DANVERS — It was a basketball game within a football game. And a game of hoops right out of the 1940s.
“It was like basketball before the shot clock. The four corners,” said St. John’s Prep coach Brian St. Pierre after his third-seeded Eagles defeated No. 14 Shrewsbury, 28-0, in first-round action in the MIAA Division 1 state football tournament.
“You’d notice the referee with his arm like this (pointing to the sky). That meant there were 10 seconds left on the time clock. Then he’d go like this (straight out to his left). That meant five seconds,” St. Pierre said. “They (Shrewsbury) did that every play. It’s hard to play like that.”
The Colonials took so much air out of the football — and not by using any nefarious methods either — that in the first quarter, they ran off nine minutes on their only possession of the first quarter and couldn’t score. St. John’s also had it once — and didn’t score on that possession until early in the second quarter.
On the Colonials’ first possession, they went from their own 23 to the Prep 21 on 13 plays, taking up nine minutes of time, but stalled after two incomplete passes.
St. John’s took over, and the game turned into the Carson Brown show. He ran for 68 yards on five carries in that drive alone, rushing the last seven for the touchdown.
The next time the Colonials touched the ball, it was 12 plays, 44 yards, and nothing to show for it. They almost scored, but quarterback Jack O’Sullivan’s pass was just a bit too far for William Porter to catch in the end zone.
WIth the Prep chasing a rapidly-dwindling second-quarter clock, Jack Perry found speedy receiver Jesse Ofurie for a nifty 40-yard touchdown reception — the route timed perfectly so the ball and the receiver converged at the precise moment.
“Jack threw some good balls,” said St. Pierre. “And I thought our offensive line played really well. They imposed their will from the start.”
Brown’s conversion made it 14-0 at the break.
Brown, who finished with 91 yards on 11 carries (sitting out the entire fourth quarter), gave the Eagles a 21-0 lead on their first second-half possession. By this time, the Colonials were forced to speed up to catch up, and their game plan became disjointed. They never threatened again.
With 3:06 to go in the third quarter, Perry went to the air again, finding Ofurie with a 46-yard pass to make it 28-0.
St. John’s Prep (7-2) will be home next week (6) for a state quarterfinal game against No. 6 Wachusett.
