Holy Spirit Topples Conwell-Egan on Last Day at the Beach

Tagged under: Beyond The Keystone, Gameday Hub, News

Phil Myers | August 28, 2023

In the only close game of the four played on Sunday at Ocean City’s ‘Battle at the Beach’ Classic, Holy Spirit rode a strong running game sprinkled with timely passes to down Cowell-Egan 24-7.  The Spartan defense was very Spartan-like in limiting their enemy’s offense to one big play, getting a safety, and forcing a pair of turnovers that the offense converted into scores.  Jahcere Ward, the 5’9” 225-pound junior human bowling ball, rushed for 108 yards on 28 carries, scoring once for the navy blue and gold clad Spartans.

Holy Spirit took the opening kickoff and drove 65 yards in 14 plays to score the game’s first points when quarterback Ty Costabile found a wide-open Matt Abbott for a 10-yard touchdown.  It was the only pass of the 14 plays.  The drive took almost 9 minutes off the clock.  Seconds later, Nolan Bradley tackled CEC’s quarterback in the end zone to give Holy Spirit a 9-0 advantage.  The next time the Eagles of Egan got the ball, Sam Cooper ripped off a beautiful 95-yard touchdown run that put his team back into the game.  Down 9-7 with only 21 tics gone in the second quarter it seemed like the momentum had switched.

Late in the half, pinned deep in their end again, the Eagles tried a hook and ladder, but the ball was fumbled and Holy Spirit recovered at the 8.  Ward scored with only 15 seconds remaining to give the Spartans a 16-7 lead at intermission.  Not much happened in the second half until late in the game when Conwell-Egan fumbled a punt that led to the last score of the game by Holy Spirit.  The Spartans held Conwell-Egan to 120 yards of offense and 95 of that came on one play.  The Eagles’ defense played really well after that first drive and held Holy Spirit to under 180 yards of total offense for the day.

The first game on Sunday had an undermatched Maple Shade falling to Collingswood 34-0 with all the points being scored in the first half.  R.J. Blount rushed for 114 yards and scored once for Collingswood to lead the way.  The Panthers had 5 different people score touchdowns.  The highlight touchdown was scored by Jeremiah Van Zandt when he scooped up a fumble, stumbled, stayed on his feet and scrambled about 15 yards into the end zone.  That gave Collingswood a 27-0 lead at the time.

Van Zandt eyeing the ball before his touchdown.

Game two found the Cedar Creek Pirates breaking open a close game in the second half to win 42-0 over the Matawan Huskies.  The Pirates scored a touchdown with 1:37 left in the second quarter to go ahead 6-0 at the half.  Then they unloaded on Matawan by scoring on all five of their second half possessions to totally dominate the game and easily pull away.  The Pirates were led by QB Billy Smith, WR Darius Benjamin, RB Aamir Dunbar, and LB Justin Castillo.  Smith threw for 226 yards and 4 TDs, Benjamin caught 6 passes for 161 yards and 3 touchdowns, Dunbar ran for over 100 yards, and Castillo led the team in tackles with 13 plus scored a rushing touchdown.  C.J. McAfee returned the second half kickoff 81 yards for a touchdown for the marquis score of the game.

Darius Benjamin of Cedar Creek snares one of his three TD catches.

The last game of the Beach Classic pitted the Timber Creek Chargers against the Highlands Tartans.  These two teams are only 5 miles apart and are backyard rivals to say the least.  It was supposed to be a toss-up game fought bitterly to the end.  It was fought to the end, but the Chargers were too much for the Tartans as Timber Creek won 34-6.  Chase Conway rushed for over 100 yards and scored twice for the Chargers.  Reilly Hoffacker scored twice also on a pair of 1-yard quarterback sneaks.  The Timber Creek defense made a statement as they held their rivals to less than 50 yards of total offense.

Chase Conway scores on a 29-yard run for Timber Creek.

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