Senior running back Brandon Shepherdson (18 carries, 100 yards) got things started for the Little Quakers, returning the opening kickoff 32 yards to the Penn Charter 47. Three plays later, Penn Charter (4-0), ranked No. 3 in Southeastern Pennsylvania by The Inquirer, led by 7-0 on a 2-yard touchdown run by Shepherdson with 10:33 left in the first quarter.
With the ground game established, Penn Charter's highly recruited senior quarterback, Mike Samuel, took to the friendly skies. The 6-foot-3, 210-pound senior froze the Valley Forge defense with a beautiful play-action fake before hitting a wide-open Steve Ley for 14-0 lead.
Samuel completed 6 of 11 passes for 131 yards and three touchdowns in just over 2 1/2 quarters of action.
Penn Charter wasn't finished after the TD catch by Ley. Shepherdson scored his second touchdown of the game on a 22-yard run to put Penn Charter up, 21-0, with over four minutes left in the first quarter. Samuel, who also intercepted two passes from his safety spot, extended the Penn Charter lead to 35-0 with a pair of short touchdown passes to senior Mike Sposato before leaving the game with 4:10 left in the third quarter.
Valley Forge (0-3-1) avoided a shutout when sophomore quarterback Justin Connors found Tom Baldwin with an 8-yard touchdown pass with 1:51 remaining to make the final score 35-6.
"Samuel is just a great quarterback," said Valley Forge head coach Mike Korom. "He can run the option and he's smart enough to call audibles, as he did time and time again. Plus he has a tremendous arm. He's got to be the best quarterback in the area."
Some think Samuel is one of the best in the Northeastern states. Miami, Boston College, Pitt, Northwestern, Purdue, Washington and Washington State are just some of the schools recruiting Samuel.
"I'm not even thinking about that yet," said Samuel, who has completed 25 of 48 passes for 551 yards and six touchdowns this season. "I'm concerned about winning as many games as I can this year before I start thinking about next year."
