Pine-Richland, St. Joseph’s collide
They have great kids and are well-coached. We think we have great kids and are wellcoached.”
Even Pine-Richland’s players admitted to following St. Joseph’s during the season, thinking a December trip to Chocolatetown would indeed be sweet with St. Joseph’s as the opponent. Throughout the season, some Pine-Richland players would peak at St. Joseph’s highlights on the internet.
Three years ago, a number of players on this Pine-Richland team were in the stands to watch Pine-Richland lose to St. Joseph’s in the PIAA title game.
“We’ve always felt it was kind of meant to be for us to play St. Joe’s because we were watching in 2014, and thinking it could be us in a few years,” said Phil Jurkovec, Pine-Richland’s star senior quarterback. “We always made sure we didn’t look ahead this season, but we really wouldn’t want this any other way than to play St. Joe’s. There are no nationals to play in. We can’t go any higher than this.”
While Pine-Richland always had an eye toward St. Joe’s, the coach of the Hawks said his team wasn’t looking back. Sure, St. Joseph’s knew Pine-Richland was good and knew Jurkovec was an all-everything quarterback. But as Gabe Infante said, “We graduated 29 seniors from last year’s team. We had to rebuild a lot of things and we took it day by day. I’m really a ‘today’ type of guy. We don’t talk about rankings or streaks. We’ve been very focused on what we did wrong last week and what we need to get better. We’ve been very disciplined to make sure we don’t break from that.
“If you listen to outside noise, it can affect you dramatically. Distractions can come in many different forms, from your classmates, to social media, and even your own parents. I’m being very, very honest. I don’t know why people are anticipating this for a long time because we haven’t.”
But this game has been anticipated because of tradition, and because both teams are good. Real good. Pine-Richland is a team with a quarterback for the ages, an offense that has scored points at a record pace for a team in the largest classification and an underrated defense that has been superb at times.
St. Joseph’s is just St. Joseph’s. The Hawks night not have the star power of some recent teams, like the 2016 squad that crushed Central Catholic and featured D’Andre Swift, a super running back who led the Georgia Bulldogs in rushing yards in the SEC championship game last Saturday. But there is plenty of talent. Defensive tackle Ryan Bryce has committed to West Point, receiver Brandon Sanders to Bucknell, linebacker Phil O’Connor to Richmond and defensive back Dawson DiIuliis to Princeton. This fact tells you a little about the talent and depth of the Hawks’ talent: They do not have one player who starts both ways.
On offense, St. Joseph’s features 6-foot-2, 220-pound senior Marquez McCray, a dual-threat quarterback who has completed 115 of 198 for 1,414 yards and rushed for 511 on 107 carries. Kolbe Burrell, a 5-8 sophomore, leads the team in rushing with 721 yards on 115 attempts.
The Hawks needed every bit of offense in the semifinals when they fell behind Coatesville by 21 points in the second half, only to come back for a thrilling 53-49 win.
Looking at what happened to St. Joseph’s in the semifinals and looking at the fact that Pine-Richland averages 47 points a game, this game could feature lots of offense.
It’s entirely possible that whatever team plays better defense will win. Jurkovec needs 221 yards passing to become the third quarterback in Pennsylvania history to throw for 4,000 yards in a season. He needs 131 yards offense to reach 11,000 for his career.
Kasperowicz has said he believes his offense could go down as one of the best in Pennsylvania history. But often times, a team’s legacy is determined by whether they finish things off and win a state championship. So what will Pine-Richland’s legacy be?
“Our approach has been we’re just 1-0 every week,” said Kasperowicz. “But at the beginning of the year, at our team meeting back in February, our goal was to win a state championship. Anything else would be disappointing.”