Jerry Smith picks up 200th win Friday night

What a way to pick up career win number 200.

That’s the magic number that St. Francis Red Raiders coach Jerry Smith accomplished on Friday night at Mulroy Park after his team came out on top of the Bishop Timon-St. Jude Tigers 59-35.

While one could look at the final score and see that the game was a shootout, it also could have turned into a loss had the Red Raiders not pulled themselves together.

“200 wins is amazing to me, Smith said. “I think about all the people that played for me and all the guys that coached with me. It's been a pretty remarkable journey so far.

“Tonight, some of our guys were about to crack a little bit but they held together and they didn't crack. And that’s the mark of a great team. We finally woke up, played hard and came out with the victory.”

The reason the team nearly cracked was because they fell into an early hole. After Amari Worthy opened the game with an 85-yard kick return for a touchdown, a pair of turnovers deep in St. Francis territory allowed Javonte Solomon to find paydirt on a short run.

A short while later, a 41-yard strike from Marquis Harris to Christian Fulgham and a short field goal by Jack Shea helped give the Tigers a 23-point head start with 11:55 left in the second quarter. Anyone could have folded there – but to their credit, St. Francis didn’t.

“There were a lot of mental mistakes that went into the first quarter, but we knew what we had to do,” junior Tyrone Clark Jr. said. “We couldn't be quiet, because if we were it would be over and our momentum wouldn't be there. But we had to pick each other up, and we did.”

The tide began to turn after Dominic Cook scored on a short touchdown run, and after the Tigers were stopped on a goal line stand quarterback Trent Buttles took a snap and rushed for a long score.

“I think that goal line stand was the difference,” Smith said. “If they scored, we’re talking a 30-0 deficit. That was huge. I don't know if you can say enough about the character of these guys, it’s unbelievable.”

Tyrone Clark Jr. then punched it in from a short distance away to give the Red Raiders the lead and a Hail Mary pass from Buttles to Mason Anderson from 30 yards away on the last play of the first half made it 31-23.

The two schools then traded blows throughout the third quarter. Clark got his second rushing touchdown of the night to extend the lead but the Tigers didn’t quit, as Harris connected with Julius Afrifa-Irving in the end zone. Clark then struck again on a kick return to the house but Solomon scored again to make it 45-35 to end the stanza of play.

The Red Raiders, however, would clinch the victory in the fourth as Larry Hardy took a handoff up the middle for his own touchdown and Clark put an exclamation point on his performance by getting six points for a fourth time.

“Clark’s a baller,” Smith said. “He's big, thick and tough. He doesn't like to run around people too much – he’d rather run over them. I think he's really enjoying himself, and you can see it in his play.”

Clark said he was in the zone all night.

“I felt like I had an ‘X’ factor on Madden,” Clark joked. “But I couldn’t have done this without my offensive line and wide receivers blocking. Without them, this wouldn’t have happened.”