Two down, one to go. On Friday, September 14th the North Penn Knights will host the St. Joes Prep Hawks, the third top ten state ranked team in a row the Knights have faced to open the 2012 season.
The Hawks come into the game 2-0 to start the year. They traveled down to Orlando Florida for their season opener at the Disney World Wide of Sports against nationally ranked team Cocoa High School, where St. Joes came away with the win 16-7. Last week, the Hawks took on Gonzaga High School in Navy Stadium in Washington D.C., where the Hawks once again left victorious with a score of 28-14.
St. Joes head coach Gabe Infante leads a very talented team into Crawford Stadium on Friday night. Hawks Jr. quarterback Chris Martin enters the game going 16 for 28 with 278 passing yards and one touchdown. Martin also knows how to run the ball, running 24 times this season for 79 yards and two touchdowns. His offensive weapons include Jr. running back Vincent Moffett who has 155 rushing yards on the season with one touchdown. Moffett, another dually talented player, also leads the team in receiving yards with 93 catches on three receptions and a touch down. Jr. Jawan McCallister will also be looking to make an impact for the Hawks as he already has 75 yards with seven receptions this season.
On the Knights side of the ball, Coach Dick Beck will be looking to continue his team’s momentum after coming away from last week’s game against Archbishop Wood victorious. Coming off a loss in their season opener to rival LaSalle 20-7, the Knights offensive outburst in the second half carried them to a 24-10 victory over the Vikings last Saturday night.
North Penn quarterback Austin Shearer enters Friday night passing 33 times for 10 completions and 111 yards over the first two games. The Knights came out of the first half last week trailing 7-10 with only three total yards of offense, but Kyle Mayfield and Steve Gozur lead North Penn to a win in the remaining two quarters of the game. Gozur had a fire starting 95 yard fumble recovery and return for a touchdown with along with 60 yards rushing. Kyle Mayfield will also try to continue his dominance in the backfield with 231 rushing yards on 41 carries over the first two games, with 135 yards and two touchdowns against Archbishop Wood last week.
North Penn enters this week the underdog, ranked 6th overall in the state facing the Hawks powerful 2nd ranked team. Both teams have had talented opponents leading up to this matchup, so look for a competitive game with a lot of blitzing on the defensive side of the ball for the Hawks. North Penn failed to complete a pass in last week’s match, all of their offensive success came from their run game. So look for North Penn to base their offensive approach out of the backfield. With both teams coming off of wins last week, be ready for a high-energy game with big plays on both the offensive, and defensive side of the ball. Crawford will definitely be the place to be on Friday night.