St. Joe’s Wins a Tough Battle Against Archbishop Wood

Written by: Armand Vanore on Saturday, October 6th, 2012. Follow Armand Vanore on Twitter.

Plymouth Meeting, Pa., The St. Joe’s Hawks took advantage of six Archbishop Wood turnovers and John Reid jump started a stagnant offense with a huge kick return to keep the Hawks undefeated with a hard fought 23-10 victory over the Vikings last night in District 12 non conference action at PlymouthWhitemarsh field.

The Hawks were fortunate to have only trailed 3-0 at halftime via a Nick Visco 44 yard field goal. The Vikings huge, quick offensive line at times appeared to begin to control the line in the first half and they outgained the Hawks in offensive output 227 to 93 (many accumulated by running back Andrew Guckin) after two quarters of play.

The Vikings wasted a golden opportunity on their first possession when 6’4 freshman quarterback Tom Garlick hit Rutgers commit Nick Archidiacano down the middle of the field at the Prep one but was stripped of the football and recovered by Tim Rafter in the end zone. Later in the half Visco missed on 16 and 49 yard attempts.

Reid took the second half kickoff a half yard from his own goal line and scampered straight up the middle of the field for a 99 yard touchdown giving the Hawks momentum and a short lived 7-3 lead. Wood then relied on some trickery to take the lead back on their next possession when Guckin took a Garlick pitch and connected with a wide open Chris Rahill for a 37 yard touchdown pass.

Rafter recovered his second fumble on a Vikings muffed punt at the Wood 40 and quarterback Chris Martin took advantage of the miscue by hitting freshman receiver Cameron Chambers in stride for a 32 yard touchdown and a Hawk 14-10 lead.

The Hawks picked off two Garlick fourth quarter passes (the latter leading to Olamide Zacceaus’ 15 yard touchdown) which completed the scoring.

All told, the Vikings hurt themselves with four lost fumbles and the two Garlick interceptions. The freshman took some hard hits but stood tall in the pocket and will be a very good quarterback in these parts for the next four years.

St. Joe’s (AAAA, District 12, PCL) moves to 5-0 and begins conference play next week vs. highly rated LaSalle next week. Wood (AAA, District 12, PCL) drops to 4-2 and will entertain Lansdale Catholic week.

Notes: Hawks nose tackle Paul Johnson dominated on the defensive line and played some offensive line in the second half. This contributed to their strong second half running attack.Visco’s 49 yard miss in the second quarter was long enough to have been good from over 55 yards if it did not go wide left. He’s got one of the strongest legs in southeast Pa. Dan Sherry was a scratch for the Prep. He suffered a mild concussion in last week’s game vs. Roman Catholic.

Scoring by Quarter

1st Quarter

No Scoring

2nd Quarter

AW- Nick Visco- 44 yard field Goal- 6:31

3rd Quarter

SJP- John Reed- 99 yard kick return (PAT- Kyle Battin)-11:46

AW- Chris Rahill- 37 yard pass from Andrew Guckin (PAT-Visco) – 6:36

SJP- Cameron Chambers- 32 yard pass from Chris Martin- (PAT- Battin) – 3:39

4th Quarter

SJP- Battin- 28 yard field goal – 9:14

SJP- Olamide Zaccheaus- 15 yard run (PAT- Blocked) – 1:56