Friars open 2023 season with win in Ireland

Tagged under: District 12, Gameday Hub, News

Billy Splain | August 25, 2023

picture via Global Football LTD

As part of the Global Ireland Football Tournament, the Friars took on the NFL Academy team in Dublin Ireland. (more on that HERE). The game got off the a rough start for Bonner as they fell behind 2-0 due to a punt snap that went over the head of the punter and into the endzone, but the Friars pulled away for the 34-24 win to open the 2023 HS Football season for Pennsylvania.

It took a little while for the Friars to get moving, but once they did they moved quickly. Following an interception by Nick Johnson, it took just one play to put the Friars on the board. Jalil Hall Hauled in a 46 yard td pass from Kenjai Gatling midway through the first quarter to make it a 6-2 game. Later in the first Robert Ford took a short pass, slipped a tackle and headed to the endzone for the 35 yard td reception. The kick was good and Bonner led 13-2 with just just under three minutes left in the first quarter.

NFL academy got a good return to the 50 but once again they failed to move the ball much. After a big run by Avery Hankey also saw their offense stall and punted. Again the NFL Academy got a good return, the Academy got on the board thanks to a 30 yard pass and catch. The kick made it a 13-9 game early in the second quarter.  The Friars countered with a 79 yard drive to go up 20-9 on a td pass from Gatling to Hall for their second td connection with 2:40 left in the second quarter.

Academy landed another td pass to close the lead of the Friars again and with under 2 minutes to play in the half the score was 20-16. That’s how it remained at the break.

The Friars opened up the third with a nice drive  but Gatling threw an interception ending the drive. From there it was all Friars as they pulled away for the win. Bonner returns home and will start their PA season against Salesianum from Delaware.

This report generated by a human watching the live stream. Mistakes of names get my apologies.

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