After the Montclair-Kimberley game, it kind of felt like a playoff loss because St. Joe's did not finish .500 so therefore were not eligible for the state playoffs. If the Falcons were somehow able to upset a very solid Montclair-Kimberley team, that would have been a definitive step in the right direction. And to finish at .500 would have been a good accomplishment too. Instead, they wound up getting a consolation game at St. John Vianney in Holmdel, and that was over before it even started. St. Joe's clearly saw the best receiver that they faced the entire season in Ishmael Hyman who finished the game with 174 yards on 5 catches for 2 touchdowns. Their quarterback Anthony Carlucci was very impressive going 12 for 18 for 358 yards and 4 touchdowns while rushing for 1. He did, however, have an interception. But St. John Vianney to me, looked like a very impressive team and am surprised they finished under .500. St. Joe's was able to move the ball a little bit in the first half but on their deepest drive, wound up turning it over. St. John Vianney's defense really did a great job of clamping down other than on a couple drives and St. Joe's only scored in the 4th quarter already trailing 41-0. The final would be 41-7.
So the season really ended on a disappointing note. In the last two games, the Falcons were outscored 61-10. Realistically both Coach Molarz and Mr. Smith, thought 5-3 was a best case scenario and they simply did not meet those expectations. While I think the defense played pretty solid at times this year and was competitve for all besides that Blair Prep game, the offense, specifically the passing game was an abomination at times and I expected a lot more of it. Because the passing game was so bad, I think the running game suffered too. Coach Molarz in his interview was considerably more optimistic than Mr. Smith about next season. While he knew the passing game wasn't up to par, he was optimistic about the future while Mr. Smith said if someone doesn't develop, next year could be very tough and he doesn't feel we'll be over .500 once again. The defense I think was undoubtedly their strongest point this season and the running game was a pleasant surprise at moments but at other times, particularly the Blair and Cushing games looked very ineffective. And to me, the receivers and passing games were pretty nonextistent and to get where they have to be will have to improve itself considerably over the next couple years. My grade for the season would be a C. I think we have the leadership in place to make good progress within the next two or three years but like many things, it is going to take some time. I think with a healthy Chris Blades, the Falcons could easily go 4-4 or 5-3 next season so they'll have to focus on winning the division first and winning states later. With both Bergen Catholic and Don Bosco in the state tournament bracket with St. Joe's, it is going to take years to make noise like I referenced in one of my earlier posts. Take things one step at a time and we'll see where it goes. I was surpised to hear Mr. Smith say that there has not been an improvement in kids going to St. Joe's because they now have football. He told me he thought that Bishop Ahr would close or at least become an all girls school because of the Falcons now having football. Personally, I think down the line I could see Bishop Ahr becoming all girls. He told me it is currently 175-75 in favor of girls for the freshman class and I have heard it is around 5-1 in favor of girls there. St. Joe's football is undoubtedly a work in progress and I think over the next 5 years, they will continue to improve and make some headway in terms of where they want to get and as long as they get some quarterback play, they should be a contender by 2020 or so...look at teams like Cranford this season. Cranford I believe was sub .500 in the state tournament prior to this season. They were able to find a quarterback in Reggie who kind of came out of nowhere (similar in my eyes to Cam Newton at Auburn last year) and he wound up leading his team to the North II, Group III sectional title. So all it takes is something like that to come out of nowhere to win a title. St. Joe's now has the foundation, they just need to continue the building now so we'll see what the future holds.
Wednesday, December 14, 2011
Thursday, December 8, 2011
Make or Break Game
Well, it comes down to this. St. Joe's comes into today's game with a 3-4 record. They will be taking on Montclair-Kimberley Academy--probably the best team they have played so far. Montclair-Kimberley has had a great season thus far, only losing by 8 at Cedar Grove. Their record is 6-1 and are on track to be one of the higher seeds in Non-Public Group II. They have been able to play stellar defense throughout much of the season giving up more than 12 points just twice. I think going into the game, it is a tall task to ask that St. Joe's comes out of this game with a victory.
There was some confusion coming into this game understandably about what St. Joe's had to do to make the state tournament in football. Some people said if St. Joe's won, they would draw Bergen Catholic (the #2 seed), but if they lost, they would need help to play Don Bosco in the #1 vs. #8 matchup. Now here is where I get on the NJSIAA. As I later found out, only .500 teams or better or able to qualify for the state tournament which is absolutely ridiculous considering the fact that in all their other sports now, teams can now file a waiver to get in with a sub .500 record. A couple years ago for basketball, Henry Hudson qualified as a 16 seed with a 3-18 record or so. If you are going to allow the bracket to be filled up to 16 teams for other sports, you have to let football be filled up to 8 teams. It is a joke and totally unbelievable to me that in Cranford's bracket, North II Group III, just five teams qualified...FIVE! Out of 19 teams! Surely in a couple of these brackets there could be upsets. That really needs to change in the future. It is very odd to me that they would let all these god awful well under .500 teams in for basketball and not let teams who are 3-5 in for football--if the bracket does not have an ample amount of 4-4 or higher teams. If they're going to allow sub .500 teams to get in to fill a bracket out, they have to do it for all sports. It really would've been an honor to play a great team like Don Bosco or Bergen Catholic even if it would've been pretty lopsided.
St. Joe's wound up playing one of their worst games of the season and although it was close in the first half, only trailing 6-3 at halftime, they turned it over four times in the 2nd half which doomed them. To start the second-half, Montclair Kimberley took the kickoff and drove 74 yards to score with Mike Sasso going in from 38 yards after a 24-yard pass from senior quarterback Gabe DiMasi to Power Lawrence who had five catches, 115 yards and 47 rushing yards on 12 carries. DiMasi, woundup finishing his career at Monclair Kimberley with more than 4,000 yards and has had a great season overall, already throwing 23 touchdown passes by the time this game concluded. You really have to tip your cap to Montclair Kimberley as well who is having a great turnaround this year. This is their first winning season since 2001. Again, after a game like this , you really have to wonder how much St. Joe's real starting quarterback Chris Blades would have mattered this season. While a couple of the St. Joe's quarterbacks have looked alright this season, at others they have looked downright awful and you have to figure Blades at starter would have at least given Joe's enough to qualify for states.
When the state tournament brackets were released, it was revealed that St. Joe's had missed the state tournament and would be going to a consolation game against St. John Vianney. What I don't understand though, is that 6 teams made the state tournament. St. Augustine was 7th, St. Joe's was 8th and Paul VI was 9th. So I was very well expecting the Falcons to play down in Richland against the Hermits. But for some reason, St. Joe's drew Vianney, who was not even in our state group which I found odd considering St. Joes was back to back in the standings with St. Augustine. The only reason I could think of why St. Joe's drew St. John Vianney and St. Augustine drew Paul VI is the same reason bowl games are regionalized sometimes and that is because it is only a consolation game, is there a point in driving 2 hours down to Richland for a game that doesn't mean anything which is why I could see that. That is why you often have small bowl games being played in Texas or Florida, often with teams from either within the state of those 2 or in some nearby state like a Mississippi or Louisiana. St. John Vianney will be a tough test for St. Joe's so we'll see if they can end their season on a high note. Vianney is much better than their 3-5 record shows. Besides their 37-0 loss against Rumson, they have been very competitive, losing by 6 at Raritan, 8 at home to Monsignor Donovan, 1 at home to Toms River South and 13 at Red Bank Regional High School. St. Joe's and them also have a common opponent in Marlboro which St. John Vianney won at by 18. That game is taking place in two weeks. It has been a rough end to the season for St. Joe's who I think did not meet expectations this year for their first year of varsity football but at the same time you have to take a step back, look at the big picture and realize that they did not have the 2 quarterbacks they planned on using to start the season. That immediately made them take a big step back in my opinion and cost them at least a win or two. At times, they have played great defense. At others, not so much. It is going to be interesting to see which team shows up come the St. John Vianney game.
There was some confusion coming into this game understandably about what St. Joe's had to do to make the state tournament in football. Some people said if St. Joe's won, they would draw Bergen Catholic (the #2 seed), but if they lost, they would need help to play Don Bosco in the #1 vs. #8 matchup. Now here is where I get on the NJSIAA. As I later found out, only .500 teams or better or able to qualify for the state tournament which is absolutely ridiculous considering the fact that in all their other sports now, teams can now file a waiver to get in with a sub .500 record. A couple years ago for basketball, Henry Hudson qualified as a 16 seed with a 3-18 record or so. If you are going to allow the bracket to be filled up to 16 teams for other sports, you have to let football be filled up to 8 teams. It is a joke and totally unbelievable to me that in Cranford's bracket, North II Group III, just five teams qualified...FIVE! Out of 19 teams! Surely in a couple of these brackets there could be upsets. That really needs to change in the future. It is very odd to me that they would let all these god awful well under .500 teams in for basketball and not let teams who are 3-5 in for football--if the bracket does not have an ample amount of 4-4 or higher teams. If they're going to allow sub .500 teams to get in to fill a bracket out, they have to do it for all sports. It really would've been an honor to play a great team like Don Bosco or Bergen Catholic even if it would've been pretty lopsided.
St. Joe's wound up playing one of their worst games of the season and although it was close in the first half, only trailing 6-3 at halftime, they turned it over four times in the 2nd half which doomed them. To start the second-half, Montclair Kimberley took the kickoff and drove 74 yards to score with Mike Sasso going in from 38 yards after a 24-yard pass from senior quarterback Gabe DiMasi to Power Lawrence who had five catches, 115 yards and 47 rushing yards on 12 carries. DiMasi, woundup finishing his career at Monclair Kimberley with more than 4,000 yards and has had a great season overall, already throwing 23 touchdown passes by the time this game concluded. You really have to tip your cap to Montclair Kimberley as well who is having a great turnaround this year. This is their first winning season since 2001. Again, after a game like this , you really have to wonder how much St. Joe's real starting quarterback Chris Blades would have mattered this season. While a couple of the St. Joe's quarterbacks have looked alright this season, at others they have looked downright awful and you have to figure Blades at starter would have at least given Joe's enough to qualify for states.
When the state tournament brackets were released, it was revealed that St. Joe's had missed the state tournament and would be going to a consolation game against St. John Vianney. What I don't understand though, is that 6 teams made the state tournament. St. Augustine was 7th, St. Joe's was 8th and Paul VI was 9th. So I was very well expecting the Falcons to play down in Richland against the Hermits. But for some reason, St. Joe's drew Vianney, who was not even in our state group which I found odd considering St. Joes was back to back in the standings with St. Augustine. The only reason I could think of why St. Joe's drew St. John Vianney and St. Augustine drew Paul VI is the same reason bowl games are regionalized sometimes and that is because it is only a consolation game, is there a point in driving 2 hours down to Richland for a game that doesn't mean anything which is why I could see that. That is why you often have small bowl games being played in Texas or Florida, often with teams from either within the state of those 2 or in some nearby state like a Mississippi or Louisiana. St. John Vianney will be a tough test for St. Joe's so we'll see if they can end their season on a high note. Vianney is much better than their 3-5 record shows. Besides their 37-0 loss against Rumson, they have been very competitive, losing by 6 at Raritan, 8 at home to Monsignor Donovan, 1 at home to Toms River South and 13 at Red Bank Regional High School. St. Joe's and them also have a common opponent in Marlboro which St. John Vianney won at by 18. That game is taking place in two weeks. It has been a rough end to the season for St. Joe's who I think did not meet expectations this year for their first year of varsity football but at the same time you have to take a step back, look at the big picture and realize that they did not have the 2 quarterbacks they planned on using to start the season. That immediately made them take a big step back in my opinion and cost them at least a win or two. At times, they have played great defense. At others, not so much. It is going to be interesting to see which team shows up come the St. John Vianney game.
Thursday, October 27, 2011
Morristown Beard-St. Joe's Recap/Thoughts
After winning the first two games, St. Joe's season has taken a drastic turn for the worse. In their last 4 games, they've lost 34-21 to Cushing Academy, 35-0 to Blair, 8-7 to Moore Catholic and 26-0 against Cedar Creek. I talked to St. Joe's athletic director, Jerry Smith, during the game today and said that they would have to win today's game as well as next week against a 6-1 Montclair Kimberley team in order to get the 8 seed in states. The 8 seed, in Non-Public A Group IV, would get St. Joe's a game against the national #1 team Don Bosco Prep. It would be cool to be able to say that they played them in their first year of football and if St. Joe's are somehow able to provide any sort of resistance to them, it could really make a statement. There's pretty much no chance of this happening but if they somehow actually won, I think it'd be one of the biggest upsets in the history of sports on any level. If they lose that, they will get in a consolation game for states. With the way the power points stand now, St. Joe's is a point behind St. Augustine for 7th. They have two games remaining against Millville and Holy Spirit. They aren't likely to beat Spirit and Millville is undefeated as well. However, Spirit is a group II school for parochial and Millville is a group IV, so they will probably be able to move somewhat because of the group size. But if St. Joe's beats Montclair Kimberley and St. Augustine loses both, I believe St. Joe's should be able to capture the 7 seed. It's really pick your poison with the 1 and 2 seeds, but I would rather play Bergen Catholic and be on the other side of the draw than worry about playing Bosco. Those are by far the two strongest teams. Even though St. Peter's has bounced back, they still have a couple losses to Montclair and St. Joe's Montvale. Besides that, just Paramus Catholic and Notre Dame are over .500 in St. Joe's bracket, so it could make for a couple pretty interesting games.
St. Joe's defensively has been a pleasant surprise this year and continued to be one in today's game. Outside of the Blair and Cedar Creek games, I thought they played pretty solid defense and frankly, the points allowed are mostly because of the offense's ineptitude at times. This game quickly got out of hand at St. Joe's took a 34-0 halftime lead. Morristown Beard beat Dwight-Englewood by forfeit and beat Sussex Tech. Dwight-Englewood actually lost to Sussex Tech so in those 2 wins, there is not much to take from. At halftime, I saw John Haley, high school reporter for the Star-Ledger and he told me "In the 35 years of watching high school football, this might be the worst team I've ever seen." Personally, I wouldn't go that far. Sussex Tech is horrendous and in my opinion definitely worse than Morristown-Beard. Morristown-Beard is still a prep school so just by defacto, you'd have to put one of the smallest Group I schools in New Jersey over them in terms of how bad they are. They should have put one of their receivers at quarterback because as seen on a couple plays, he had a decent arm.
Matt Olivo had a great day running the football rushing for three touchdowns and 101 yards. He had a 1, 47 and 33 yard run for touchdowns. St. Joe's scored on its first five possessions going up by a score of 34-0 with 10:56 remaining in the first half. Interestingly enough, they were able to build nearly a five touchdown lead on just eight plays. They eventually went up 41-0 early in the 3rd at which point they pulled their starters. St. Joe's defensively had an awesome day, allowing just 72 yards. They were able to force a couple turnovers and played great defense throughout. This was as complete a performance from St. Joe's that there has been this season. They clicked on both sides of the ball and never left any doubt from the beginning of the game. William Palmer also scored on a 1-yard touchdown run and perhaps the St. Joe's offensive highlight of the day was when Albert Myers scored on a 77 yard pass from Ryan Campbell. Morristown-Beard's only score came late in the game when Nick Rella scored on a 3-yard run to make the deficit 41-6 and that proved to be the final score.
Next up is Montclair Kimberley Academy. They currently are 6-1 and second in power points in Non-Public Group II. They beat Cedar Creek who St. Joe's lost to last week. This is an absolutely huge game for St. Joe's and to qualify for states in their first year is an accomplishment and to be able to say they played a great team like Don Bosco or Bergen Catholic will make this season all the more satisfying. The absolute best I thought St. Joe's could've gone was 5-3 and they have a chance to be right behind that at 4-4. The game on Saturday won't be easy, but it is senior day and St. Joe's has an awful lot to play for. I'm going to predict St. Joe's pulls out a close win to get the matchup up in Ramsey against Don Bosco in a couple weeks., but like I said before, it would be better for them to draw Bergen Catholic because they might have a modicum more of a chance. We'll see what happens Saturday.
St. Joe's defensively has been a pleasant surprise this year and continued to be one in today's game. Outside of the Blair and Cedar Creek games, I thought they played pretty solid defense and frankly, the points allowed are mostly because of the offense's ineptitude at times. This game quickly got out of hand at St. Joe's took a 34-0 halftime lead. Morristown Beard beat Dwight-Englewood by forfeit and beat Sussex Tech. Dwight-Englewood actually lost to Sussex Tech so in those 2 wins, there is not much to take from. At halftime, I saw John Haley, high school reporter for the Star-Ledger and he told me "In the 35 years of watching high school football, this might be the worst team I've ever seen." Personally, I wouldn't go that far. Sussex Tech is horrendous and in my opinion definitely worse than Morristown-Beard. Morristown-Beard is still a prep school so just by defacto, you'd have to put one of the smallest Group I schools in New Jersey over them in terms of how bad they are. They should have put one of their receivers at quarterback because as seen on a couple plays, he had a decent arm.
Matt Olivo had a great day running the football rushing for three touchdowns and 101 yards. He had a 1, 47 and 33 yard run for touchdowns. St. Joe's scored on its first five possessions going up by a score of 34-0 with 10:56 remaining in the first half. Interestingly enough, they were able to build nearly a five touchdown lead on just eight plays. They eventually went up 41-0 early in the 3rd at which point they pulled their starters. St. Joe's defensively had an awesome day, allowing just 72 yards. They were able to force a couple turnovers and played great defense throughout. This was as complete a performance from St. Joe's that there has been this season. They clicked on both sides of the ball and never left any doubt from the beginning of the game. William Palmer also scored on a 1-yard touchdown run and perhaps the St. Joe's offensive highlight of the day was when Albert Myers scored on a 77 yard pass from Ryan Campbell. Morristown-Beard's only score came late in the game when Nick Rella scored on a 3-yard run to make the deficit 41-6 and that proved to be the final score.
Next up is Montclair Kimberley Academy. They currently are 6-1 and second in power points in Non-Public Group II. They beat Cedar Creek who St. Joe's lost to last week. This is an absolutely huge game for St. Joe's and to qualify for states in their first year is an accomplishment and to be able to say they played a great team like Don Bosco or Bergen Catholic will make this season all the more satisfying. The absolute best I thought St. Joe's could've gone was 5-3 and they have a chance to be right behind that at 4-4. The game on Saturday won't be easy, but it is senior day and St. Joe's has an awful lot to play for. I'm going to predict St. Joe's pulls out a close win to get the matchup up in Ramsey against Don Bosco in a couple weeks., but like I said before, it would be better for them to draw Bergen Catholic because they might have a modicum more of a chance. We'll see what happens Saturday.
Friday, October 14, 2011
Last Two Games Recap/Thoughts
Before I start, to be honest, I didn't stay the entire time at the Blair Prep game two weeks ago. The game was pretty much over before it started with Blair quickly going up 28-0. St. Joe's got a big reality check in terms of how much progress they had made this season. While the win at Marlboro was nice, they showed in the last 2 games how things can quickly go south. It was just a miserable time up in Blairstown two Saturdays ago. As it was, I had already seen a game up at West Point earlier that day so it was a very long day for me and I probably wasn't as mentally invested into the game as I should've been. Besides that, this was one of those games totally in the middle of nowhere and one of the furthest rides of the year, near the Pennsylvania border. It was neat that St. Joe's finally was able to play under the lights, though in retrospect, with the impending rain, they probably should have played it in the afternoon. The pouring rain and cold setting in made it a very difficult game to watch. It had been comfortable weather for much of that day but I guess up in the mountains with the night setting made it awfully chilly and uncomfortable for spectators. St. Joe's simply did not do anything right at Blair. They continuously gave Blair good field position, did not have good kicks, couldn't hold on to the ball, couldn't run as effectively as the past 3 games, and were using kicker Bryan Rafano at quarterback after sitting Ryan Campbell after his performance against Cushing. The final was 35-0 and it could've been worse. Games like this show that St. Joe's still has a ways to go.
Interestingly enough, I am perfect with my season prediction so far as St. Joe's won their first two and dropped their second two. I have them losing against Moore Catholic before bouncing back and winning their last three. St. Joe's Junior Varsity team beat Moore Catholic 42-20 last year at home. I expected this to be a good game coming in and it lived up to it. Moore Catholic came into the game with a record of 4-0 while St. Joe's was even on the ledger at 2-2. Moore Catholic defeated Cedar Creek by a score of 34-20. Cedar Creek, a new public school near Atlantic City, is St. Joe's opponent next week.
This game would prove to be a great defensive struggle and very sloppy. It is a major concern to see St. Joe's struggling with holding onto the ball. In both home games so far, they have turned it over multiple times. It is even more of a killer to keep doing it in fairly good field position. I thought a major positive was to get kicked around like St. Joe's did last week and lose that game 35-0 and stand right back up. They played phenomonal defense this game. They did a nice job stopping the run and for the most part containing the pass. Although the game was very sloppy, in a way, it was fun to see a low scoring defensive battle. St. Joe's would be the one to first score, on a Matt Greene 8-yd touchdown run on their first drive in the 3rd to make it a 7-0 game. Moore Catholic, which had a big day rushing for over 200 yards, had a 65 yard gain by Jomanta Broady. St. Joe's defense clamped down once again holding Moore scoreless for the first three downs. However, on the fourth, quarterback Russell Brown had a play set up where he had the option of either running or throwing it, and ran into the endzone to make it 7-6. They then decided to go for two. They were called for a false start penalty so had to start from the 8-yard line on the 2 point conversion. St. Joe's read the play better this time and nearly got to Brown, but he threw it in time to Nick Imburgia at the 2 and got in the endzone to give Moore a 8-7 lead. Both team's defenses picked it up from there on out each giving themselves a chance to hold on to the victory. Moore Catholic came up with two big fourth-down stops and St. Joe's played great defense where they had to. St. Joe's had the opportunity to take a 10-8 lead late in the 4th quarter and this is where there first questionable playcall of the year came up. On the 21, 4th and 2 with a kicker like Bryan Rafano, you have to kick the ball. Even if it misses, it is within his range, plus the wind was blowing left to right which was advantageous for St. Joe's. Instead, they run it on 4th and 2, and they are stopped. Moore Catholic would hold on to win the game 8-7 and this was St. Joe's first loss that would really sting, considering they beat them last year and the fact that all they needed to do was either score at some point after Moore Catholic scored or just stop the 2-point conversion.
This loss dropped their record to 2-3 and St. Joe's season is looking like it is getting bleaker by the week. Fortunately, they're through with the toughest part of their schedule and only have Cedar Creek, Montclair-Kimberley and Morristown-Beard left. All of the three are winnable so it will be interesting to see if they can turn things around in their inaugural year of varsity football. The things to take away from this game was that I liked their ability to bounce back after getting blown out last week. Their defense really stepped up today and showed they could play a great game. I liked the substitution of Austin James for Ryan Campbell at quarterback. Campbell has not been getting the job done vs. the better teams and I think this is a good move. You have to wonder how different St. Joe's season would be if quarterback Chris Blades was healthy. I think they definitely would've won today and the game vs. Cushing would've been closer as well. So overall, those are three things I take out of today's game and we'll see if St. Joe's can get back on the plus side of the ledger next week.
Interestingly enough, I am perfect with my season prediction so far as St. Joe's won their first two and dropped their second two. I have them losing against Moore Catholic before bouncing back and winning their last three. St. Joe's Junior Varsity team beat Moore Catholic 42-20 last year at home. I expected this to be a good game coming in and it lived up to it. Moore Catholic came into the game with a record of 4-0 while St. Joe's was even on the ledger at 2-2. Moore Catholic defeated Cedar Creek by a score of 34-20. Cedar Creek, a new public school near Atlantic City, is St. Joe's opponent next week.
This game would prove to be a great defensive struggle and very sloppy. It is a major concern to see St. Joe's struggling with holding onto the ball. In both home games so far, they have turned it over multiple times. It is even more of a killer to keep doing it in fairly good field position. I thought a major positive was to get kicked around like St. Joe's did last week and lose that game 35-0 and stand right back up. They played phenomonal defense this game. They did a nice job stopping the run and for the most part containing the pass. Although the game was very sloppy, in a way, it was fun to see a low scoring defensive battle. St. Joe's would be the one to first score, on a Matt Greene 8-yd touchdown run on their first drive in the 3rd to make it a 7-0 game. Moore Catholic, which had a big day rushing for over 200 yards, had a 65 yard gain by Jomanta Broady. St. Joe's defense clamped down once again holding Moore scoreless for the first three downs. However, on the fourth, quarterback Russell Brown had a play set up where he had the option of either running or throwing it, and ran into the endzone to make it 7-6. They then decided to go for two. They were called for a false start penalty so had to start from the 8-yard line on the 2 point conversion. St. Joe's read the play better this time and nearly got to Brown, but he threw it in time to Nick Imburgia at the 2 and got in the endzone to give Moore a 8-7 lead. Both team's defenses picked it up from there on out each giving themselves a chance to hold on to the victory. Moore Catholic came up with two big fourth-down stops and St. Joe's played great defense where they had to. St. Joe's had the opportunity to take a 10-8 lead late in the 4th quarter and this is where there first questionable playcall of the year came up. On the 21, 4th and 2 with a kicker like Bryan Rafano, you have to kick the ball. Even if it misses, it is within his range, plus the wind was blowing left to right which was advantageous for St. Joe's. Instead, they run it on 4th and 2, and they are stopped. Moore Catholic would hold on to win the game 8-7 and this was St. Joe's first loss that would really sting, considering they beat them last year and the fact that all they needed to do was either score at some point after Moore Catholic scored or just stop the 2-point conversion.
This loss dropped their record to 2-3 and St. Joe's season is looking like it is getting bleaker by the week. Fortunately, they're through with the toughest part of their schedule and only have Cedar Creek, Montclair-Kimberley and Morristown-Beard left. All of the three are winnable so it will be interesting to see if they can turn things around in their inaugural year of varsity football. The things to take away from this game was that I liked their ability to bounce back after getting blown out last week. Their defense really stepped up today and showed they could play a great game. I liked the substitution of Austin James for Ryan Campbell at quarterback. Campbell has not been getting the job done vs. the better teams and I think this is a good move. You have to wonder how different St. Joe's season would be if quarterback Chris Blades was healthy. I think they definitely would've won today and the game vs. Cushing would've been closer as well. So overall, those are three things I take out of today's game and we'll see if St. Joe's can get back on the plus side of the ledger next week.
Wednesday, September 28, 2011
Cushing Academy-St. Joe's Recap/Thoughts
Saturday was a monumental day in the history of St. Joe's. They have had a lot of tradition over the years but 50 years had also come and passed with one element missing and that was a football team.
Football amongst all American sports may be the one with the biggest cultural impact. Personally, it has surpassed baseball as the biggest American past time. Many other countries play baseball as seen in the Little League World Series, the World Baseball Classic, the Olympics and more, but football has remained a tradition undoubtedly permeated into American blood and theirs alone. Football is a very interesting sport if you are trying to correlate it to Americana. It has elements that define America and others that doesn't. Things such as teamwork, hard work, determination, competitiveness and desire to be the best are things that define football as well as the characteristics that define people living in America. A crucial area that I find football to be greatly contradictory towards Americana is while it is a very competitive sport, football probably more than any other sport relies on teamwork. There are very, very few football teams who have won Super Bowls on the back of one or two players. I don't believe it is like that in other sports. Kobe was by far the best player on the Lakers last year and they won a championship. It usually only takes two good players in the NBA to win a title. Football, it takes the entire team. In the American workplace, from the time we're born pretty much, we're trained to be cutthroat and to be selfish and do things for your own self-interest. It is not like that in football. You cannot put your own self-interest over the teams. If you do, you are doomed to fail.
Football has an ability to connect and unite a community that other sports do not. In the movie Rudy, many people of the Notre Dame community started chanting his name because they knew about his story and all that he had done to get to where he was at Notre Dame. In the book, Friday Night Lights, a team in rural Texas, named the Permian Panthers out of Odessa has their 1988 season chronicled and that book talks about the significance of High School football in their small town. High school football has by far the most players of the 4 major American sports and I think that increases its popularity significantly. I think it is so popular because it has the ability to unite small and large communities. High school football is a very social event as it is a time for parents to meet and talk about different things with other parents as well as root their kids on in a field of play. There is a bunch of other things going on as well--selling school/team merchandise, the cheerleaders/marching band, fundraisers and more that all help the school as well as the town. If one wants to interpret football on a deeper level, one could also see high school football as a game in which boys are coming of age. Parents are seeing their boys become men in the blink of an eye by playing a violent game such as football. Besides something like war, it is one of the most masculine things out there one could possibly participate in, so I think this element of parents watching their kids grow up by playing a game like football is also particularly why the game has had such a big impact in America.
St. Joe's first home game in their history was against Cushing Academy of Ashburnham, Massachusetts. Cushing is a town located in Central Massachusetts in Worcester County, near the Vermont border and have an enrollment of 445 students. They went 3-4 last year and 4-3 the year before and were clearly a step up in competition from St. Joe's previous 2 opponents. Looking at their roster, they had tons of players from outside Massachusetts and they looked to be a pretty good football team. It's also important to mention that Cushing had 12 fifth-year seniors. They will likely be the toughest team St. Joe's play like Athletic Director Jerry Smith said in week 1. St. Joe's remaining 5 games are at Blair Prep, home against Moore Catholic, at Cedar Creek, home against Morristown-Beard and Montclair Kimberley.
It started out to be a game of field position as St. Joe's and Cushing Academy started the game exchanging punts but Cushing in the 2nd quarter wound up taking control of this game. St. Joe's lost this game because they could not hold onto the ball when two of their drives started at the Cushing 9 and 25 or so. St. Joe's was outgained 158-21 in the first half and wound up quickly falling behind 20-0.
Now St. Joe's could have easily packed it in after falling behind so much, but they hung in there keeping the game within 3 touchdowns. Within a few minute span in the 4th quarter, St. Joe's had found themselves down 6 after Albert Myers 55 yard touchdown reception and Matt Greene's 29-yard fumble return for a touchdown. This livened up the crowd and for a moment, it looked like a realistic possibility that St. Joe's might be able to come back and win this game.
Those hopes were quickly put out though when Cushing scored 2 touchdowns in the next 3 minutes to go onto a 34-21 victory. In Greg Tufaro of the Home News Tribune's article, Cushing Academy coach Wayne Clarke said "Their kids worked hard, they were very well-coached and very well-disciplined. They've got a bright future ahead of them. I was very impressed with the team, but the atmosphere was the best part for me. You know, this is high school football. You've got the school backing you, and all these people out here supporting the kids. They did a terrific job today."
The environment was awesome. It was something I would have loved to have played in if they had football when I was a student at St. Joe's. They played the game with the backdrop being a bunch of old evergreen trees and an older group of train tracks. My big complaint would be there was nowhere near enough bleachers to hold everyone, granted since it was the first game, they might have had a lot more people than usual. More than 1,000 people attended the game which was a number bigger than I expected. I felt the atmosphere was kind of like a fairgrounds area--where people were socializing with each other, hamburgers and hotdogs being grilled and the smell of that filling the field and more. I think the backdrop of the game only further helped that comparison. A lot of people seemed to be anticipating this game and I think St. Joe's did a great job of celebrating the event with their cocktail reception and mass after the game, bringing Brother Robert on beforehand to do the cointoss, doing a game program and selling merchandise already, etc. It was a cool environment and like I said, all of this is why high school football is the premier spectator sport amongst all high school sports. School president Larry Walsh said in Greg Tufaro's article, "More than just a football game, it's a celebration. It brings people together, the whole school community."
Cushing's kicker looked great and was clearly division 1 quality. His kicking negated many potential returns and that helped limit the damage St. Joe's could potentially do with Myers and Jimerson being neutralized in that particular area. As seen in games this year, they have been a dangerous duo so by not being able to return kicks because of Dom Kozlowski's strong leg, that really hurt them. Seven of the Falcons last eight possessions started at the 20-yard line because of touchbacks. Jimerson made the final look a little more respectable when he had an 88-yard run with 11 seconds to go in regulation. Cushing also did a great job of stopping St. Joe's running game which played pretty well in the first couple weeks. The Falcons turnovers were a major disservice to the game and wound up costing them here. Had they been able to put in the touchdowns which they started on the 9 and 25 yard lines of Cushing, this could have been a different game.
As it stands, the Falcons are now 2-1 and have outscored their opponents so far 88-56. Their next game should be a fun one as it is their lone night game this year up in Northwestern New Jersey off of Route 80 at Blair Prep. This will be another one of St. Joe's bigger tests so it will be interesting to see if they can bounce back after a loss. The middle stretch of the schedule is the toughest, so if they can get past the first couple weeks of October unscathed, maybe, just maybe, the Falcons can end up with a 7-1 record. We'll see what happens next week.
Football amongst all American sports may be the one with the biggest cultural impact. Personally, it has surpassed baseball as the biggest American past time. Many other countries play baseball as seen in the Little League World Series, the World Baseball Classic, the Olympics and more, but football has remained a tradition undoubtedly permeated into American blood and theirs alone. Football is a very interesting sport if you are trying to correlate it to Americana. It has elements that define America and others that doesn't. Things such as teamwork, hard work, determination, competitiveness and desire to be the best are things that define football as well as the characteristics that define people living in America. A crucial area that I find football to be greatly contradictory towards Americana is while it is a very competitive sport, football probably more than any other sport relies on teamwork. There are very, very few football teams who have won Super Bowls on the back of one or two players. I don't believe it is like that in other sports. Kobe was by far the best player on the Lakers last year and they won a championship. It usually only takes two good players in the NBA to win a title. Football, it takes the entire team. In the American workplace, from the time we're born pretty much, we're trained to be cutthroat and to be selfish and do things for your own self-interest. It is not like that in football. You cannot put your own self-interest over the teams. If you do, you are doomed to fail.
Football has an ability to connect and unite a community that other sports do not. In the movie Rudy, many people of the Notre Dame community started chanting his name because they knew about his story and all that he had done to get to where he was at Notre Dame. In the book, Friday Night Lights, a team in rural Texas, named the Permian Panthers out of Odessa has their 1988 season chronicled and that book talks about the significance of High School football in their small town. High school football has by far the most players of the 4 major American sports and I think that increases its popularity significantly. I think it is so popular because it has the ability to unite small and large communities. High school football is a very social event as it is a time for parents to meet and talk about different things with other parents as well as root their kids on in a field of play. There is a bunch of other things going on as well--selling school/team merchandise, the cheerleaders/marching band, fundraisers and more that all help the school as well as the town. If one wants to interpret football on a deeper level, one could also see high school football as a game in which boys are coming of age. Parents are seeing their boys become men in the blink of an eye by playing a violent game such as football. Besides something like war, it is one of the most masculine things out there one could possibly participate in, so I think this element of parents watching their kids grow up by playing a game like football is also particularly why the game has had such a big impact in America.
St. Joe's first home game in their history was against Cushing Academy of Ashburnham, Massachusetts. Cushing is a town located in Central Massachusetts in Worcester County, near the Vermont border and have an enrollment of 445 students. They went 3-4 last year and 4-3 the year before and were clearly a step up in competition from St. Joe's previous 2 opponents. Looking at their roster, they had tons of players from outside Massachusetts and they looked to be a pretty good football team. It's also important to mention that Cushing had 12 fifth-year seniors. They will likely be the toughest team St. Joe's play like Athletic Director Jerry Smith said in week 1. St. Joe's remaining 5 games are at Blair Prep, home against Moore Catholic, at Cedar Creek, home against Morristown-Beard and Montclair Kimberley.
It started out to be a game of field position as St. Joe's and Cushing Academy started the game exchanging punts but Cushing in the 2nd quarter wound up taking control of this game. St. Joe's lost this game because they could not hold onto the ball when two of their drives started at the Cushing 9 and 25 or so. St. Joe's was outgained 158-21 in the first half and wound up quickly falling behind 20-0.
Now St. Joe's could have easily packed it in after falling behind so much, but they hung in there keeping the game within 3 touchdowns. Within a few minute span in the 4th quarter, St. Joe's had found themselves down 6 after Albert Myers 55 yard touchdown reception and Matt Greene's 29-yard fumble return for a touchdown. This livened up the crowd and for a moment, it looked like a realistic possibility that St. Joe's might be able to come back and win this game.
Those hopes were quickly put out though when Cushing scored 2 touchdowns in the next 3 minutes to go onto a 34-21 victory. In Greg Tufaro of the Home News Tribune's article, Cushing Academy coach Wayne Clarke said "Their kids worked hard, they were very well-coached and very well-disciplined. They've got a bright future ahead of them. I was very impressed with the team, but the atmosphere was the best part for me. You know, this is high school football. You've got the school backing you, and all these people out here supporting the kids. They did a terrific job today."
The environment was awesome. It was something I would have loved to have played in if they had football when I was a student at St. Joe's. They played the game with the backdrop being a bunch of old evergreen trees and an older group of train tracks. My big complaint would be there was nowhere near enough bleachers to hold everyone, granted since it was the first game, they might have had a lot more people than usual. More than 1,000 people attended the game which was a number bigger than I expected. I felt the atmosphere was kind of like a fairgrounds area--where people were socializing with each other, hamburgers and hotdogs being grilled and the smell of that filling the field and more. I think the backdrop of the game only further helped that comparison. A lot of people seemed to be anticipating this game and I think St. Joe's did a great job of celebrating the event with their cocktail reception and mass after the game, bringing Brother Robert on beforehand to do the cointoss, doing a game program and selling merchandise already, etc. It was a cool environment and like I said, all of this is why high school football is the premier spectator sport amongst all high school sports. School president Larry Walsh said in Greg Tufaro's article, "More than just a football game, it's a celebration. It brings people together, the whole school community."
Cushing's kicker looked great and was clearly division 1 quality. His kicking negated many potential returns and that helped limit the damage St. Joe's could potentially do with Myers and Jimerson being neutralized in that particular area. As seen in games this year, they have been a dangerous duo so by not being able to return kicks because of Dom Kozlowski's strong leg, that really hurt them. Seven of the Falcons last eight possessions started at the 20-yard line because of touchbacks. Jimerson made the final look a little more respectable when he had an 88-yard run with 11 seconds to go in regulation. Cushing also did a great job of stopping St. Joe's running game which played pretty well in the first couple weeks. The Falcons turnovers were a major disservice to the game and wound up costing them here. Had they been able to put in the touchdowns which they started on the 9 and 25 yard lines of Cushing, this could have been a different game.
As it stands, the Falcons are now 2-1 and have outscored their opponents so far 88-56. Their next game should be a fun one as it is their lone night game this year up in Northwestern New Jersey off of Route 80 at Blair Prep. This will be another one of St. Joe's bigger tests so it will be interesting to see if they can bounce back after a loss. The middle stretch of the schedule is the toughest, so if they can get past the first couple weeks of October unscathed, maybe, just maybe, the Falcons can end up with a 7-1 record. We'll see what happens next week.
Tuesday, September 20, 2011
St. Joe's-Marlboro Recap/Thoughts
How abruptly summer ended. Just a week ago in Sparta, it still felt like July weather. Sunny, 80 degree weather and no breeze. Today was a different story, however, gone was the warmth of the summer heat and replaced with a crisp fall breeze. Walking towards the field I thought, "Now this is football weather"; weather in the 50's, wind blowing with overcast skies. Now while most people would commonly agree with me that this weather is more like football weather, I'm sure St. Joe's given their inexperience would have much more appreciated last weekend's weather. The weather and rain would be an added test for St. Joe's as they traveled to Marlboro High School to take on the Group IV Mustangs. Marlboro though they have struggled in recent years still is a Group IV school. They won 4 games last year, 0 games the year before and 1 game 3 years ago. Many of their losses were lopsided along the way but have slowly gotten back to respectability. The Home News Tribune picked St. Joe's in a 2 point game and the Star Ledger picked Marlboro in a 2 point game so people expected this to be a very close game coming in.
St. Joe's early on had trouble holding onto the ball resulting in a fumble which allowed Marlboro to start their first drive on the St. Joe's 42 yard line. They soon punted it and St. Joe's did as well. Early on, it looked like this was going to be a low scoring battle and field position was going to be key in deciding the victor. Marlboro then went on a long drive spanning two quarters before coming up empty on the 4th down. After another St. Joe's punt, Josh Hudson ran into the Marlboro return man at the St. Joe's 49 yard line after calling a fair catch. This was an egregious penalty and while it did not cost the Falcons on this drive, it could potentially in another game. This moved them to the 34 yard line but they were stopped on a 4th and 1. St. Joe's got the ball back but on their third play of the drive, perhaps their biggest display of inexperience so far in their first two games was when there was miscommunication between the quarterback and running back and they ran into each other which resulted in a fumble after if ricocheted off a couple other players. Marlboro recovered and had great field position once again and this time, they took advantage. Jason Kaplin wound up running it into the endzone to give Marlboro the 6-0 lead just before halftime. They would convert on the 2 point conversion to make it 8-0. An encouraging sign was when St. Joe's quarterback Ryan Campbell connected on a couple passes to get St. Joe's in field goal range near halftime. Keep in mind, they did not throw one pass last week against Sussex County Vo-Tech so it was good to see the team starting to air it out a little bit and have some success in doing so. St. Joe's kicker Bryan Rafano can be described as a secret weapon. For a first year varsity program, he is a very good kicker. One of the coaches told me he is division I good. Although the kick hit the left upright before halftime, many parents at Marlboro expressed in awe the ease in which he attemepted his 40 yard field goal right before halftime. Marlboro, however, led 8-0.
It was going to be interesting to see how St. Joe's responded after halftime to their first deficit of the season. They were in a tough spot now because if they're tied or ahead, they're obviously going to be a predominantly running offense. However, once they fall behind, they are going to have to rely considerably on their passing game to make a difference. After they punted on their first drive of the half, St. Joe's multisport athlete in football and basketball, Al Myers took a punt back to the house for a touchdown which got St. Joe's rejuvenated. Matt Greene wound up running it in on the 2 point conversion to tie it up. After another punt, St. Joe's got it back and after a 12 play, 64 yard drive, Matt Greene helped out the team again by scoring a 1 yard touchdown to put the Falcons up for good.
Matt Olivo would make the lead 22-8 after a 40-yard touchdown scamper. A very questionable moment in terms of playcalling for me, came soon after. After Marlboro went 3 and out again, they decided to fake punt on a 4th and long in their own territory. It's still the 3rd quarter, it's a less than two touchdown game. St. Joe's had struggled to some extent on offense and it was not like the Falcons were a shoe-in to score. This had given St. Joe's great field position once again and Rafano would easily make a kick to extend the lead. Not only would St. Joe's extend the lead, but all of a sudden, Marlboro was looking at the scoreboard down 3 scores.
In the waning moments of the game, 5:48 remaining on the clock in a lopsided game at the moment, every parent's worst nightmare happened when #57 on Marlboro, Mike Colley, a 6-2 senior, was badly injured on a play. He was lying motionless on the ground for probably over 25 minutes or so. When stuff like this happens, it is always a sobering moment because as with anything when tragedies or bad things happen, you seldom think about actions or what can potentially happen before it actually does. He had hurt his neck. But although he was motionless, I don't think it was as it looked or when he was on the ground, because soon after the athletic trainer was talking to people with a smile on his face as one of the parents near me had noted so while it was a bad injury, Colley should be able to make a recovery so that's good.
After a long delay, Marlboro, I think took the Falcons off guard when they got a long reception. That set up Tommy Vetrano for a 1-yard touchdown. Jordan Jimerson soon added to his touchdown tally for the season with a long 51-yard touchdown play which finished the scoring for the day. St. Joe's won 32-16.
There's a couple things I would take out of this game. It was very encouraging to see St. Joe's come back after falling behind. Not only did they do so, but they exploded on offense, scoring three touchdowns in the third quarter. Ryan Campbell completed 66.6% of his passes finishing 6 for 9, with 52 yards. So he had proven to be effective to some extent and they made more playcalls for his use this week than last week. Although Marlboro has struggled, St. Joe's proved they could compete with a Group IV school and for the second game in a row, hardly resembled a first year varsity team. Some of the Marlboro parents were even saying St. Joe's does not look like it was only their second game...so the Falcons must be making progress.
A quick note to finish, the first power points of the season came out and here are the seedings through the first 2 weeks. The top 8 make it.
1) Don Bosco Prep 2-0 32
2) Bergen Catholic 1-1 18
3) Notre Dame 2-0 18
4) St. Joe's (Metuchen) 2-0 17
5) Seton Hall Prep 1-1 14
6) Paramus Catholic 1-0 12
7) Paul VI 1-1 10
8) St. Augustine 1-1 10
9) St. Peter's Prep 0-2 2
St. Joe's early on had trouble holding onto the ball resulting in a fumble which allowed Marlboro to start their first drive on the St. Joe's 42 yard line. They soon punted it and St. Joe's did as well. Early on, it looked like this was going to be a low scoring battle and field position was going to be key in deciding the victor. Marlboro then went on a long drive spanning two quarters before coming up empty on the 4th down. After another St. Joe's punt, Josh Hudson ran into the Marlboro return man at the St. Joe's 49 yard line after calling a fair catch. This was an egregious penalty and while it did not cost the Falcons on this drive, it could potentially in another game. This moved them to the 34 yard line but they were stopped on a 4th and 1. St. Joe's got the ball back but on their third play of the drive, perhaps their biggest display of inexperience so far in their first two games was when there was miscommunication between the quarterback and running back and they ran into each other which resulted in a fumble after if ricocheted off a couple other players. Marlboro recovered and had great field position once again and this time, they took advantage. Jason Kaplin wound up running it into the endzone to give Marlboro the 6-0 lead just before halftime. They would convert on the 2 point conversion to make it 8-0. An encouraging sign was when St. Joe's quarterback Ryan Campbell connected on a couple passes to get St. Joe's in field goal range near halftime. Keep in mind, they did not throw one pass last week against Sussex County Vo-Tech so it was good to see the team starting to air it out a little bit and have some success in doing so. St. Joe's kicker Bryan Rafano can be described as a secret weapon. For a first year varsity program, he is a very good kicker. One of the coaches told me he is division I good. Although the kick hit the left upright before halftime, many parents at Marlboro expressed in awe the ease in which he attemepted his 40 yard field goal right before halftime. Marlboro, however, led 8-0.
It was going to be interesting to see how St. Joe's responded after halftime to their first deficit of the season. They were in a tough spot now because if they're tied or ahead, they're obviously going to be a predominantly running offense. However, once they fall behind, they are going to have to rely considerably on their passing game to make a difference. After they punted on their first drive of the half, St. Joe's multisport athlete in football and basketball, Al Myers took a punt back to the house for a touchdown which got St. Joe's rejuvenated. Matt Greene wound up running it in on the 2 point conversion to tie it up. After another punt, St. Joe's got it back and after a 12 play, 64 yard drive, Matt Greene helped out the team again by scoring a 1 yard touchdown to put the Falcons up for good.
Matt Olivo would make the lead 22-8 after a 40-yard touchdown scamper. A very questionable moment in terms of playcalling for me, came soon after. After Marlboro went 3 and out again, they decided to fake punt on a 4th and long in their own territory. It's still the 3rd quarter, it's a less than two touchdown game. St. Joe's had struggled to some extent on offense and it was not like the Falcons were a shoe-in to score. This had given St. Joe's great field position once again and Rafano would easily make a kick to extend the lead. Not only would St. Joe's extend the lead, but all of a sudden, Marlboro was looking at the scoreboard down 3 scores.
In the waning moments of the game, 5:48 remaining on the clock in a lopsided game at the moment, every parent's worst nightmare happened when #57 on Marlboro, Mike Colley, a 6-2 senior, was badly injured on a play. He was lying motionless on the ground for probably over 25 minutes or so. When stuff like this happens, it is always a sobering moment because as with anything when tragedies or bad things happen, you seldom think about actions or what can potentially happen before it actually does. He had hurt his neck. But although he was motionless, I don't think it was as it looked or when he was on the ground, because soon after the athletic trainer was talking to people with a smile on his face as one of the parents near me had noted so while it was a bad injury, Colley should be able to make a recovery so that's good.
After a long delay, Marlboro, I think took the Falcons off guard when they got a long reception. That set up Tommy Vetrano for a 1-yard touchdown. Jordan Jimerson soon added to his touchdown tally for the season with a long 51-yard touchdown play which finished the scoring for the day. St. Joe's won 32-16.
There's a couple things I would take out of this game. It was very encouraging to see St. Joe's come back after falling behind. Not only did they do so, but they exploded on offense, scoring three touchdowns in the third quarter. Ryan Campbell completed 66.6% of his passes finishing 6 for 9, with 52 yards. So he had proven to be effective to some extent and they made more playcalls for his use this week than last week. Although Marlboro has struggled, St. Joe's proved they could compete with a Group IV school and for the second game in a row, hardly resembled a first year varsity team. Some of the Marlboro parents were even saying St. Joe's does not look like it was only their second game...so the Falcons must be making progress.
A quick note to finish, the first power points of the season came out and here are the seedings through the first 2 weeks. The top 8 make it.
1) Don Bosco Prep 2-0 32
2) Bergen Catholic 1-1 18
3) Notre Dame 2-0 18
4) St. Joe's (Metuchen) 2-0 17
5) Seton Hall Prep 1-1 14
6) Paramus Catholic 1-0 12
7) Paul VI 1-1 10
8) St. Augustine 1-1 10
9) St. Peter's Prep 0-2 2
Wednesday, September 14, 2011
Sussex County Vo-Tech-St. Joe's Recap/Thoughts
History was made today when St. Joseph High School of Metuchen traveled up to Sparta to take on Sussex County Vo-Tech. After two years of play on lower levels, their varsity team finally took the field. Sussex County Vo-Tech had a football team about a decade ago, disbanded it and brought it back 3 seasons ago. They have been struggling to get off the ground as they have only one win (via forfeit) in the past 3 seasons. It was a new start for them too so whoever won this game would have encouraging signs to look at for the rest of the season.
From the first snap, it looked like it was going to be St. Joseph's game to lose. They played stellar defense outside of a couple long pass plays and one sustained drive which led to a Sussex County Vo-Tech score spanned across two quarters. I found St. Joseph's play to be very technical. In a way, you could kind of see that it was their inaugural varsity game. They ran 22 plays from scrimmage, all of which were rushes. They only had a total of 144 yards as well. They were in a bind during the game because they quickly built up a 35-0 lead early in the 2nd quarter. St. Joseph's projected starter at the beginning of the season, junior Chris Blades suffered a season-ending injury and their second string quarterback decided to concentrate on baseball. So this game would have been the perfect time to see what kind of skills junior quarterback Ryan Campbell had to offer, but again St. Joseph's was up 35-0 early in the 2nd quarter and you do not want to rub their nose in it. St. Joseph's rested their starters as well pretty much from the 2nd quarter on.
Offensively, I thought St. Joseph's has a lot of potential. Jordan Jimerson had a great game and scored the first touchdown in St. Joseph's history when he returned a punt for a touchdown 2:39 into the game. He ran for a 36 yard touchdown just over a minute later. It helped that 3 of the St. Joseph scoring drives started at the Sussex Tech 26, 45 and 22 yard lines and that boosted their scoring in a hurry. On defense, the teams they play will only get better but I thought this was a start. Outside of the scoring drive for Sussex Tech, I thought St. Joseph played pretty good defense. They got pressure on the quarterback, did a nice job stopping run plays, and played good defense on the receivers. There were a couple pass plays however, that a good team would make, that was incomplete for Sussex Tech, so they have to be careful on plays like that, but other than that, I thought this game was encouraging and there was some good things to come out of it.
After the game, I was talking with St. Joseph's Athletic Director Jerry Smith and he was pretty happy with the team's play. He mentioned the lack of starters for pretty much the final three quarters and thought if we could play like we did in the first quarter, we could have a great season. He told me, "Marlboro next week will be a lot better than this team, but the team 2 weeks from now is like the Jets. If we beat them, I think we go undefeated." I think undefeated is a lot to ask for but there's no reason St. Joseph cannot finish over .500. I think the unfamiliarity factor against Cushing Academy in Massachusetts will help them two weeks from now, not to mention it is St. Joe's first home game in history and they are doing a lot to celebrate the day. I think they will come ready to play. Marlboro lost this past weekend by more than three scores to J.P. Stevens of North Edison. J.P. Stevens did not win a game last year so that is encouraging to hear. Marlboro is a Group IV school, so that is a big step up from Group I and Sussex County Tech so it is a good early season challenge for St. Joe's and it will be interesting to see if they come as ready to play this coming Saturday as they did for their inaugural football game.
From the first snap, it looked like it was going to be St. Joseph's game to lose. They played stellar defense outside of a couple long pass plays and one sustained drive which led to a Sussex County Vo-Tech score spanned across two quarters. I found St. Joseph's play to be very technical. In a way, you could kind of see that it was their inaugural varsity game. They ran 22 plays from scrimmage, all of which were rushes. They only had a total of 144 yards as well. They were in a bind during the game because they quickly built up a 35-0 lead early in the 2nd quarter. St. Joseph's projected starter at the beginning of the season, junior Chris Blades suffered a season-ending injury and their second string quarterback decided to concentrate on baseball. So this game would have been the perfect time to see what kind of skills junior quarterback Ryan Campbell had to offer, but again St. Joseph's was up 35-0 early in the 2nd quarter and you do not want to rub their nose in it. St. Joseph's rested their starters as well pretty much from the 2nd quarter on.
Offensively, I thought St. Joseph's has a lot of potential. Jordan Jimerson had a great game and scored the first touchdown in St. Joseph's history when he returned a punt for a touchdown 2:39 into the game. He ran for a 36 yard touchdown just over a minute later. It helped that 3 of the St. Joseph scoring drives started at the Sussex Tech 26, 45 and 22 yard lines and that boosted their scoring in a hurry. On defense, the teams they play will only get better but I thought this was a start. Outside of the scoring drive for Sussex Tech, I thought St. Joseph played pretty good defense. They got pressure on the quarterback, did a nice job stopping run plays, and played good defense on the receivers. There were a couple pass plays however, that a good team would make, that was incomplete for Sussex Tech, so they have to be careful on plays like that, but other than that, I thought this game was encouraging and there was some good things to come out of it.
After the game, I was talking with St. Joseph's Athletic Director Jerry Smith and he was pretty happy with the team's play. He mentioned the lack of starters for pretty much the final three quarters and thought if we could play like we did in the first quarter, we could have a great season. He told me, "Marlboro next week will be a lot better than this team, but the team 2 weeks from now is like the Jets. If we beat them, I think we go undefeated." I think undefeated is a lot to ask for but there's no reason St. Joseph cannot finish over .500. I think the unfamiliarity factor against Cushing Academy in Massachusetts will help them two weeks from now, not to mention it is St. Joe's first home game in history and they are doing a lot to celebrate the day. I think they will come ready to play. Marlboro lost this past weekend by more than three scores to J.P. Stevens of North Edison. J.P. Stevens did not win a game last year so that is encouraging to hear. Marlboro is a Group IV school, so that is a big step up from Group I and Sussex County Tech so it is a good early season challenge for St. Joe's and it will be interesting to see if they come as ready to play this coming Saturday as they did for their inaugural football game.
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