzini, Dalton Kelly and Jake Lancianese and freshman Timothy Murray.

• Interboro has been led by Dan Strameli, Matt McGarvey, Jay Kohlbrenner, Natt Barrett, Aaron Boone, Carmen Cellini and Matt Cleaver in the early going.

Ches-Mont League

• Rick Barry’s young Sun Valley team will struggle in the tough Ches-Mont. The Vanguards are led by juniors Hannah Turner and Darren Sereikis and sophomores Mike Costigan and Colin Mullen. Among the newcomers is a senior, Tanner Wetten, and four freshmen, Jared Cavacini, Kevin Bailey, Brendan Seleyo and Jack Connelly.

Bicentennial League

•  Ron Hoch’s Delco Christian team will also find the going tough in the very competitive Bicen. In Thursday’s loss to Devon Prep, the Lions were led by junior Barrett Simmons and captains PJ Schaeffer, a senior, and Brian Goebel, a junior.

   Rounding out the roster are seniors Mike Boucher, Lauren Coury, Kate Park and Hailey Park, juniors Josh Ellsworth, Matt Sarley and Adam Webry, sophomore James Roulston and freshman Davis O’Leary.