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Catholic League Regular Season Finales

Tagged under: District 12, Gameday Hub

| October 26, 2022


Catholic League Preview/Notes For Regular Season Finales

The final week of the Catholic League season is upon us. Leading the pack in both divisions are St Joseph’s Prep and Bonner-Prendie. Roman Catholic is actually tied with SJP Hawks at 3-0 in the division. SJP gets the nod due to the tougher non-league schedule and their sheer dominance on their league opponents while Roman struggled with Wood. Bonner outside of their game with NG has coasted through the Blue Division with little resistance.

My games of the week for the Catholic League are the following:

Friday 10/28 @7pm @ Cardinal O’Hara

Roman (7-1) @ SJP (6-1): The Cahillites of Roman Catholic come into this game undefeated in CL play and with only 1 loss on the season to the hands of Malvern Prep (0-10). They are led by junior sensation and 4-star recruit WR/DB Tyseer Denmark, Sr. RB Jamir Robertson, Jr. DE Jason Patterson (7.5 sacks), Sr. DE Jameial Lyons (PSU Commit) & Fr. QB Semaj Beals (1269 yards & 11 TD passes). Roman earned quality out of conference wins over West Catholic & Perkiomen Valley while dominating conference foes LaSalle (31-14) & Judge (41-7). They struggled mightily against Wood offensively before pulling out a 12-7 win.

Prep dropped their week 1 non-league game at nationally ranked St. Thomas Aquinas (Florida) (48-37) before rebounding to win their last 7 games. In out of state non-league games, they defeated St. Peters Prep (55-20), Erasmus Hall (14-7), & Gonzaga (31-21). In league play they’ve steam rolled their divisional opponents outscoring them by an 123-31 margin. Their offense is paced by Jr. QB Semaj Jones, Jr. RB Erik Sanchez, Jr. WR David Washington Jr., Sr. DL Colin Wisniewski, Jr. CB Omilio Agard and Sr. LB Josiah Trotter (WVU commit).

Both teams have explosive offense however Prep seems to be more consistent as they’ve scored on average 37 points per game while Roman has put up around 28 points per game.  Roman has gotten to opposing QB’s quite a bit so that will be their key apply pressure early and often on Semaj Jones and contain him when he scrambles as he’s highly elusive in the open field despite his larger stature. For Prep they’ll have their hands full with Denmark however the wise thing would be to have their star CB Omilio shadow Denmark and take their chances there. This game is obviously for the Red Division regular season title however they will see each other in 2 weeks baring an upset in the CL Red playoffs finale at Franklin Field.

Prediction: SJP 40 Roman 18

Saturday 10/29 @12pm @ South Philadelphia Supersite

Archbishop Ryan (5-3) @ Neumann Goretti (4-3): Ryan Raiders comes into this game with a 3-game winning streak with league wins over Lansdale (20-17), West Catholic (20-17) & O’Hara (29-6). The winner of this game will finish 2nd in the Blue Division behind Bonner. The Raiders will enter the game on a 3-game winning streak with a big win over Lansdale (20-17) followed by large wins over West Catholic (23-6) and Cardinal O’Hara (29-6). The Raiders rely on a ball control offense and physical defense. They’re led by Jr. DL Nick Rogers (4 sacks), Jr. LB Matt Malley & Sr. RB Aidan Clancy (5 TDs).

The Saints started the season with a shutout loss to William Penn Charter (21-0) before bouncing back to win 3 straight against league opponents Lansdale Catholic (26-7), West Catholic (37-7) and O’Hara (38-0). They’d crash the following week being upset by Bonner (26-14) and followed that with a disappointing defeat to Conwell-Egan (29-14). They got back in the winning column with a 44-0 shutout over Carroll.  Defensively the Saints are led by Sr. CB Ronald Johnson (2 interceptions), Jr. QB Mekhi Wharton, Sr. Athlete Samuel Hobbs (Syracuse offer) and Sr. CB Shawn Battle (Boston College commit). They have struggled against the better teams to put points on the board.

Prediction Neumann Goretti 21 Ryan 14

Saturday 10/29 @6pm @La Salle HS

Father Judge (3-5) v La Salle College HS (3-6): Both teams had rough years and luckily due to a lack of teams in the CL at the 6A classification the winner will advance to the 6A finals against SJP. Judge started the season with a stunning loss to Olney (12-9). They’d follow that up with a close loss to Pope John Paul II (21-22) before getting on a 2 game winning streak knocking off both neighborhood rivals Ryan (38-6) and Frankford (49-14). Unfortunately that momentum didn’t carry over as they would lose their next four games to William Penn Charter (28-6), Roman (41-7), Springside Chestnut Hill (40-21) and St. Joes Prep (48-14). Last week they got back on the winning track gutting out a win at Wood (28-21).

The Explorers started the season off shocking many taking down North Penn on the road in convincing fashion (37-28) before falling flat the next week hosting Malvern Prep (35-0). Things wouldn’t fare much better the next week losing on the road to Bishop McDevitt (56-7) and the following week while hosting Haverford School (21-7). They went 2-2 the last 4 weeks of the season taking a win at Calvert Hall in Baltimore, MD (21-20) and at Wood (6-3) in OT but falling to SJP (40-11) and Roman (31-14).

At stake for the winner is a CL championship berth against SJP. This game should be physical and frankly a low scoring turnover machine as both teams want redemption against the Hawks. The one game that gives me confidence picking the winner of this game is how they both played Wood.

Prediction: LaSalle 17 Judge 14

 

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