THE CATS CONQUER THE COWS!!!….NEXT MAN UP!!!!
When the 2023 season started, St. John the Baptist junior quarterback, Maxwell Bowers, was listed no higher than 2nd on the depth chart (likely 3rd)!!!
Fast-forward several weeks and today, the 6’1, 180-pounder hailing from Brightwaters finds himself bestowed with unofficial GOAT status following a tremendous individual effort that witnessed him amass 3 total touchdowns (2 passing, 1 running) as part of the second-seeded Cougars 28-14 victory over #1 Moore Catholic in the AA-1 finale on the campus of Fordham University!
The win by the West Islip based program marking the fourth straight opportunity where the Double-A-1 hardware is headed back to Long Island (Chaminade in 2019 & 2021, Holy Trinity in 2022), for the Mavericks of MC, it represented yet another promising campaign that ended on a sour note, as they have now dropped the title game in three straight attempts!
Rallying from an initial 7-0 deficit after their rivals from Staten Island [Moore Catholic] scored on their opening possession (2-yard TD run by RJ Pacheco out of the wildcat formation) of the afternoon, the Phillip Alba instructed clowder responded by answering back with 28 unanswered points among the 1st thru 3rd quarters!!
Demonstrating immense poise and finding ways to rise to move the chains while facing less than desirable circumstances, a pattern all afternoon was the ability for SJB to repeatedly extend drives and/or find the end zone on 3rd down!!!
Shaking off an INT (by Damon Stewart Jr., on the opposing 36 to set up the Pacheco TD run), Bowers immediately flashed that “short memory” on the school’s second chance with the ball as he’d even the bout at 7-7 with 2:46 to go in the 1st quarter when on 3rd &9, he hit a bubble screen to DJ Lisbon for the 11-yard TD pass for the first of a pair of pitch-and-catch exchanges between #14 and #11!!!….Earlier in the series, it was a 32-yard scramble (on 3rd &7) by the 11th grade field general that put SJB in business, as he moved the ball inside the enemy 12!
Thanks to three defensive stands (turnover on downs + punt forced by SJB sandwiched around an induced punt by the MC defense), the scoreboard remained unchanged until the final 4:00 of the 1st half when it was a 33-yard reception by Lisbon on 3rd & 11 that advanced the pigskin inside the Mav red zone before a few snaps later, two-way standout/reigning POTW, Luka Skoda, bulldozed his way across the line for the 1-yard TD run (his fifth ground score of the playoffs) to up the cushion to 14-3 with 3:50 showing before the break!
The intensity on the host sideline not the least bit subdued when action resumed in the 3rd quarter, after their “D” generated a 3 and out from the usually highly-potent Moore Catholic attack, it was Skoda exploding for runs of 16 + 9 yards on back-to-back hand-offs to propel SJB from the MC 41 to the 16….Making the efforts of their power-back worthwhile, John the Baptist again was able to find that “clutch” gene, as a 10-yard slant from Bowers to Lisbon on 3rd &7 capped off a 3:33 series to vault the edge to 21-7 with 7:12 remaining in 3Q…
A Michael Wheat pass break-up on 3rd &10 responsible for yet another MC punt, the Cougars continued to pile on, as they marched 65 yards down field for a second straight successful drive, highlighted by a 15-yard scramble from Bowers (3rd &14 to move ball from his own 29 to the 44) and a 29-yard leaping hook-up to WR, Michael Conza, to land on the opponent’s 16….Bowers eventually lowered his shoulder on 3rd & 6, Bowers and pounded his way 12 yards to the house for an insurance TD to make the score 28-7 with just 11 ticks before the end of the third stanza!!
Before the horn could sound on the end of the 3Q, Moore Catholic would have one of their rare signature moments, as University of Maryland bound wideout, Boakai Veikai, was able to take an end round to the corner and then cut back for a 64-yard TD run with no time on the clock to trim the hole to 28-14 with only 12 minutes still unspoken for!!
Unfortunately, the Mavericks were unable to draw any closer during the final quarter, as a pair of interceptions by Joseph Rivera (8:35 to go) & Lisbon (tipped pass by Jovan Bonilla that was returned 44 yards to paydirt before a block in the back negated the “6” with 2:23 left in the 4Q) haunted our regular season champs from Merrill Avenue!
While the pick-6 would have been the perfect exclamation/bonus bullet point on the resume of Lisbon (was named as the Offensive MVP), it was in many ways the moment of coronation as the change of possession enabled SJB to exhaust the waning moments by keeping the ball on the ground before transitioning into victory formation!!!
Skoda was named the Most Outstanding Player on the defensive side of the ball while serving as the anchor/trend-setter for a collective unit that wreaked havoc all night, holding Moore Catholic to a fraction of the 32.5 points they averaged versus AA-1 peers this fall!
Best described as a “bend, but not fold” outfit, on multiple occasions, the “D” allowed their opponents to be on the cusp of scoring, but then got tough and halted the drives….Especially prominent and/or momentum building were the heroics at the end of the 2nd quarter when several passes from MC freshman QB, Thomas Zeh, to either Veikai or Matthias Lighten, got the ball to the Cougar 14, but ended in disappointment when Giovanni Bennardo missed wide on a 31-yard FG attempt!
Not awarded any individual honors, a shoutout must be given to SJB cornerback, Chris King Jr., who despite being mano-a-mano with two future NCAA DI players (Lighten and Veikai), was remarkable in allowing anything than one harmless pass interference call….His body of work was influential in preventing Moore from registering a TD in the sky for just the second time all season!!
After being a triple-A powerhouse in the 80s (titles in 1980-1982 + 1984), as well as Single-A princes in 2001-2002, 2010, and 2013, St. John the Baptist hoisted the AA hardware for the first time in program history to give them a 9th overall Metro crown!!