MHS moves above .500, Hun closes in on league title
By: Bob Nuse
The Princeton Day School football team hasn’t allowed a touchdown in over a month. In fact, the Panthers have not allowed a point in posting four straight shutout wins to improve to 4-2 on the season.
The latest of those wins came Saturday when PDS topped St. Joseph’s of the Palisades, 25-0, in the school’s first night home game ever. Quarterback Clint O’Brien ran for a pair of touchdowns and his older brother, Dan, returned a punt for a touchdown as the Panthers came away with the win in a game that was delayed for over an hour due to lightning midway through the first quarter.
"It was another great defensive effort," said PDS coach Bruce Devlin, whose team will try to make it five straight wins when the Panthers host Calvary Christian on Saturday. "The kids on defense have been playing great. They’ve been attacking the ball. It’s unbelievable to get four straight shutouts at any level. We haven’t given up a point in 20 quarters."
The Panthers got the only points they would need when O’Brien ran a punt back for a touchdown in the second quarter. PDS was able to hold St. Joe’s to just 43 yards in total offense, the fifth straight game in which it has held the opposition under 100 yards in offense.
"We’re doing a lot of different things," Devlin said. "It all starts up front with the defensive line and the linebackers. Craig Knowlton, our nose tackle, he just blows up plays with his speed and quickness. He has a certain knack for shedding blockers. When you get penetration like we have from your nose tackle, it just blows the play up.
"The kids are all having fun. It’s been a great effort by everybody on the defense. We’ve got four shutouts in a row and now we’re going for five. We’re making progress and that’s what it’s all about. The kids really enjoyed getting to play our first night game. We had a good crowd and everybody really enjoyed it."
David Blitzer blocked two punts and had 13 tackles in the game.
The Hun School moved itself into position for its first outright Mid-Atlantic Prep League championship with a 21-7 win at Blair on Saturday. The Raiders improved to 4-1 overall and 3-0 in the MAPL. They would clinch an outright championship with a win at home on Saturday against Peddie.
The Raiders scored a pair of First-quarter touchdowns on runs by Myron Rolle to take a 14-0 lead. Jae Lee Rouson then added a touchdown run in the third quarter to give the Raiders a 21-0 lead. Blair added a touchdown in the third quarter, but by then it was too little, too late.
Rolle finished the game with 215 yards rushing on 19 carries, while Rouson added 53 yards rushing. Rolle also led the way on defense for the Raiders with eight tackles and a sack.
It wasn’t all that long ago that the thought of Montgomery playing football against Immaculata was quite a stretch. So there was little wonder the Cougars came away from Friday night’s 17-14 win feeling quite good about themselves.
"It was a big win because we had never been over .500 before, other than after our first game this year," Montgomery coach Zoran Milich said. "So to be this far along in the season and have a winning record, that’s big for us. It didn’t matter that it was Immaculata or anybody else, it was just big to be able to win for the game."
Montgomery grabbed a 7-0 lead in the second quarter on a touchdown run by quarterback Chris Fischer. After Immaculata tied the score, Chris Minck gave the Cougars a 10-7 lead after three quarters with a 24-yard field goal. Dupree Wade’s 21-yard touchdown run in the fourth quarter increased the lead to 17-7 before Immaculata added a fourth quarter touchdown.
"I thought Chris Fischer did a phenomenal job running the offense," said Milich, whose team will go for its fourth win Friday night when it hosts Voorhees. "We ran a lot of option and gave him a lot of freedom and he did a great job. It was the best game that he has played for us from the standpoint of making the right decisions and making plays. He did a lot of things that don’t show up in the box score, but without them we don’t win."
West Windsor-Plainsboro South fell to Notre Dame, 31-0, in its Homecoming Day game on Saturday. The Pirates were the victims in the 46th straight Colonial Valley Conference win for the Irish.