By MICHAEL SMOLLINS
All St. John the Baptist quarterback Greg Egan and the rest of his team could do was sit on the sidelines and hope their defense could make one last stop, as they were clinging to a three-point lead with less than two minutes remaining in the game.
They would hold their collective breath until Christ the King quarterback James Coleman allowed them to exhale by throwing an incomplete pass on fourth down sealing a thrilling, 37-34 win for SFP in CHSFL ‘AA-A’ action Saturday in West Islip, L.I.
“It’s always challenging when it’s out of your hands,” said Egan, who went 5-for-12 for 50 yards passing. “You just have to have faith your defense will make the stop.”
St. John the Baptist was led by the strong play of senior running back Joey Farella, who scored three touchdowns in the second half. Farella had seven carries for 46 yards.
“This win was very satisfying,” Farella said. “Everybody did what they needed to do. The defense stepped up huge at the end of the game and did a great job.”
It was a big win for the Cougars (3-2, 3-1), last year’s ‘A’ champ, as it was able to put a tough 24-17 home loss to St. Peter’s last week behind it.
“Overall, we’re very happy we came out with a win,” Cougars head Coach Keith Schweers said. “I’m very happy we came back from our loss last week. Our guys answered the bell today.”
SJB scored just 11 seconds into the game on its opening drive and never relinquished the lead. Junior Christian Turri returned the Royals’ opening kickoff for a 95-yard touchdown to give the Cougars a 7-0 lead with 11:49 remaining in the first quarter. He would later add an interception to his day.
Coleman would be a thorn in St. John’s’ side all game and answered back for CK just a little more than a minute later with a 72-yard rushing touchdown with 10:23 remaining in the first quarter. Coleman had a big day for the Royals (0-5 overall, 0-4 AA-A) going 8-for-16. He scored three touchdowns, including a 72-yard run and ran for 327 yards on 24 carries.
St. John the Baptist senior running back Mathieu Mocombe had 190 yards on 24 carries and a touchdown. He had one fumble in an otherwise flawless game.
“Our offensive line did a tremendous job today,” Mocombe said. “They opened things up for me to have a big day.”
St. John the Baptist would keep scoring in the second half, but the pesky CK offense wouldn’t go away — it kept scoring on every drive following a St. John score, but could never catch up.
Coleman would follow up each of Farella’s three touchdowns with a score of his own, two coming on completions to wide receiver Jordan Fuchs. Farella would score his last touchdown to put St. John up 37-34 and finally Coleman couldn’t answer.
“We have a really young team,” Royals head Coach Chris Higgins said. “Due to being young, they make a lot of mistakes, but once the team they are now meets the team I know they can be, it’ll be something real special.”
As for St. John the Baptist, the Cougars are just glad to walk away with a win after a disheartening loss last week.
“This was a big deal,” Schweers said. “Leaving here with a win was the most important thing.”
