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The NG Saints march through Northwestern Lehigh 38-6

Tagged under: District 11, District 12, Gameday Hub, News, Playoffs

| November 27, 2022


 

NG Senior Sam Hobbs locks down NW Lehigh rushers

The Neumann Goretti Saints marched their way back into the PIAA 3A semifinals to earn a rematch of last years semifinal game with Wyomissing by dispatching Northwestern Lehigh Tigers 38-6. The game began with the Saints marching down field and stud athlete Sr Shawn Battle (Boston College commit) punching it in for an early 8-0 lead. The Tigers on the ensuing kick would muff the kick but recover and begin the drive. The Tigers rely heavily on the rushing attack out of various odd formations that keep the defense guessing. In this game Neumann defensive line won most of the battles inside mainly with Jr DT Koren Robinson and Sr DE Erik Kline who wrecked havoc all day long on the Tiger QB and backs. The Saints defense would hold on 4th down generating a turnover on downs and give their offense a chance to extend the lead. The Tigers defense would do a pretty good job minimizing the damage by NG before failing to capitalize on a red zone opportunity late in the 2nd quarter allowing NG to drive the field and Battle punched it into the end zone again to extend the lead to 16-0 at the half.

At halftime the Tigers made some adjustments with their blocking and put together an impressive drive using misdirection and spreading the Saints out to cut the lead to 16-6 with 7:05 left in the 3rd quarter after Sr QB Cade Christopher ran into the end zone. Unfortunately NG would respond immediately with Battle’s 3rd rushing score of the game on a 4 yard scamper with 2:09 left in the quarter to extend the lead to 24-6. With the lead a size able amount Neumann was able to let star LB Sr Sam Hobbs tee off in which he released a few hard hits on Tiger backs and QB stifling their offense. The Saints would tack on two more scores in the 4th quarter as Anthony Zungolo caught a 10 yard pass and capping the score was Shawn Battle taking a interception 102 yards for a score for the final 38-6.

Jr Koren Robinson is a standout on NG while his stats may not show he’s very much a stout and huge reason for this run in the post season as he regularly takes on 2 blockers freeing up his teammates to make tackles. He also doubles as an interior lineman for the vaunted rushing attack. Koren stated “It felt amazing, we knew they had a lot of schemes offensively, our defense wanted that challenge. Offensively we wanted to pound the ball inside, our oline was great creating stops”. When asked about the success the offense had running the ball he says “We watched the tape and thought we had a slight size advantage up front and just tried to lean on them”.

When mentioned why NG is overlooked and overshadowed by larger city schools and if it serves as extra motivation to win a state title he stated “It’s funny our coaches mentioned it , but we know all those guys and they know we’re good. We’re so focused on next week. We get a rematch with wyomissing”. As for recruiting he has generated offers from West Virginia and Maryland. He states “I talk to the coaches at Penn State a lot. Mississippi state is showing a lot of interest, Akron as well Coastal Carolina and Liberty have also reached out. I’ll be doing a lot of visits in the spring. Koren desired major upon entering college sports medicine or communications.

Another key Saint in this win was Sr Sam Hobbs. Sam posted 3 tackles for losses and 8 total tackles. He says “the game plan was to come out physical and aggressive and to read our keys once we did that we knew we had them where we wanted them”. Going up 16-0 at the half he stayed they weren’t satisfied knowing they could play better so they wanted to “keep putting up points and getting stops defensively”. Sam was part of the loss last year in the semifinals to their next opponent Wyomissing and stated that the lesson learned was that we have to be patient against this team be physically and read our keys, we also have to keep high energy and try not to have any mental mistakes”. Sam currently holds a Syracuse offer but has also drummed up interest from New Hampshire. He mentioned he’s not satisfied with his recruitment and is open to all universities and coaches who would be interested in securing his signature on signing day.

With the loss the Tigers season ends but much credit to Cade Christopher who battled all game helping the Tigers grind out 229 total yards of offense and stayed in the game until the final frame. Cade was an all state receiver but has played QB WR and ran the ball for the Tigers whenever they needed him to. A true warrior who gave his all in defeat.

The Saints have a rematch with undefeated Wyomissing which will come to Philly this year 13-0. In last years game on the road NG fell 42-6 so they’ll be extremely motivated to play much better and get their first state title in football.

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