St. Joseph Regional (Montvale, N.J.) at McDonogh (Owings Mills, Md.)
McDonogh will have a tough task in its third game of the season: St. Joseph Regional.
File photo by John Bowers
St. Joseph Regional will take the field without Tony Karcich as its head coach for the first time since 1985. Karcich retired after winning his 17th state championship at the school last season. Augie Hoffman, who played for Karcich at SJR and then briefly in the NFL, inherits a team expected to be strong at his former position: offensive line. The Green Knights have a pair of FBS-committed starting lineman in seniors
Tommy Hatton (North Carolina) and
Benson Israel (Temple). McDonogh kicked off its season with a 37-14 road victory against
Benedictine (Richmond, Va.) last Saturday. It was the 12th win in a row for the Eagles, who last year went undefeated and earned their first outright Maryland Interscholastic Athletic Association championship since 2000. McDonogh is expected to be strong again on both sides of the ball with offensive lineman
Ellis McKennie (a Maryland recruit) and linebacker
Wyatt Cook (Purdue) topping the list of returning starters.
Just the facts: St. Joseph's Regional was a moribund 75-97-3 in the 20 seasons prior to Karcich's arrival. In the next 29 years, the Green Knights won 266 games and were ranked No. 1 in New Jersey five times. Overall, Karcich finished his 38-year coaching career with 338 wins and 20 state titles. … McDonogh hopes to fare much better than the last time it played a team from New Jersey. The Eagles were dominated, 31-6, by
St. Peter's Prep (Jersey City) in 2012.
Mitch Stephens: McDonogh 21, St. Joseph Regional 20
Kevin Askeland: St. Joseph Regional 28, McDonogh 14
Jamie DeMoney: St. Joseph Regional 27, McDonogh 25
Stephen Spiewak: St. Joseph Regional 14, McDonogh 10
Leland Gordon: St. Joseph Regional 21, McDonogh 15
Colin Ward-Henninger: St. Joseph Regional 17, McDonogh 14
