Benet tops St. Joe's
Benet and St. Joseph played a game of "Can you can top me?" in Saturday's East Suburban Catholic Conference football showdown.
Powered by an outstanding game by halfback E.J. Howe, the Redwings came out ahead in a battle of the big plays.
Howe scored 3 touchdowns, including a 89-yard kickoff return in the second quarter, to lead visiting Benet to a 36-24 victory over the Chargers in Westchester.
A junior, Howe also ran for 95 yards on 19 carries, including touchdown runs of 8 and 5 yards. He also had a long touchdown run called back because of a holding penalty. His kickoff return was sweet. He took the kickoff in what he called "center field" and dodged defenders all over the place.
"My hat goes off to E.J. Howe," said Benet coach Gary Goforth. "What a phenomenal effort he had today."
Playmakers were plentiful for the Redwings (2-1, 1-0). Quarterback Luke Terna passed for 220 yards and made a number of clutch throws. One of the senior's best tosses was a 15-yard touchdown pass to wide receiver Dylan Flood in the waning moments of the second quarter. On a fade route to the right corner, the 6-foot-3 Flood used his height advantage to beat 5-8 Chargers cornerback Sterling Jackson and Terna placed the ball in the right spot.
"We watched film and saw that is what we wanted to do on 1-on-1 coverage," Terna said "We wanted to take advantage of the height advantage, and we obviously did."
Flood also had catches of 34 and 32 yards to finish the game with 3 receptions for 81 yards.
Fullback Mike Kamykowski had a 5-yard touchdown run too for Benet.
"The big play was the difference," said St. Joseph coach Mark Zavagnin. "They had five or six long passes on us. Big plays are the ones you have to be able to bounce back from. You have to credit them. They picked on our outsides."
The Chargers (1-2, 0-1) have a big-time big-play man of their own - senior quarterback Cameron Meredith. Meredith's stellar playmaking was not enough to put the Chargers over the top. Meredith passed for 311 yards and 2 touchdowns and also ran into another score late in the game. He completed 4 passes of 50 yards or longer. Standout wideout Anthony Boddy pulled in 7 passes for 148 yards. St. Joseph was helped by the fact that Benet's top player in the secondary, Phil Schmidt, went down with an injury in the first series.
The Chargers scored on the opening drive with Meredith and Boddy connecting on a 52-yard touchdown reception. Benet, though, took a 20-17 lead at halftime and pulled ahead with 16 unanswered points in the third quarter.
"We knew we had have our hands full with Cameron - he is a great athlete," Howe said. "He showed us. We had to win and to step up just like they did. "
Goforth also credited the play of the offensive line of Patrick Flavin, Tom O'Sullivan, John Cannova, Matt Siegert and Drew Ferlmann for protecting Terna and opening up holes for Howe and others. Benet piled up 487 yards of total offense.
Defensive back Andrew Russ also had a late interception for the Redwings that sealed the win.