It was a tale of two halves for the Cardinal O’Hara High School football team – and both tales were happy ones for the Hawks.
CJ Masters and Jermaine Haynes put on an aerial show in the first half, Brandon Broadnax and Jamall Lewis dominated on the ground in the second half as Cardinal O’Hara posted an impressive 32-14 win over the Tigers on Saturday afternoon.
“We did anything that we wanted today, for real,” said Broadnax, who ran for 138 yards and two touchdowns. “We could’ve kept passing, we couldn’t kept running, but we just did what was working.”
It all worked for the Hawks against a Tioga team that has won six of the last seven Section IV Class D championships, including a state title in 2015. The Tigers lost in last year’s state semifinals to eventual champion Maple Grove.
“Every year they’re a staple in Class D so I knew this would be a good test for us,” O’Hara coach Shaquille Dudley said. “They’re a very physical football team, they run the ball well, basically they line up and do what they do.”
Masters threw for 100 yards and two touchdowns, both to Haynes. They connected for a 59-yard score in the first quarter and then Haynes made his weekly highlight-reel grab in the second quarter, a 27-yarder in the back corner of the end zone that had the crowd buzzing.
“He can do anything,” Masters said. “You saw that catch. That’s him, that’s what he does.”
The Hawks kept it on the ground in the second half and put the game away.
Broadnax scored on runs of 27 and 45 yards in the second half and Lewis added a 14-yard TD run as well for Carinal O’Hara.
“We try to keep teams honest,” Dudley said. “We have guys that can play football and we want to get everybody the ball.”
On the defensive side of the ball, Andrew Murphy had seven tackles, Stephen Boyd and Remir Velazquez each had 6 ½ tackles and Marty Latko had six stops. Matthew Buckley had a fumble recovery and Haynes ended the game with an end zone interception.
It’s the second straight win for the Hawks, who beat Bishop Kearney last week. It’s also a big improvement for a team that was 3-7 a year ago.
O’Hara starts Monsignor Martin Athletic Association play at 1 p.m. Saturday at St. Francis.
“I feel like we’re ready for anyone by the way we prepare ourselves in practice,” Haynes said. “Everyone gets a long well. We just love each other and love playing with each other and playing for each other.”
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