St. Joe’s Dominates to win third straight title

St. Joe’s dominated every aspect of the game in their 62-14 Non-Public Group 3 title game vs Pope John. The Green Knights defense gave up 147 total yards and 75 of them came on a touchdown pass to Ohio State commit Noah Brown. St. Joe’s intercepted Pope John quarterback seven times on Saturday. On Pope John’s first play from scrimmage, Abramson was picked off by linebacker Mark Fossati. Three plays later, St. Joe’s quarterback Spencer Aukamp found Quai Jefferson for his first of four touchdowns.

Pope John went three and out on their next drive. On Pope John’s third offensive possession, Abramson was picked off again. Plain and simple, Pope John didn’t have the size or strength up front to run the ball so they resorted to the passing game.

That was when you knew the St. Joe’s defense was in control. St. Joe’s tipped several passes and put pressure on Abramson all day, which in turn forced him to make several bad throws.

“We knew we had to get pressure on him (Abramson), because when we played Bosco he (Nutile) had all day to throw and he picked our defense apart. We knew he (Abramson) was good and he had weapons so we had to get pressure on him and force him to make mistakes…It’s awesome, you can never really dream of this,” senior and two way starter Austin Barber said.

The St. Joe’s offense kept pouring on the points and put several long drives together in order to take a commanding 35 point lead at the half. The St. Joe’s offensive line flat out pushed Pope John around. This is a unit that features several Division 1 recruits including Kevin Wilkins (Rutgers commit), Tommy Hatton, and Anthony Paolello. I saw several pancakes throughout the game. St. Joe’s ended with 466 yards of offense. They didn’t punt the ball once.

“We took a tough loss with Don Bosco and coach Karcich said, ‘the next team we play, they gotta pay’ and that’s what we did today.” offensive lineman Tommy Hatton said.