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Harrison Jr. Amazing Catch has St. Joe’s Prep Heading back to Hershey after OT win

Tagged under: District 12, District 7, Gameday Hub, News

| November 30, 2019

Kolbe Burrell was held in check most of the day by the Viking defense

What do you do when you’re missing your starting quarterback, who just happens to be committed to Ohio State as a junior, and a future all state wide receiver and you’re up against a team that want’s to get to Hershey just as bad as you do? You turn to your back up quarterback (Malik Cooper) and one of the best wide receivers in the country (Marvin Harrison Jr) who, oh by the way, is also an OSU commit as a junior. “We stress trust and stay composed, said St. Joseph’s Prep head coach Tim Roken. ” Beginning of the year we faced some big opponents, we lost some games, we faced adversity and we battled. It taught us a lot about ourselves.  Facing a fourth and ten at the Central Catholic 12 and trailing 24-17 with 25 seconds, Cooper dropped back and saw a coverage he didn’t like. “The play we called, we felt like they were going to double cover Marvin so we tried some underneath routes but the pocket collapsed quick and Malik was able to get out and be where he was comfortable. ”  “When I felt that lineman grab my shirt, I knew it was time to go” said Cooper. “Then when I saw Marvin coming across the middle I knew I just had to get the ball to him”.  Cooper let the ball fly and Harrison made one of the best catches of the year, sending the game into overtime and eventually sending the Hawks back to Hershey with a hard fought 31-24 win at Mansion Park in Altoona.

Dom Pieto had a nice game

“I’m just at a loss for words right now” said Central Catholic head coach Terry Totten. “We played our hearts out. That was a heck of a game and I’m very proud of my boys” he said heading to the bus.  The Vikings and Hawks battled all day, neither team leading by more than 7 points.  Johnathan Opalko put the Vikings up with a 33 yard field goal at the 3:13 mark in the first, but the Hawks responded immediately with a 37 yard td run from Cooper with 1:50 left in the first quarter.

The heavyweight battle continued as Central quarterback Dom Pieto delivered a 40 yard td run that was nearly identical to the one by Cooper to give the advantage back to the Vikings with a score

of 10-7 with 9:42 left in the first half.

“We just had to keep playing our game” said Harrison. He kept playing all game, racking up 133 yards on 8 catches including a nice 49 yard grab that led to a 26 yard Chadha that tied the score at 10 with 4:56 left in the first half.  Then what could be called a game winning play happened on the ensuing Viking drive.  Facing pressure, Pieto threw a ball into the line and it was intercepted by Blake Romano at the Viking 14. One play later Sahmir Hagans put the Hawks up 17-10 and that’s where they let it at halftime. “That was an enormous play, and turned out to be the difference in the game” same Roken.

 

From the start of the third quarter, both teams battled back and forth until, with 9:22 to play in the game, Pieto hit Sharod Lindsey for a beautiful 51 yard td pass to tie the game at 17.  That play seemed to charge the Central defense. Facing a fourth down at the Viking 35, the Central Catholic defense pinned their ears back and stopped the Hawks. That stop in turn seemed to charge the Viking offense.  Led by Eddy Tillman, Central marched straight into Hawk territory where many on the sideline figured they would get perfect field position to give Opalkos strong leg a chance to win the game. Tillman had other ideas. Busting through the middle of the line several times, Till man got the WPIAL champs to within 19 yards with just under three minutes to play. Then he put the Vikings on top himself with a 19 yard burst.

 

With 82 yards standing between the end of the season and a trip to Hershey, Cooper remained cool as a cucumber. Mixing up the plays nicely with a mix of run and pass, the “now starting” quarterback led the Hawks straight downfield for the tying score.  “My mind said we just gotta score, and then after we score we gotta get that “W” in overtime.  It nearly didn’t go as planned as the captains for St Josephs made what appeared to be a wrong choice on the coin flip, based on the reaction of the coaches, the decision to take the ball first. “Yeah we wanted to be on defense first but it all worked out for us” said one of the assistants. The choice did indeed work out as Cooper got the go ahead score and Keenan Nelson made the game ending interception.

 

The Hawks will return to Hershey to battle for the Class 6A title against a very strong Central Dauphin team.

St. Joe’s Prep 31 Central Catholic 24 

Central Catholic – 3 7 0 14 0 – 24

St. Joe’s Prep – 7 10 0 7 7 – 31 

Scoring Summary

First Quarter 

CC – John Opalko 33 yd field goal, 3:13

SJP – Malik Cooper 37 yd run, (Antonio Chadha pat), 1:50

Second Quarter 

CC – Dom Pieto 40 yd run, (Opalko pat), 9:42

SJP – Chadha 26 yd field goal, 4:56

SJP – Sahmir Hagans 14 yd run, (Chadha pat), 3:51

Fourth Quarter

 CC – Sharod Lindsey 51 yd pass from Pieto, (Opalko pat), 9:25

CC – Eddy Tillman 19 yd run, (Opalko pat), 2:46

SJP – Marvin Harrison Jr. 12 yd pass from Cooper, (Chadha pat), 0:15

Overtime 

SJP – Cooper 5 yd run, (Chadha pat), 0:00

Individual Stats

Rushing: Central Catholic – Tillman 24-145, Pieto 12-77, Brandon Jackson 1-5, Anderson Cynkar 1-7, Team 1-(-1). Totals: 39-233. St. Joe’s Prep – Kolbe Burrell 13-39, Cooper 18-59, Hagans 1-14, Joshua Barlow 1-2. Totals: 33-114. 

Passing: Central Catholic – Pieto 9-for-21, 137 yards, 1 touchdown, 2 interceptions. St. Joe’s Prep – Cooper 22-for-25, 270 yards, 1 touchdown. 

Receiving: Central Catholic – Lindsey 2-56, Cynkar 3-28, Eric Benson 1-7, A.J. Beatty 1-8, Gannon Carothers 2-38. St. Joe’s Prep – Harrison Jr. 8-133, Hagans 6-44, Burrell 4-40, Maurice Clark 4-53. 

Interceptions: St. Joe’s Prep – Blake Romano, Rocco Nicholl. 

Game Highlights:

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