St. Thomas Aquinas visits St. Joseph-Metuchen on October 19, 2024. (Photo: Mike Pavlichko)
It was the end of the line for St. Thomas Aquinas and St. Joseph-Metuchen in the state playoffs Friday night, as the Trojans and Falcons both lost their round of 16 games in the state playoffs.
Non-Public B Quarterfinals: (4) Holy Spirit 35, (5) St. Thomas Aquinas 31
Coming off their first playoff win in over two decades – a 61-6 throttling of St. Mary-Rutherford – the Trojans fell just short down in Absecon Friday night, 35-31.
This was a back-and-forth affair, as St. Thomas was playing catch up all night, and even did, twice.
Jahcere Ward’s two-yard run opened the scoring for the Spartans in the first quarter, but STA countered with a 71-yard kickoff return for a touchdown to tie it at 7-7.
In the second, Ward scored on a one-yard run, and St. Thomas countered with a Brandon Falke 32-yard field goal to cut it to 14-7. The teams traded touchdowns before the half, with Holy Spirit getting a 36-yard touchdown pass from Ty Costabile to Ryan Abbott. At which point, Aquinas QB Roman Blanks said “Anything you can do, I can do, better,” and hit Anthony Perez from 61-yards out to make cut the deficit to 21-17.
The Trojans took a 24-21 lead on a seven-yard run by Chukwuma Odoh, then gave it back. Ca’si Thomas’s 46-yard touchdown run but Aquinas up 31-28 heading into the fourth.
But the lead would not hold, as Brady Kolbe caught a five-yard TD pass from Costabile, for a 35-31 lead. And Holy Spirit made two goal line stands in the final four minutes of the game to seal the deal.
St. Thomas Aquinas finishes the season 8-3, while the Spartans are now 9-1 and will play next Friday night in the Non-Public B semifinals at top-seed DePaul, a 45-14 winner over 8-seed Paul VI.
Non-Public A Quarterfinals: (2) Don Bosco Prep 45, (7) St. Joseph-Metuchen 6
In the only opening round game in the section played Friday night, Don Bosco scored big in the first half, taking a 10-0 lead after one quarter, and a 38-0 lead with a running clock heading into the locker room.
Five different players got on the board for the Ironmen, who improve to 7-3 and will play the winner of Saturday’s game between 6-seed St. Augustine and third-seed Delbarton in next week’s Non-Public A semifinal.
St. Joseph – which got its lone touchdown in the fourth quarter on a seven-yard touchdown pass from Justin Scaramuzzo to Ashton Irving – finishes 5-5, having lost five in a row after starting the season 5-0.
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