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Mistakes Doom St. Joseph’s Prep In Loss to DeMatha

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

| August 31, 2025

WILMINGTON: Every year, when St. Joseph’s Prep Head Coach Tim Roken puts together the schedule for his Hawks, he does so with the intention of getting his team better and ready to play football well into November and December. The old iron sharpens iron adage if you will. Roken also knows that when playing against other national powers, you need to play nearly mistake-free football. Unfortunately for Roken’s Hawks Saturday nigh,t they made too many mistakes, and it resulted in a 45-17 setback to Maryland powerhouse DeMatha Catholic Stags in the final game of the Mid-Atlantic Pigskin classic held at Salesianum’s Abessinio Stadium.

“When you play great programs like we are in a national schedule it’s an opportunity to have success, and there are opportunities when you come out the other side of it where it exposes your weakness, has a staff we’ve been here before, and we’re going back to work fixing things that need to be fixed. We have a bye week next week. We’re going back to work we have two weeks to prepare for St. Francis, whose another great program and another great test for us, and figure out where we are and what needs to be fixed, and move forward and continue to prepare for a tough Catholic League schedule.’ Roken said when asked about the scheduling of national opponents.

After forcing the Hawks to a three-and-out on the game’s opening drive, James Pace managed to get his fingers on the Hawks’ punt, forcing it to go only 9 yards, setting the Stags up with the ball on their own 42.  The Stags then pieced together a nine-play drive that was aided by the Hawks being flagged for three pass interferences and an offsides penalty; however, with their backs against their endzone, the Hawks’ defense tightened u,p forcing the Stags to settle for a 20-yard field goal by Rob Reeser, making it 3-0

On the ensuing drive, the Hawks responded following a 40-yard pass from Charlie Foulke to Alston Frisbey that set the Hawks up at the Stags 6. Three plays, Foulke found Jett Harrison in the endzone for the 5-yard score and the 7-3 lead for the Hawks

In the second quarter, the Hawks appeared to have extended their lead to 14-3 when Masiia Acrey intercepted Tristan Sabb and returned it for a pick six, only to have the return wiped out by a blocking in the back call. The Hawks, however, did manage to extend their lead on the ensuing drive, reaching the Stags 1 1-yard line before penalties pushed them back to 3 and forced them to settle for a 20-yard field goal by Blake Sholder.

On the ensuing drive, the Stags fumbled the ball on their second play, and Alex Haskell fell on it for the Hawks, but the offense couldn’t capitalize on the turnover, keeping it at 10-7.

In the final minute of the first half, the Hawks had a drive reaching Stags 38 before Foulke was intercepted by Knyair Crumb, sending the teams into the locker room with the Hawks leading 10-7.

In the first half, the Hawks’ defense held the Stags to a mere 36 yards of total offense and 5 first downs, but 3 of those first downs were the result of Hawks’ penalties. The Hawks’ offense amassed 117 yards of total offense, but they gave up a total of five sacks in the first half.

On the first drive of the second half, the Stags marched right down the field on Hawks’ defense, which was flagged two more times on the possession before Elijah Lee capped the drive with his 6-yard touchdown run, tying things up at 10.

The Stags’ defense forced the Hawks to three and out on their first possession, setting the Stags up to take the lead, and that they did on their second possession of the half, driving 60 yards on six plays with Sabb letting his legs do the work, taking it from two yards out and giving the Stags the 17-10 lead.

Following another three-and-out by the Hawks, the Stags pieced together their third consecutive scoring drive, marching 61 yards on 11 plays with Lee finding the endzone again, this time from 2 yards out, and the Stags’ lead blossomed to 24-10.

On the next play from scrimmage, things went from bad to worse for the Hawks when Foulke was intercepted for the second time on the night by Crumb, who this time returned it to the endzone, opening a 31-10 lead for the Stags.

But the Hawks weren’t about to go down without a fight on the next drive they marched 80 yards on four plays with Foulke finding Harrison who made the catch with a defender all over him reminding some of his Pro Football Hall of Fame Father Marvin Sr and his brother current Arizona Cardinal Marvin Jr for the 12 yard touchdown cutting the lead to 31-17.

Unfortunately for the Hawks that the closest they got the rest of the way was with the Stags adding a 27-yard touchdown run by Lee and then falling on a blocked punt in the endzone to ice the victory.

The Hawks, who entered play Saturday night as the number 1-ranked team in 6A, fell to 0-2 on the season. They will look to earn their first win of the season when they host another powerhouse, St. Francis Academy out of Maryland, on September 13 at the University of Penn’s Franklin Field. Kickoff is scheduled for 1 pm.

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