St. John’s Prep falls to CM in a close one

DANVERS – An old fashioned football game broke out at Cronin Field in Danvers Saturday when undefeated Catholic Memorial traveled to St. John’s Prep and handed the Eagles a 12-7 loss in their final home game.The Prep, after starting the season 4-0 but losing its last three games, was hoping to break the losing streak in its first Catholic Conference contest this season. Unfortunately a late interception thrown by the Eagles sealed their fate and put them in an uphill battle for the remainder of the year.”Now ? we really have to scramble to get back. We have to get a win,” St. John’s Prep coach Jim O’Leary said. “These games are not going to get any easier.”The first half was marked by St. John’s (4-4) holding CM to field goals. The Prep offense tried to move the ball, but could only manage 18 offensive plays. The first half featured a clinic on ball control by the Knights (7-0), who despite not finding the goal line line in two red zone possessions, ran 25 plays and chewed up over 14 minutes of the clock.Coming out of half time, CM had possession and was moving down field when Eagles’ defensive back Brian Keenan’s interception sparked the Prep sideline. The ensuing possession, which started on the Prep 17, moved the Eagles down field 90 yards in 12 plays, but they couldn’t convert on a fourth and two at the CM seven. During the drive George Sessoms had four carries for 45 yards.”If you can’t get a first down or a score when you down deep near the end zone then you can’t win,” said O’Leary.CM then moved down field in a 12-play drive, which culminated in an Andrew DiBartolo five-yard touchdown to give the Knights a 12-0 lead.Now in the fourth quarter, and playing with a sense of urgency, St John’s moved down field in 1:42 on seven plays. The drive was capped by a 36-yard sprint and rumble by Brendan Felder for the touchdown. The Prep trailed 12-7 with a little over four minutes remaining in the game.After a back and forth chess match of timeouts, St. John’s had the ball with 2:21 on the clock, and a chance to win. But the drive was cut short on the second play when a broken pass play resulted in an under thrown pass being intercepted.That cemented the game for the Knights.”We waited until the fourth quarter to make plays, and you can’t do that,” said O’Leary. “You need to move the chains and get first downs. It’s as simple as that.”For St. John’s, Andrew McHugh (10 carries, 60 yards) proved to be beast on offense. On defense, McHugh was all over the field from his middle linebacker spot, including a huge tackle in the first half on the Prep four -yard line to keep the Scarlet Knights out of the end zone and into a field goal attempt.