Philadelphia, Pa., Marcus Kelly’s ground show and a very stingy defense propelled the Roman Catholic Cahilittes to a 35-14 win over Father Judge in a AAAA Philadelphia Catholic League game at Charles Martin stadium. The Cahilittes rebounded after their close 21-19 conference opening loss to LaSalle last week. Their big play capability by multiple players was on display throughout.
On Roman’s second offensive series with the ball at their own 11 yard line they generated an 11 play drive with the key play of Michael Kier to William Fuller for a 51 yard pass completion. Kelly’s touchdown run from the one opened up the scoring. Judge came right back and went on a 60 yard drive that stalled when Fuller intercepted Judge Quarterback Rob Daniels in the end zone.
Three plays later, Kelly scored on an amazing 87 yard touchdown run breaking four tackles and running from one near sideline to the other before going the distance. With five minutes left in the half, Judge scored in three plays after starting at their own 22 with a Daniels to Connor Donahue 38 yard completion, Raul Quinones 18 yard run then Daniels 22 yard touchdown pass to Tim Mills in the right side of the end zone. Roman answered with a combination of Kier’s passing and Kelly’s running which ended with a six yard touchdown pass from Kier to Taishan Tucker and a 21-7 Roman advantage at intermission.
Judge rolled the dice with an onside kick which they recovered to start the second half, but Quinones lost the handoff from Daniels on the next play which the Cahilittes got right back. Roman scored three plays later with a Kier to Fuller seven yard touchdown reception. Quinones made up for the mistake by taking the ensuing kickoff 92 yards for a touchdown and we appeared off to the races.
Besides a great offense, Roman showed a solid presence on defense the rest of the way thwarting two long Crusader drives. Fuller made another sensational “high point” interception killing one drive and Chris Cruz picked another Daniels pass in the fourth quarter and returned it for a touchdown and the final nail in the coffin.
Kelly finished the day with 219 yards rushing and one touchdown on 27 carries. Fuller had six catches for 91 yards, one touchdown and two interceptions. Roman’s defense, led by Brett Pellicciotti, Jack Schanz and Tyrone Brown, gave Quinones little room to run and pressured Daniels throughout. The Crusaders played mostly without their star running back Matt Smalley who suffered a bruised ankle last week against St. Joe Prep.
The Cahilttes move to 4-2 and their high powered offense will be very difficult to game plan against the rest of the way. A game versus conference foe Archbishop Ryan awaits them. Judge falls to 4-2 and a date with LaSalle next week.
Scoring by Quarter
1st Quarter
Roman- Marcus Kelly- 1 run- PAT- Phillip Isaac- :07
2nd Quarter
Roman- Marcus Kelly- 87 run-PAT- Phillip Isaac- 7:57
Father Judge- Tim Mills- 22 pass from Rob Daniels- PAT- Connor Foley- 3:18
Roman- Taishan Tucker- 6 pass from Michael Kier- PAT- Phillip Isaac- :25
3rd Quarter
Roman- William Fuller- 7 pass from Michael Kier- PAT- Phillip Isaac- 11:02
Father Judge- Raul Quinones- 92 kickoff return- PAT- Connor Foley- 10:24
4th Quarter
Roman- Chris Cruz 35 interception return- PAT-Phillip Issac- 2:39
