CHICAGO — St. Joseph Regional of Montvale scored 30 points in the first quarter at Barda-Dowling Stadium, on ESPN, in the first ESPN game in the program's history. It lost.
The 30 came in every way a team can find them. William Mitchell threw a receiver pass to Stalin Knowlden. Andrew Wilson ran 52 yards. St. Joseph recovered a fumbled punt snap in the end zone, took a safety-created possession and Knowlden returned the ensuing free kick for a touchdown. Thirty to nothing, first quarter, per Darren Cooper of NorthJersey.com.
Mount Carmel got back into it on a fake punt that went 50 yards. Brady Cloherty threw a touchdown on the next play. A deflected short punt gave Mount Carmel the ball again and Cloherty threw another. It was 30-28 at half.
St. Joseph Regional held the lead through the third — Cloherty's one-yard slant to Quentin Burrell, Knowlden's 33-yard catch from Ralph Tristani, Wilson's three-yard run for 44-35.
Cloherty found Ty Kennedy from 34 yards with 10:29 left. The two-point try failed and it was 44-41. With 5:03 left, on fourth-and-8, he threw 35 yards to Burrell for Mount Carmel's first lead of the night at 48-44.
St. Joseph turned it over on downs with 1:56 left and Joe Tracy intercepted a tipped pass with about a minute to go.
Cloherty threw seven touchdown passes. We had St. Joseph Regional 35th on the national board and Mount Carmel nowhere, having taken it off on Aug. 24 after a 42-23 loss to East St. Louis. Both of those numbers were an opinion, and one of them just got audited in public.
