Casey Kelly threw 4 touchdowns as the St. Joe’s Marauders beat the Cardinal O’Hara Hawks 50-24 on a rainy and windy Saturday afternoon.
St. Joe’s won the field position battle early as much of the play in the 1st quarter took place in O’Hara territory. The Marauders took advantage of that field position in the middle of the quarter when Jaden Lofton took it for 15 yards for the score, to get the scoring started for the Marauders.
But it was the St. Joe’s defense that shined in the 1st half, with several 3 and outs and O’Hara negative plays. They ended the game with 9 sacks.
Louis Surace hit a 31 yard field goal at the end of the half and gave the Marauders a 29-0 lead.
Despite the deficit the Hawks were not going away easily. After a muffed punt return the Hawks got the ball at midfield and some momentum. Mike Clark took over for the Hawks; his three carries moved his offense inside the 10.
O’Hara finally got on the board as Nasir Benton made a magnificent play to flip the ball to Clark as he was being taken down by two Marauders. Later, Bryan Hughes picked up a St. Joe’s fumble and returned it 33 yards for a touchdown, cutting the St. Joe’s lead to 35-16. The Hawks’ offense put another strong drive together as Clark ran it in from 4 yards out, making the score 35-24 halfway through the 4th.
However, that was where the O’Hara comeback ended. A squib kick by the Hawks was picked up by Keon Howard who carried tacklers down to the O’Hara 20 yard line. The 1st team offense led by QB Casey Kelly came back out on the field to stop the bleeding for the Marauders. Naseer Jackson took the ball 20 yards for his 1st of 2 touchdowns for the day.
Jackson had 104 yards on the ground and made big plays in the passing game for St. Joe’s.
St. Joe’s Head Coach Derek Landri was proud of his team after the win, he said “It was good for our team to come back. It showed the character of the young team”.
Cardinal O’Hara Head Coach Shaquille Dudley said his team had trouble with the basics today, saying “we need to get back to the fundamentals, blocking and tackling, we didn’t do that today”. However, the Head Coach remains optimistic about his team this season despite being 0-3, “we’re looking for a quick turnaround, we still have a long season to go”, says Dudley.
Senior captain Naseer Jackson who led the rushing attack for the Marauders is happy about the win, but knows that his team can’t be satisfied, he said “It’s a great feeling just to win, but we have to get better every day”.
Coach Landri has been pleased with Jackson so far and has earned the right to be a captain, Landri said “He’s a great leader. We told him he needed to step up this year and he did”.
Next week St. Joe’s (1-0, 2-1) will head to Rochester to take on Aquinas (1-3) on Saturday afternoon. Cardinal O’Hara (0-2, 0-3) will host Bishop Kearney (3-0) on Saturday afternoon.