St. John’s football defeats Mt. St. Joseph’s

DANVERS – There is no truth to the rumor that after visiting Mt. St. Joseph’s scored its third touchdown of the half to go up on St. John’s Prep 21-0, Eagles coach Jim O’Leary turned to his team and said, “Now we’ve got ’em where we want ’em.”Though after the Prep came roaring back to win 42-35 over the visitors from Baltimore, Maryland, it might seem as though he did.Mt. St. Joseph’s35St. John’s42 “We never wanted to be down by 21, but we managed to come back,” O’Leary said. “This was a hard game for both teams. (Mt. St. Joseph’s) didn’t get in until midnight last night and we had kids coming in at quarter to two from SAT’s. It is not a regular day for anybody.”With three minutes remaining in the second quarter, Gaels running back Jeff Matthews scored from six yards out to give Mt. St. Joseph’s a 21-0 lead. The ensuing kickoff started two things: the next Prep possession and the beginning of an amazing offensive day for Tyler Coppola.The senior captain took the kickoff 96 yards downfield and set up Tommy Gaudet’s one-yard touchdown plunge. After the Prep defense managed to hold the Gaels to a quick offensive series, Coppola gave the crowd a look at what was to come in the second half.Coppola ran off-tackle to the right, following his pulling guard Nate Cyr, broke through the second tier of the Mt. St. Joseph’s defense and sprinted 57 yards for the score.It cut the Eagles’ deficit to 21-14 heading into halftime.The Eagles would use the play four additional times, with Coppola following his co-captain Cyr through the right side of the offensive line. In the second half Coppola would score four times on runs of 76, 48, 61, and 42 yards. Coppola would finish with a school-record 340 yards rushing on 20 carries. Toss in Coppola’s 129 total kickoff return yards and the one pass he caught for five, and he finished the day with a total of 474 yards and five touchdowns.”I’m proud of the way we came back, running it on the ground. (Coppola) had some really big runs,” said O’Leary. When asked about running the same play, O’Leary commented, “When you get a horse, you ride it.”Of his 6-1, 246-pound guard Cyr, O’Leary had high praise.”We’ve had some good offensive linemen come through here, go to the NFL. Wayne Lucier, Zach Magliaro,” said O’Leary. “And he’s as good of an offensive lineman as we’ve had here. He just crushes people and dominates people. He loves to play the game.”Despite the offensive fireworks, the Prep still found itself fighting to keep ahead of the visitors. The Eagle defense had trouble all day with the Gaels’ passing attack as quarterback Luke Casey finished the day with 337 yards on 24 completions and three touchdowns. He also added another rushing touchdown to his day.