Central Bucks South’s Final Ride

Tagged under: District 1, District 12, Gameday Hub, News, Playoffs

Michael Pietrangelo | December 3, 2023

Featured picture courtesy of Brendan Ricciardi

The 49-0 throttling wasn’t what the Titans had envisioned heading into the 6A state semifinal matchup against perennial power St. Joe’s Prep but that’s what happened Saturday afternoon. For context, the Hawks have been in the State Championship a staggering 10 times in the last 11 seasons and have won it 7 times. The proverbial chips were stacked against the Titans, but they never gave in and never gave up and continued to fight until the final whistle. After the game head coach Tom Hetrick said, “We had such a great year, I am so proud of all that these guys have accomplished and honestly we thought we had a game plan to go up against such a great team but we just didn’t get the job done.”
St. Joe’s asserted its dominance on the opening kickoff when senior wide receiver Brendan Rehmann took the rock 80 yards virtually untouched to the house to give the Hawks an early 6-0 lead as the PAT would go wide left. The Titans’ opening possession started with a bang in itself as senior running back Anthony Leonardi took a handoff and raced 52 yards before being tackled. Unfortunately, the drive would stall, and Prep would get the ball back and drive down the field yet again. This time senior running back Taj Dyches would punch it in from the 12 yards out to expand the lead to 13-0 mid-first quarter. The 2nd quarter began with the Prep defense once again standing strong and giving the offense the ball back where senior quarterback Samaj Jones (Cincinnati) would score from 2 yards out to give Prep a 20-0 lead.
The Hawks’ defense would hold the Titans to another stalled drive. On the Hawk’s next possession running back Kahseim Phillips would bounce off would-be tacklers and break free for 74 yards to increase the score to 27-0 with 9:09 left in the 2nd quarter. The Titans would drive into Prep territory but turn the ball over on downs. On their next possession, Samaj Jones would launch a deep 48-yard pass to Brandon Rehmann (West Virginia) for a touchdown to extend the lead to 35-0 after a successful 2-point conversion. St. Joe’s would tack on an additional score:23 before halftime when Jones hit senior wide receiver Elijah Jones (Cincinnati) for a 26-yard touchdown to give the Hawks a 42-0 lead at intermission.
The second half wouldn’t be as high-flying as the first and would be played with a running clock and Prep’s two’s and three’s. Midway through the 4th quarter junior quarterback Tre Henning put the icing on the cake by tossing a touchdown pass on fourth down to Syaire Grimes to extend the lead to 49-0. Again, this wasn’t the outcome the Titans were hoping for but not to be lost were all the accomplishments along the way. They won a conference championship, a district title, 13 games, and had one of the most dominant rushing attacks in the state.

With that carry @AntLeonardi2 eclipsed the 2,000 yards mark. He is now at 2,006 yards on the season. @PaFootballNews pic.twitter.com/ei801DgbbE

— Michael “Mayhem” Pietrangelo (@ArtisticMayhem1) December 2, 2023

Anthony Leonardi ended his season with 2,006 yards, Corey Moore capped off his season with 1,084 yards and quarterback Owen Pinkerton finished the year with 929 yards. As he stepped off the field head coach Tom Hetrick replied, “I think it will take these guys a little bit to really sit back and appreciate what they were able to accomplish. When you are in the middle of it, it’s just work. Now that it’s over, hopefully, they can reflect back on it and know that what they did will be remembered in our community for many years to come.”

Stats brought to you by Willie McGonigle:

Team 1Q 2Q 3Q 4Q Final
St Joe’s Prep 20 22 00 07- 49
CB South 00 00 00 00-00

SCORING SUMMARY
FIRST QUARTER
SJP: Rehmann 80 yard kickoff return (Kick Fail)
SJP:Samaj Jones 3 yard run (Miller Kick)
SECOND QUARTER
SJP: Phillips 74 yard run (Miller Kick)
SJP Rehmann 47 yard pass from Samaj Jones (Phillips Run)
SJP: Elijah Jones 17 yard pass from Samaj Jones (Miller Kick)
FOURTH QUARTER
SJP: Grimes 7 yard pass from Henning (Miller Kick)

SJP CBS
First Downs 15 12
Rushes-Yards 27-271 40-132
Passing Yards 145 18
Total Yards 416 150
Passes(Completions-Att-INT-TD 5-10-0-3 1-4-0-0
Punts-Average N/A N/A
Penalties-Yards 6-50 4-31

Rushing:
St Joe’s Prep: West: 4-33, Sanchez 3-39, Dyches:2-18 Washington:1-16 Billups: 7-62, Phillips:1-74, Sa Jones:2-11, Vokolos:4-10 O’Connor 1-minus 2, Slater:2-9
Central Bucks South: Leonardi: 15-83, Moore: 14-64, Pinkerton: 11 minus 15
Passing: St Joe’s Prep: Samaj Jones: 5-6-117, O’Connor 0-1-0, Henning 2-2-19
Central Bucks South: Pinkerton 1-4-18
Receiving: St Joe’s Prep: Elijah Jones: 2-28, Rehmann: 2-73, Washington 1-17, Novotny 1-12, Grimes 1-7, Allmond 1-9
Central Bucks South: Moskowitz 1-18