St. John’s Prep breezes past Malden Catholic

DANVERS – It was a quick execution on Saturday as St. John’s was too much of everything for Malden Catholic, winning 55-8 at Cronin Stadium.From the opening bell, the Prep (3-2) proved to have too much firepower in all three phases of the game. The opening possession of the game for the Crusaders was quickly snuffed out in six plays and the ensuing punt was returned 75 yards for a touchdown by Owen Rockett.After another brief possession, St. John’s scored again, this time in the form of a Cody Harwood 41-yard touchdown run. Before the crowd had a chance to sit down with their popcorn, the Eagles had a 14-0 lead.”(Malden Catholic) has had its struggles this season, but we told our guys that this is still a Catholic Conference game, and we still need to go out and execute,” said St. John’s coach Jim O’Leary.Later in the first half Michael Geaslen found tight end Jake Burt on consecutive passes, ultimate scoring on a seven-yard touchdown pass and catch. Harwood scored a second touchdown on a 25-yard romp and then Dillon Preston, just before halftime, scoring on a 5-yard run up the middle. At halftime the Prep led 34-0 and left little question as to the outcome of the game.Harwood finished the game with 151 yards rushing, while Preston scored again in the third quarter and finished his afternoon with 51 yards on the ground.”We were an offense that relied heavily on (Thomas),” said O’Leary of his star and injured running back Johnathan Thomas. “This team has to learn that we are capable. We talked about looking to our young guys to lead the team. We talked about it before the game.”The St. John’s scoring was rounded off by two freshman: Joe Masterson taking punt back 58-yards for a score and Declan Burt carrying the ball 21-yards on a sweep for the final score of the afternoon.On the defensive side of the ball, the Eagles were just as dominant, allowing only 100 yards of total offense. The majority of the offense for Malden Catholic came in the third quarter when they came up with two big plays, a Colin Sullivan connection to Shane Norton for 19-yards, followed by Ladi Olatunbosun breaking to outside the hashmarks for a 29-yard touchdown run.Overall, there were a cast of characters coming up with very strong performances on defense for St. John’s, including Jack Lambert, Michael Fawehinmi, and David Caputo.