The Hopkins football team knows a thing or two about winning in October. Prior to Saturday’s game against the Juniata Eagles, the Blue Jays had won nine straight during that month. Juniata came into this game with a 3-1 record and relished the chance to knock off the Centennial Conference leaders. Hopkins, on the other hand, looked to extend their undefeated record to 5-0 and continue their dominant performances in conference matchups. After the dust had settled, the Jays were able to conquer the Eagles 65-10 behind a huge offensive effort and extended their conference record to 4-0.
Both teams traded offensive miscues early in the first quarter. After their first drive ended unsuccessfully, Juniata attempted to punt. Sophomore punter Jonah Plymire failed to handle the snap and gave the Jays the ball on the 18-yard line. Two plays later, Senior quarterback Robbie Matey found fellow senior Bob D’Orazio for a 10-yard touchdown strike. However, on the Jays’ next drive, Juniata senior Kevin Gordon picked off Matey and returned it to Blue Jays 24-yard line. The Eagles were able to get a field goal off the turnover and trailed the Jays 7-3 late in the first quarter.
From there, the game was dominated by a Hopkins aerial attack that simply refused to let up. The Blue Jays scored 24 straight points to extend their 7-3 lead to 31-3 at halftime. Matey successfully led scoring drives of 89 and 73 yards with touchdown passes to senior Jon Monteiro and D’Orazio to begin the scoring onslaught. By halftime, Hopkins had scored two additional times on a 29-yard field goal from freshman Nick Campbell and on a one yard scoring run by sophomore Brandon Cherry.
The second half did not fare better for Juniata, who continued to give up huge chunks of yardage to the Blue Jay passing attack. All hope for a Juniata comeback was extinguished when Matey found D’Orazio yet again for a 62-yard touchdown a mere 76 seconds into the second half. Less than a minute and a half later, junior Ryan Rice intercepted Juniata quarterback Ward Udinski to give the Jays the ball back in Eagle territory. Once again, Matey found an open receiver in senior Jared Beekman for a 37-yard touchdown pass.
The Eagles finally stopped the bleeding after the Blue Jays had tallied 37 straight points. Midway through the third quarter, Udinski found Junior Kyle Shuck in the end zone for Juniata’s lone touchdown of the game. The Jays were not finished, however, and scored their final 21 points over the last 19 minutes of the game.
When all was said and done, the Blue Jays had put up some extremely impressive numbers against the overpowered Eagles. Hopkins totaled 65 points, good enough for the fourth-highest single-game total in school history. Robbie Matey had a career day, going 23-26 on pass attempts for a career high 408 yards and a personal best six touchdown passes. He became only the third Hopkins quarterback to throw for over 400 yards in a game. For his effort, Matey was named the Centennial Conference Offensive Player of the Week.
When asked about his performance, Matey shifted the focus to the offense as a whole. “It was a great offensive game for us as a unit. The offensive line really played outstanding as a group, even more so when you consider two starters from a week ago didn’t play,” Matey said. “The backs and receivers had a great day in making some tough catches and making the first player miss and it showed with the points and yards we put up. We caught them in some blitzes in which the perfect play was called and we executed as a group extremely well.”
The 601 yards of total offense was the sixth highest total in school history and had multiple players turning in great games. D’Orazio’s had four receptions totaling 108 yards and three touchdown receptions. He also became the 21st player in school history to reach 1,000 career receiving yards. Also, freshman Dionisio Roman rushed for a career-high 77 yards on 17 carries, while fellow freshman Stuart Walters added 66 rushing yards on 13 attempts.
Not to be outdone, the Blue Jay defense stifled the dangerous Juniata offense all day. The Eagle offense came into the game averaging 33 points and 437 yards per game, but only managed a paltry 10 points and 108 yards of total offense against the Jays. This defensive unit has been dominant this season, and this marked the fifth straight game the Blue Jay defense held its opponent to 14 points or less.
Hopkins extended its October winning streak to 10 games and improved to 14-1 in its last 15 road games with the victory. The Blue Jays will try to extend their undefeated record on Friday, Oct. 18 against the Dickinson Red Devils. Kickoff is set for 7 p.m. at Homewood Field.
