Bonner Prendie upsets Roman Catholic

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Anthony Franklin | September 28, 2024

Bonner-Prendie is in their first season in the Philadelphia Catholic League Red Division which is composed of the larger CL schools including SJ Prep, La Salle, Father Judge and Roman Catholic. SJP and La Salle are 6A programs. Judge & Roman are 5A programs. The new 2 programs in the division Bonner and O’Hara are 4A programs so most would assume they’d be underdogs. In their first CL Red game Bonner showed they aren’t underdogs they are simply under rated. They scored first and never trailed in this game. They opened the scoring after Jalil Hall made a one handed grab along the sideline to get the ball inside the 5 yard line. A holding call negated a touchdown run but Saleem Fink would run in from 10 yards to give Bonner an early 7-0 lead with 1:04 left in the first quarter.

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An aggressive Bonner defense would  quickly force Roman to punt the ball away. On Bonners next possession Quarterback Noel Campbell was intercepted by Roman CB Christian Palmer (Monmouth) who returned the ball deep into Bonner territory. A couple plays later Semaj Beals found WR Zamir Newsuan for a beautiful touchdown pass in the endzone to cut the lead to 7-6 with 11:36 left in the 2nd quarter. From there Bonner would assert their will as Mick Johnson took over rushing for a touchdown and 2 point conversion set up by a lengthy kick return to extend the lead to 15-6 with 7:50 left in the half. With possession deep in their end of the field Roman faced a 4th down and on a punt attempt it was fumbled and Bonner took over with the ball at the Roman 7 yard line. Mick would score his second touchdown of the game with 4:33 left in the half to extend the lead to 22-6. Bonner’s defense on the next possession stood strong forcing a Roman turnover on downs.

The Roman defense returned the favor when DL Mykell Ford made a great play intercepting a pass which lead to a Semaj touchdown pass to Rayshawn Scott to cut the lead to 22-14 with 2 minutes remaining before halftime. Mick Johnson extended the Bonner lead with a 55 yard touchdown run just before halftime to give Bonner a 29-14 lead. Coming out of the half Mick continued his dominance capped with a 5 yard touchdown run to extend the lead to 36-14 with 10:34 left in the 3rd quarter. Roman’s offense found traction behind star Semaj Beals and he galloped in to the end zone with a 5 yard run to cut the lead to 36-22. Roman would get the ball back deep in their own territory and would fumble in the end zone resulting in a safety. With just over 6 minutes left in the game trailing 36-22 Roman leaned on Beals who directed a drive that ended in a 1 yard touchdown run for Semaj to cut the lead to 38-30. Roman forced a punt from Bonner with just over a minute remaining but the Bonner defense held to preserve the victory. Mick finished with 4 touchdowns and 150 rushing yards. For Roman Semaj Beals threw for 221 yards, threw a touchdown and ran for 2 in the loss.

Bonner offensive line was the stars of the night led by Sr OG Chaz Ingram who is 6-0 240. He constantly opened holes and drove defenders back helping Mick gain huge yardage all night. Chaz sports a 4.49 GPA and is the leader of that unit. Up next for Bonner is a trip to Father Judge. Roman will look to get back in the winning column when they host Cardinal O’Hara.

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