Phillipsburg kicked off its 2021-2022 football season squaring off with St. Joe’s Green Knights, a prep school powerhouse hailing from Metuchen, NJ, and ranked No.3 in the state according to MaxPreps.com.
The game opened with Phillipsburg’s own Buster Penrose making a solid reception, setting the tone for the quarter to come. The rest of the first quarter had St. Joe’s and Phillipsburg at a stalemate, each team vying for the edge as the quarter came to a close with the score still tied at 0-0.
Before halftime, St. Joe managed to break the ice and score a touchdown thanks to an exceptional, long-range throw made by Luke Henrich to Jaden Wimberly. The same duo scored again to build up a 14-0 lead against P’burg. Phillipsburg’s Xavier Moore ran five yards to score the Stateliners first touchdown deep into the third quarter, briefly turning the tide in P’burg’s favor. However, a fumble eventually led to the Green Knights reasserting their lead with a 87-yard run, bringing the score to 21-6. The same trend continued in the fourth quarter, with St. Joe’s Kenyon Massey securing the win with a six-yard touchdown.
Key takeaways: While Phillipsburg may have lost, they proved they can keep up their fighting Stateliner spirit in the face of overwhelming odds, not once backing down to St. Joe’s dynamic offensive performance. When asked about his thoughts on the game and the upcoming showdown against Hillsboro, Phillipsburg senior and team captain Stephen Gural had the following to say, “Anyone who watched the game could tell that it was a lot closer than the final score showed it to be. We did have the ability to win against St. Joe’s and that’s what counts in games like that. To beat Hillsboro we’ll just have to out hit them across the board, offense and defense. We never change up our game plan much week to week. I’m confident that we’ll go out and play our brand of football and dominate this Friday night.”
One thing is for sure, this match up has made both St. Joe’s and Phillipsburg teams to watch for this riveting 2021-2022 season of New Jersey football.
Photo’s by Mankaran Hanjra & Tarun Anbarasu
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