Hawks soar to 6A title
Tagged under: District 12, District 7, Gameday Hub, News, Playoffs
Billy Splain | December 10, 2023
In 2021 St. Joseph’s Prep, led by a sophomore quarterback names Samaj Jones, got crushed by Mt Lebanon in the title game. The 35-17 score wasn’t indicative of how badly they got beat by the Blue Devils. It was a full, complete beat down. That sophomore lined up for his last game of his career last night in Cumberland Valley and led the Hawks to victory over a North Allegheny team that wouldn’t stop fighting. The score was 45-23, but the win was much bigger for the Hawks than the score.
“Unbelievable senior class and they continue to leave a legacy tonight with this group, you know, these are COVID babies man” exclaimed Hawks head coach Tim Roken.
“They came in here they’re prepping and everything is screwed up over in the beginning and they got punched in her mouth right when they came in as sophomores and then didnt finished the right way. Those guys were on a mission as juniors with that senior class last year right and and that mission continued this year right and going out the right way and when you have young guys that see it every single day and wanna play so hard for these seniors to make sure they can go out the right way it’s pretty special.”
Samaj Jones took control for his team right out of the gate, rushing 28 yards and throwing for 42 yards on the opening drive to put the Hawks up 7-0 quick on a 1 yard run by Khaseem Phillips. Following a punt by NA, Jones bolted 41 yards to put the Hawks up 14-0.
41 yard run by @SamajJones2 and it’s 14-0 @SJPrep_Football with 4:15 left in the first pic.twitter.com/QjMrpNztkA
— Pennsylvania Football News (@PaFootballNews) December 10, 2023
NA put itself in a hole and had to punt. The Hawks responded with another td drive and went up 21-0 to start the second quarter. Another NA mistake, an interception thrown by Kushner, ended with SJP getting a 41 yard field goal to make it 24-0. The entire first half felt like the Tigers could strike, and they finally did. They put together a long sustained drive and made it a 24-7 game. But on the next SJP play, they got man coverage on the outside, Samaj Jones saw it and 80 yards later Elijah Jones was celebrating in the endzone. Roken said “We knew we had to keep, you know, our focus and keep our foot on the gas right”? NA scored with a field goal but once again the Hawks responded with a TD putting the halftime score at 37-10.
About Samaj, Roken said he’s “a young man of great character, #1 toughness, calm, cool and collective in some of the biggest moments and you see he showed his physicality and his leadership right? It wasn’t easy for him to fill the shoes, to walk in here after Kyle left and he left from the front from the beginning
“That team is unbelievably well coached football team and going into the half is like listen, this game is not over right? We gotta go continue to make sure that we play four quarters we did that tonight” said Roken about the play. SJP scored one more time before starting to put the second team in near the fourth quarter.
Game Highlights:
St. Joe’s Prep 45 North Allegheny 23
Score by Quarters
North Allegheny – 0 10 0 13 – 23
St. Joe’s Prep – 14 23 8 0 – 45
Scoring Summary
First Quarter
SJP – Samaj Jones 1 yd run, (Skyler Sholder pat), 7:45 – 12-72
SJP – Jones 41 yd run, (Sholder pat), 4:15 – 5-62
Second Quarter
SJP – Isaiah West 22 yd run, (Sholder pat), 11:53 – 5-41
SJP – Sholder 41 yd field goal, 9:17 – 5-11
NA – Logan Kushner 5 yd run, (Nick Van Winkle pat), 6:04 – 7-58
SJP – Elijah Jones 80 yd pass from Jones, (Sholder pat), 5:52 – 1-80
NA – Peter Notaro 34 yd field goal, 2:23 – 10-59
SJP – Brandon Rehmann 13 yd pass from Jones, (kick failed), 1:07 – 2-12
Third Quarter
SJP – Jones 4 yd run, (2-point good), 5:45 – 9-78
Fourth Quarter
NA – Daniel Sellers 1 yd run, (rush failed), 7:40 – 11-80
NA – Khiryn Boyd 52 yd pass from Kushner, (Van Winkle pat), 5:17 – 1-52
Individual Stats:
Rushing: NA – Kushner 14-76, Boyd 1-19, Liam Flaherty 3-16, Tyree Alualu 6-4, Sellers 1-1. Totals: 25-116. SJP – Samaj Jones 12-124, Erik Sanchez 8-44, Taj Dyches 5-25, West 2-23, David Washington 1-20, Khaseem Phillips 4-8, Rehmann 1-0, Team 1-(-1). Totals: 34-243.
Receiving: NA – Boyd 5-94, Evan Lyon 2-39, Kushner 1-34, Brady Meyer 1-26, Alualu 1-18, Flaherty 2-8. SJP – Elijah Jones 4-119, Rehmann 5-72, Sanchez 1-18, Washington 3-13, Rameir Hardy 1-11.
Passing: NA – Kushner 11-for-28, 185 yards, 1 TD, 1 INT, Lyon 1-for-1, 34 yards. SJP – Samaj Jones 14-for-17, 233 yards, 2 TD.
Interceptions: SJP – Anthony Sacca.
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