St Joes Prep Hawks fly past CB South and are headed back to the state title game

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

Anthony Franklin | December 3, 2023

A foggy Saturday afternoon with the sun peaking in and out produced the perfect late fall afternoon for football. For the SJ Prep Hawks this was just another mountain to fly over to get to the ultimate goal of winning back to back state titles. CB South the District 1 champion came in undefeated and riding the high momentum wave of their win last week over Downingtown West while SJP made quick work of District 11 champion Nazareth.

This game would start with a bang as CB South Titans won the toss and opted to defer which meant kicking off to Prep. On the opening kickoff Sr. Wr Brendan Rehmann would take the return 80 yards to pay dirt to give the Hawks an early 6-0 lead as the extra point kick would be missed. The Titans opening possession started out with a bang in itself as Sr RB Anthony Leonardi would take a handoff and zoom 52 yards around defenders before being tackled. Unfortunately the drive would stall and Prep would get the ball back and drive down the field where Sr RB Taj Dyches would punch it in from the 12 yard line to expand the lead to 13-0 mid first quarter. The Prep defense would utilize shifts and received timely tackles from Jr DT Roy Maxwell, Sr DE Ivan Bailey-Greene, Sr DE Sean McNulty and Sr LB Mike McGlynn (Army) to bottle up the Titan rushing attack. The 2nd quarter began with the Prep defense once again standing strong and giving the offense the ball back where Sr QB Samaj Jones (Cincinnati) would score from 2 yards out to give Prep a 20-0 lead.

The defense would get a boost from Jr LB Cameron Smith getting a crucial sack to give the offense the ball back after a great CB South punt put the ball at the Prep 6 yard line. The Hawks would lean on their massive offensive line and skilled back Sr RB Kahseim Phillips (Towson) on this drive where he would dash 74 yards to the end zone to increase the score to 27-0 with 9 minutes left in the 2nd quarter. The titans would drive into Prep territory but turn the ball over on downs at the Prep 37 yard line. From there Samaj would launch a deep 48 yard pass to Brandon Rehmann (West Virginia) for a score to up the lead to 35-0 after a successful 2 point conversion. Prep would tack on an additional score before halftime when Samaj hooked up with Sr Elijah Jones (Cincinnati) on a 26 yard touchdown pass to give the Hawks a 42-0 lead at the half.

The 2nd half would be played with a running clock and mid 4th quarter Prep QB Tre Henning got into the scoring action tossing a touchdown pass on 4th down to Syaire Grimes to cap off the scoring at 49-0. With the final whistle the St Joes Prep Hawks make their 8th consecutive state championship game appearance and improve to 12-1 on the season while CB South finishes an impressive 12-2 on the season.

Post game coach Tim Roken gave game balls to Brendan Rehmann for his offensive and special teams performance and defensive game ball went to Jr S Anthony Sacca. For CB South not to be forgotten was Sr RB Anthony Leonardi who went over the 2000 rushing yard mark for the season in this game. CB South came close to having a 2000 yard rusher and 2 additional 1000 yard rushers

Sr LB Nick McGlynn has been an unsung hero on the defense. He’s heading to West Point next year to further his education and play football but wants to cap his high school career with a 3rd state title. A four year varsity player he’s been a winner in 2 title games while tasting defeat in another in 2021. He stated “we look forward to North Allegheny and the competition”.

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