Native sports activities groups triumphed in 2025

by The Staff

So they aren’t from Northwest Philly — absolutely only a technicality — however we’d be remiss in not beginning this annual evaluation with out noting that the Eagles received Super Bowl LIX in February. They didn’t simply win. They blew out the Kansas City Chiefs, 40-22, incomes a welcome victory for the group and its followers, and ending Kansas City’s bid for 3 consecutive championships.

The Eagles produced the second-largest first-half lead in Super Bowl historical past to hoist their second Lombardi Trophy. Super Bowl MVP Jalen Hurts broke his personal report for probably the most postseason speeding yards for a quarterback. Head coach Nick Sirianni was bestowed with a Gatorade tub with 2:52 remaining. Fans poured into Center City and past, together with Germantown Avenue, as the sport ended.

Now, to our extra native groups:

* Mount St. Joseph Academy was a triple winner, in swimming, tennis and volleyball.

The Mount churned to a seventh straight win within the 2025 Athletic Association of Catholic Academies Swimming and Diving Championships, even though the Magic had been far behind on the scoreboard earlier than the primary swimmer may begin to race. That’s as a result of the diving competitors preceded the swimming occasions, and the Mount had no divers on its group. Plus, its closest rival, Villa Maria, was properly stocked with springboard expertise and dominated the diving occasion, a lot in order that when the swimmers started to compete, the Mounties trailed the Hurricanes 91-0. The Magic, who received all of their regular-season meets within the league this yr, made up that deficit and saved on going, outscoring Villa 599 to 514.5 within the last group factors tally.

The Mount additionally clinched its eleventh consecutive tennis championship within the Athletic Association of Catholic Academies, defeating Gwynedd Mercy Academy 4-1. Although the Magic nonetheless had one league match left to play, they might not be caught by any of their rivals. The AACA championship goes to the group that places up the very best report within the annual double spherical of league matches, and the Gwynedd win gave the Mounties a 9-0 mark. The second-place group, Villa Joseph Marie, already had misplaced twice to Mount St. Joe’s.

Finally, Mount St. Joe claimed the Athletic Association of Catholic Academies volleyball championship with an 8-2 report in league matches, splitting with Merion Mercy and Villa Joseph Marie and successful house/away sweeps of all the different groups.

* The William Penn Charter School ladies got here in first on the 2025 Inter-Ac League Cross Country Championships, however not with no slight hiccup. Tradition requires the earlier yr’s winners to deliver the trophy to the competitors the following yr — and PC, the defending champion, forgot to try this. Ultimately, it didn’t matter, because the Quakers would have carried the cup again house with them anyway. Taking the highest 4 locations and having their fifth scorer are available eighth, they overwhelmed the competitors, successful the title.

* The Penn Charter boys soccer group topped Germantown Academy to win the Inter-Ac League soccer championship. It got here right down to the final sport of the 2025 season, however ultimately the Penn Charter lads had been in a position to maintain enterprise. At house on Maguire Field, the Quakers defeated their historic rival, 2-1.

* Springside Chestnut Hill Academy claimed the Inter-Ac soccer title with a detailed win over Malvern Preparatory School. It was a exceptional turnaround: For almost six a long time, Inter-Ac play has ended the identical manner, with SCH dropping to Malvern. They hadn’t overwhelmed the Friars since 1966, not even en path to an Inter-Ac title in 2009. This time was completely different, as SCH received in an time beyond regulation thriller, 21-20, in entrance of a packed crowd that included former gamers, associates, and members of the SCH group who had lived by a long time of shut calls.

“There are so many people from [SCH] who have been around here a long time that haven’t seen that,” Coach Rick Knox stated. “They did it. Nobody can ever take that away from them.”

* The La Salle College High School soccer group defeated Pittsburgh Central Catholic, 34-20, within the PIAA Class 6A state championship at Cumberland Valley High School.

“Since freshman year, we have been planning on this,” stated Explorers’ defensive lineman Jemel Williams. “For three years we have worked hard for this. It’s not just something we came up with — we worked hard for this every single year, every summer. On those long summer days, we were working when nobody else was.”