Thomas Jefferson rolls past Hampton
Things started off badly for Hampton when the team fumbled on the opening play the game and threw an interceptionon its second.
“You can’t do that against a very good team and a very good program,” Hampton coach Jacque DeMatteo said. “It was a match that wasdifficult for us.”
Itdidn’t get much better after that. Thomas Jefferson quarterback Joe Lekse ran for five touchdowns, including two on quarterback sneaksand also intercepted a pass on defense in the first quarter. That output, coupled with a dominating defensive performance helped the No. 5-seeded Jaguars (8-2) to a 42-14 romp over host No. 4 Hampton in the WPIALClass 4A quarterfinals.
“I didn’t even know I had five touchdowns,” Lekse said. “I thought Ihad two.”
Thomas Jefferson dominated at the line of scrimmage as its big bodies up front had their way with the smaller Hampton lines. The Jaguars only attempted one pass — it was incomplete — as they pounded through the Talbots for 296 yards on theground.
In the meantime, Thomas Jefferson handled the shifty Hampton running game and held it to only four yardson 24 carries.
“Idon’t remember the last time we won a game without completing a single pass,” Thomas Jefferson coach Bill Cherpak said. “Obviously our goal was to be physical knowing we had a huge size advantage and I thought we did pretty well in that aspect.”
On the first play, Hampton quarterback Matt DeMatteo dropped a snap and recovered for a 7-yard loss. He tried to get it all back in one fell swoop and went deep down the left sideline, but he underthrew the pass and it was intercepted by Sean Sullivan to set up the Jaguars at the Talbots38.
Thomas Jefferson then started its old-school grind-it-out attack. The Jaguarsexclusively ran the ball right at the Hampton defense until Lekse, who finished with 24 carries for 111 yards, capped things with a 1-yard quarterback sneak for the first of his three first-quarter touchdowns and a 7-0lead 4:43 into the game.
“I just concentrated on running north-south and picking up first downs,” Lekse said. “In the red zone, I just concentrating on finding a seamand running through.” Thatwas only the start.
On its first four drives, Thomas Jefferson outgained Hampton, 154 to minus-12, and did not have an offensive snap in its territory. It ran 18 plays on the Talbots side of the field andone at the 50.
Lekse scored on the first three drivesand Elias Lippencott, who carried 17 times for 101 yards before leaving the in the third quarter with an injury, went over from 2 yards to giveThomas Jefferson a 28-0 lead 1:24 intothe second quarter.
Hampton showed some life on its next drive when it got out of negative yardage on a 29-yard halfback option pass from Brock Burgo to Benny Haselrig. But it wasn’t until the final three minutes of the half when the Talbots finally got things going thanks to some sloppy play by theThomas Jefferson special teams.
On the first, Thomas Jefferson muffed a punt when there was contact with the returner on a fair catch attempt and Hampton recovered at the Jaguars 5.
On fourth down, Christian Liberto scored on a 4-yard plunge that cut the Thomas Jefferson lead to 287 with 32 seconds left in the half. The Jaguars then fumbled the kickoff return and put the Talbots in business at the Thomas Jefferson 19.
Following an illegal substitution penalty, DeMatteo made his first completion a big one. He hit Haselrig at the back-right pylon for a 24yard touchdown with 12 seconds remaining to get the Talbots back to 28-14 at the intermission.
Thomas Jefferson outgained Hampton, 155-49 in the first half and 296-53 in the game. In the first half, the Jaguars did not attempt a pass and the Talbots carried 17 times for 0 yards.