Staples falls to Morrissey, No. 2 St. Joseph
WESTPORT — St. Joseph scored the first four touchdowns and was in control throughout in beating Staples 35-14 on Friday night.
“I think it made them defeated, mentally and physically and we ended up coming out on top because of it,” St. Joseph running back Riley Jordan said.
Jordan rushed for over 100 yards and two scores to lead the offense.
“He is a very patient runner, so he sees a lot of things that we need in our offense the way we run it,” St. Joseph coach Joe Della Vecchia said.
Staples didn’t quit, getting into the red zone twice in the fourth quarter, but both times the Hogs’ defense stepped up on fourth down to end the threat.
“You can’t play a team like St. Joes and put yourself behind like that and then get in the red zone and not score and expect to have a chance to win the football game,” Staples coach Adam Behrends said. “They’re not going to let you come back from that.”
It is the 25th straight win for the No. 2 ranked Hogs.
“Any time you jump on anybody like that, it gives your kids a lot of confidence and it might have deflated them a little bit and (they’re) probably saying ‘what the heck just happened?’” Della Vecchia said. “It took them a while to gather themselves I think, but they kept coming back, they didn’t stop.”
Jordan scored on a 35yard run on the first drive. Quarterback Matt Morrissey scored the next two on 1-yard runs and then an option pass from Maxwell Warren to Anthony Greco gave the Hogs a 28-0 lead in the second quarter.
Staples, coming off a win over Trumbull in the season opener, got on the board in the second quarter with a six-yard pass to Nick Armentano from Ryan Thompson. The two linked up again for a 35-yard touchdown in the third quarter.
PLAYER OF THE GAME
Riley Jordan, St. Joseph, Jr., RB: The running back got the scoring started early and had a handful of
big runs to extend drives for the Hogs.
QUOTABLE
“They wanted to play so bad tonight, kind of being a little bit forgotten during the week. It was a big game down here, but nobody said who they were playing.” — Joe Della Vecchia.