RallyNorth.net

Sun, Nov 04, 2007 01:00 PM @ St. John's

Team	Q1	Q2	Q3	Q4	Final
Malden Catholic	6	0	0	0	6
St. John's	0	15	20	0	35

Darby's two TD passes lead St. John's Prep past MC

Monday, November, 05 By Jean DePlacido
Correspondent

The St. John's Prep football team didn't rely solely on its offense for scoring, but got its defense and special teams involved as well in a 35-6 victory over Malden Catholic yesterday afternoon.

The victory now sets up a battle for the Catholic Conference title this Saturday at Cronin Field, when the host Eagles (5-4 overall) take on unbeaten B.C. High (9-0) at 1:30 p.m. Both squads are 2-0 in league play.

Senior quarterback Scott Darby led the way for the Eagles with a pair of touchdown passes, going 3 for 5 for 49 yards with touchdown strikes to Pat Dempsey (9 yards) and Brendon Felder (19 yards).

"It was a very fractured game with fumbles and turnovers, but we were able to score quickly," said Prep head coach Jim O'Leary. "We had a nice (scoring) drive right before halftime, which was very important. We took care of business; now we get to play for the league championship next week."

Things didn't go well at the start when Malden Catholic drove 77 yards in 11 plays, with Rob Machado barreling in from four yards out for a 6-0 lead.

But the Prep answered with two second-half touchdowns to take a 15-6 lead at intermission. The first drive went 66 yards in nine plays, capped by a 6-yard run by Derek Coppola. Andy McTeague nailed the extra point to put the Eagles on top for good.

In the final minute of the half, Darby hit Pat Dempsey in the left corner of the end zone, and the Eagles lined up to kick the extra point. The plan changed, however, when MC went offside, and the ensuing two-point conversion succeeded when Darby hit Coppola for a nine-point Prep lead. "We did what we had to do," said O'Leary, summing up his team's performance yesterday. "They were scrappy, but we made adjustments.

"In the second half our defense was very aggressive and made plays. We scored in a lot of different ways, and our offensive line is getting better each week. We want to make people defend the whole field, which we did today."

St. John's put 20 points on the board in the third quarter | getting one touchdown from the offense, another from its defense and a third from special teams to put the game away. Darby fired a 19-yard strike to Felder in the right corner of the end zone, and on the next MC possession the Eagles' Robert Marraffa intercepted a Mike Riley pass and returned in 80 yards for another score.

The Prep defense dug in, forcing an MC punt, and Andrew McHugh blocked Riley's kick, which was recovered by Peter Neal. He then raced 25 yards into the end zone at which point O'Leary went to his bench.

"Coppola called that touchdown pass to Felder," said O'Leary. "It was on fourth down and he told me to run that play. Then we got one from our special teams. We work on them from Day 1."

MC fell to 3-6 with the loss, but Prep QB Darby pointed out St. John's never looks past the Lancers.

"They always play us tough in all sports," said Darby. "Any time you get all three phases of the game involved in the scoring it's a good sign.

"I didn't find out Derek called that (TD pass) until after I threw the ball. He came up to me and said he felt it would work. He was right. Now it's winner take all next week."