Turnovers doom St. John’s of Shrewsbury in loss to SJP

SHREWSBURY — Unforced errors are back-breakers, and although James Guy exploded for 187 yards rushing for St. John’s Prep on Saturday afternoon, a few of those errors from St. John’s of Shrewsbury are what made the largest difference for the Eagles late in a somewhat messy Catholic Conference bout.

Three quarters of timely defense and an exciting rushing duel between Guy and Pioneers junior Bobby Rodolakis (196 yards) paled in comparison to the four fumbles St. John’s (S) coughed up on bad snaps and poor handoff exchanges. Those mistakes boiled over when a high snap on a punt midway through the fourth quarter of a tie game placed SJP (2-2) at the Pioneers’ 6-yard line. Jack Perry — with two touchdowns and 148 passing yards in his first career start for the Eagles — tossed a 10yard touchdown to Stephon Patrick two plays later for the goahead score, and SJP made a defensive stand in its own territory to hold on for a 14-7 win.

The St. John’s (S) defense did an excellent job limiting the damage of those miscues with a pair of interceptions and a bendbut-don’t-break effort up until that point, but the Eagles had enough big plays on defense from Collin Taylor (two sacks, fumble), Tyee Ambrosh (two pass deflections) and Dylan Wodarski (strip tackle) to outlast the Pioneers.

“I just thought we stayed in the fight, it was far from pretty — they’re a really good team,” said SJP head coach Brian St. Pierre. “I thought our guys just hung in there and grinded it out until the end. First start for (Perry), I thought he did a really good job and made some big plays for us.”

Neither group had much trouble moving the ball behind 34 carries each by Guy and Rodolakis, but what made defense king in this one was the timely stops to keep the score tied for so long.

The Eagles broke out the clutch execution first, nixing a long opening drive from the Pioneers by jumping on a bad snap to Luke Feraco on first-and-goal from the SJP 5 to keep the game scoreless. Perry responded with a 74-yard TD heave to Jesse Ofurie (98 yards) for a first-quarter lead, only for Feraco to take a 3-yard keeper up the middle to knot the score at 7-7 to start the second quarter.

Guy and Rodolakis combined for 33 rushes of six-plus yards to advance the ball fine, but what followed proved chaotic. Twice the Pioneers picked off Perry in his debut start, yet Rodolakis twice fumbled on the handoff exchange from quarterback Ryan Miller. One of those Perry interceptions came on fourth-and-goal from the 1-yard line as Devin Gagnon caught a deflection, which didn’t seem to matter much later on when Wodarski stripped St. John’s (S) receiver Matt Marchese near the end of the third quarter of a still 7-7 game.

A great punt to the Pioneers’ 3-yard line pinned St. John’s (S) in the fourth quarter, leading to the miscue that put Perry in prime position to deliver a beautiful fade to Patrick for the gamewinner.

“Turnovers were huge,” said Taylor, a Princeton commit. “Other than that, it was a battle. They’re good up front, big up front. We played well, kind of grinded it out. … Coach talked about getting our swagger back (after consecutive losses) and we definitely needed this one.”