The home crowd went home happy on Friday evening as the John Paul II Catholic High School football team nearly pitched a shutout in its homecoming game, beating Hargrave Military Academy 28-6.
The Saints put forth a total team effort and kept the Tigers under wraps until the visitors scored on a 15-yard pass play as time expired. JPII improved to 5-3 and will play host to Sally B. Howard from Wilson next Friday. Hargrave, which made the trip to Greenville from Chatham, Va., dropped to 2-5.
As usual, the Saints had a dominant ground game and got good efforts from Keiveon Moore, Wyatt Stamatis, Ray Shaw, Thomas Keeter and Gentry McMinn. Moore had more than 100 yards by halftime, and got even better as the game wore on. He finished with 22 carries for 267 yards and a pair of touchdowns on runs of 5 and 30 yards. Quarterback Connor Kendrick scored JPII’s first touchdown on a 2-yard run in the first quarter, and McMinn scored its last on a 45-yard halfback pass from Shaw.
It was quite a memorable night for Shaw, who primarily is a defensive leader and saw spot duty on offense. At halftime, he also was crowned the Homecoming King. Lucy Getz was named the Homecoming Queen.
McMinn had a two-point conversion pass from Kendrick after Moore’s first touchdown, and Nico Marlow had a pair of conversion kicks.
Defensively the Saints played one of their better games of the season. Marlow had an interception, and Brody Fox and Armando Perez recovered fumbles. Shaw made big hit after big hit, Ward Howdy and the rest of the line pressured the Hargrave quarterback all night, and Kendrick and J.T. Williams led the secondary.
JP—Connor Kendrick 2-yard run (run failed)
JP—Keiveon Moore 5 run (Gentry McMinn pass from Kendrick)
JP—Moore 30 run (Nico Marlow kick)
JP—McMinn 45 pass from Ray Shaw (Marlow kick)
H—Turner 15 pass from Hammock (no try)
