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The St. Joe’s Prep Hawks of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania traveled to Delaware to take on the Middletown Cavaliers in a highly anticipated nationally televised matchup. Both sides came into this matchup boasting loads of talent. St. Joe’s has South Carolina commit Keenan Nelson Jr. at defensive back while Middletown has another fellow South Carolina commit in top 10 Quarterback Braden Davis. 3-Star Center and Army commit Kody Harris is also up front protecting Braden Davis for Middletown. Middletown’s rabid home crowd combined with the attention of this nationally covered game created an atmosphere I’ve never experienced at a high school game. Scouts from all over paced the sidelines. The lights seemingly shined brighter than ever and the pressure simply could just be felt in the air. This is what football is all about.
The Hawks started the game off with the ball and had a clear cut game plan from the very beginning. Run the ball. Although it didn’t work on their first drive, they stuck with it for their second drive and had great success. It was Sophomore Quarterback Samaj Jones who set it off in the ground game with a 36-yard run to enter Middletown territory. St. Joe’s plethora of Running Backs helped put even more pressure on the defense as they marched closer to the endzone. Both Josh Barlow and Blaine Bunch were getting looks until Bunch finally found the endzone on a short run to score the game’s first touchdown. Both defenses continued to look good putting a lot of pressure up front but Middletown’s offense could not get a consistent flow to start off the game. Hawks Junior Matthew Dumond was a menace at defensive end as he managed to intercept a Braden Davis short pass in addition to recording a sack before the first quarter ended.
St. Joe’s maintained their 7-0 lead well into the second quarter. Their stout defense continued to cause problems and with just under 5 minutes to go in the half, Freshman Safety Anthony Sacca intercepted another Braden Davis pass. Samaj Jones and the Hawks offense would take over possession and try to end the half off on a good note. Jones would play with a lot of poise on this drive and did a great job of finding his weapons to make their way towards the end zone. The combination of Blaine Bunch and Josh Barlow would remain pivotal in their offense. The Hawks would eventually find themselves in the red zone but The Cavaliers defense would not go down easy. Junior Linebacker Jaden Wheeler would come up with a huge hit to stop Kahseim Phillips on 2nd and goal with 8 yards to go. After failing to convert on third down, Antonio Chadha would come in to kick a 38 yard field goal to put the Hawks up 10-0 before the half.
Middletown would start the half off with the ball but the offense still could not find a spark. St. Joe’s James Heard came up with a huge sack on 3rd down of the first drive and forced Middletown to punt. The Hawks wasted no time capitalizing and Samaj Jones would find Junior Wideout Mike Ditrolio for a big pass that would set them up comfortably in the endzone. A Cavaliers offsides penalty made things easier for the Hawks as they would hand the ball off to Blaine Bunch for another 5 yard touchdown run. With the score now 17-0, Middletown knew time was running out to make a comeback and would respond on their next drive. Starting from their own 25-yard line, Braden Davis would spark this Cavaliers offense with a crisp 22-yard pass to Zyaire Tartt. The South Carolina commit would then use his feet on a keeper to get the Cavaliers another huge first down. Davis would then hit Ty’renne Hyson for a screen pass and he would take it 52-yards to the house for Middletown’s first touchdown. An already rowdy Middletown crowd was now louder than ever but their Cavaliers still had a long road ahead of them. Unfortunately, the extra point kick was missed and the score remained 17-6.
Samaj Jones and this St. Joe’s offense would continue their smash mouth running game and soon put this game out of reach for good. After another big run by Jones, the Hawks would end up at their own 30-yard line in a blur. They would continue to pound the ball down the field and Kahseim Phillips powered through contact for a 16-yard touchdown run to officially seal this game. St. Joe’s improves to 3-2 and shows why they are one of the best schools in the Philadelphia area. This was Middletown’s first loss of the season and now stand at 4-1, but they will look to get back on track against a 4-2 Salesianum team.
Player of The Game: Blaine Bunch (RB) – St. Joe’s
