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By Dale Gerhard 9/28/02
HIGH SCHOOL FOOTBALL
/ ST. JOSEPH RUNS AWAY FROM MIDDLE TWP.
Date: Sunday, September
29, 2002
Section: Sports
Edition: All
Page: E3
Byline: By GUY GARGAN For The Press
Caption:
St. Joseph running back Jack Cocoran (No. 7) is tackled by Middle
Township's Maurice Ginyard during Saturday's game.
It took longer than
usual for the vaunted St. Joseph High School football
running attack to get cranked up in Saturday's game against Middle
Township. St. Joe ended up winning as expected, 47-6, but Wildcats coach
Paul Sacco is a tough audience and he spoke more about how the game was
0-0 into the second quarter.
St. Joseph, the defending Cape-Atlantic League National Conference
champion, improved to 3-0 overall and 2-0 in the conference. The Panthers
dropped to 0-2 and 0-2.
"Today was a perfect example of how we practiced this week,"
Sacco said.
"We had a terrible week of practice and nobody came out ready to
play. I
expect our seniors to show leadership in practice.
"We lost our fullback Jordan Manning to an injury three plays into
the
game, and we had to move our starting halfback, Jack Corcoran, to
fullback. He didn't practice at fullback all week. We moved (George)
Barrett into the halfback spot and he did a good job.
"I don't think our line played very well today. Our running backs
did a
lot on their own. Despite the score, you can't beat teams like Buena down
the road playing like we did today."
The underdog Panthers played St. Joseph tough for 12 minutes, but the
Wildcats opened the floodgates on the fifth play of the second period.
The
Wildcats were facing a fourth down and 13 at the Middle 34-yard line,
and
running back Eric Rembert fooled the Panthers on an inside reverse for
a
touchdown.
"That play looks like a sweep and ends up inside to Rembert,"
Sacco said.
"That kind of opened things up for us. We did some things today that
we
didn't want to do, but we're a good enough team to do it."
Rembert confounded the Panthers from there to the end, with three
touchdowns in all on the day and two more called back due to penalties.
The 5-foot-10, 178-pound senior also took a screen pass near the left
sideline from quarterback Mike Peteah and went 34 yards for St. Joe's
fourth score of the second quarter. Kicker Ryan Simone's PAT made it 27-0
at halftime. Rembert's other TD was a six-yard run around right end in
the
fourth quarter.
Corcoran is one of the top freshman running backs in southern New Jersey.
Already 5-11, 188 pounds, Corcoran hit the line hard for 123 yards on
24
carries. He scored the Wildcats' second touchdown on a one-run dive, and
also the first score of the second half from three yards out.
Middle finally got on the board in the fourth quarter when Brandon Hamer
reached up to catch a pass from quarterback Erich Wolf and then eluded
two
defenders for a 64-yard touchdown.
"St. Joseph is a very good team, they're very strong and disciplined,
and
we knew that," Middle coach Larry Ziemba said. "They were giving
us the
pass but it was windy and that hurt us. The wind has died down now, I
wish
the game was starting now. It became a field position game, and you can't
make mistakes against a team like St. Joe. They're the class of the league
(conference), the champs. We've improved a lot but we're not at that level
yet."
To e-mail Guy Gargan
at The Press:
GGargan @pressofac.com
St. Joseph 0 27 14
6 - 47
Middle Township 0 0 0 6 - 6
SECOND QUARTER
SJ - Rembert 34 run (Simone kick)
SJ - Corcoran 1 run (Simone kick)
SJ - Clements 40 pass from Peteah (kick failed)
SJ - Rembert 34 pass from Peteah (Simone kick)
THIRD QUARTER
SJ - Corcoran 3 run (Simone kick)
SJ - Collins 16 run (Simone kick)
FOURTH QUARTER
SJ - Rembert 6 run (kick failed)
MT - Hamer 64 pass from Wolf (run failed)
Team statistics
SJ MT
Rushing 279 -5
Passing 89 105
First downs 13 7
Turnovers 1 4
Individual statistics
Rushing - SJ - Corcoran 24-123, Manning 2-20, Rembert 16-107, Barrett
5-12, Peteah 2-3, Collins 2-17, Young 2-20. MT - Abad 3-4, Wise 9-8, Wolf
8-12, Edwards 2-4, Ginyard 1-9.
Passing - SJ - Peteah 3-7-89-0. MT - Wolf 6-13-105-1, Wise 0-1-0-1.
Receiving - SJ - Corcoran 1-15, Clements 1-40, Rembert. MT - Hamer 3-79,
Abad 1-12, Harrison 1-8, Hebron 1-6.
RECORDS - St. Joseph 3-0; Middle Twp 0-2.
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