LYNN — The St. Mary’s football team continued its strong early-season play Saturday night, taking down Pope John, 48-8, at Manning Field to improve to 3-0.
Quarterback Calvin Johnson had a big night, passing for 91 yards and two touchdowns and rushing for 91 yards and two touchdowns, all in the first half.
“Calvin has really transitioned to the quarterback position well,” St. Mary’s coach Matt Durgin said of Johnson, who moved to quarterback from wide receiver this year. “Coach (Derek) Dana has been working a lot with him at the quarterback position, he’s been throwing the ball well, and all around he’s a really special talent for us.”
Senior James Brumfield also had a big night with two touchdowns (one rushing, one receiving), while Patrick Henry and Anthony Bello scored one touchdown each.
The Spartans jumped out early in this one, starting from the very first play of the game. With the Pope John defense loading the box expecting a run, Johnson snapped the ball and found Henry sneaking behind the secondary for a wide-open 72-yard touchdown pass. Johnson followed that up with two rushing touchdowns (including a 76-yarder) and a 19-yard passing touchdown to Brumfield to send the Spartans into halftime with a 40-0 lead.
Pope John was finally able to answer as the third quarter was coming to a close. After a 10-play drive that starting at their own 34, the Tigers broke through when Jesus Rivera punched in a two-yard touchdown run. Rivera then completed a pass to Adrian Salmoran for the two-point conversion to make it 40-8.
The Spartans had one final drive after that, a 10-play drive that ate up most of the clock in the fourth quarter. After Bello scored on a two-yard run to make it 48-8, St. Mary’s kicked the ball back to Pope John for a few plays then walked away with the win.
Now at 3-0 on the young season, St. Mary’s is just getting into the bulky part of the schedule. The final five games are all against Catholic Central League opponents, including a tough matchup on the road in Brockton against an also undefeated Cardinal Spellman team.
“We’re going to have our work cut out for us in that game,” Durgin said. “We’re going to have to be at our best, and to be honest we still have some question marks over here. We’re going to see how we handle adversity and going on the road to play a tough team. We’ll find out a lot about ourselves next weekend.”
St. Mary’s and Cardinal Spellman will kick off at 6:30 p.m. on Friday night in Brockton.
