The Jays football team finished off their perfect 10-0 regular season on Saturday with a 48-17 victory against the McDaniel Green Terror. Hopkins was 9-0 in conference play, giving them a fourth straight outright Centennial Conference title.
With their victory Saturday afternoon, the Jays earned the Centennial Conference’s automatic NCAA tournament berth to go with their conference championship. The Jays’ domination of the conference continued as they cruised to their 14th straight victory over the Green Terror.
Pressure on the team went away early as they pounced on McDaniel, taking a 21-0 lead less than 10 minutes into the game. To open up the contest, both teams traded punts before the Jays took control, scoring three touchdowns within four minutes with the longest drive taking only two minutes.
Junior Brandon Cherry started the scoring off with a 14-yard touchdown run, his sixth of the year, for the exclamation point to a five-play, 52-yard drive that took just 72 seconds. Senior quarterback Braden Anderson quickly extended the lead on the next possession with a 21-yard pass to Quinn Donaldson. This play, which put the Jays up 14-0, was Donaldson’s sixth touchdown reception of the year.
McDaniel tried some trickery on the ensuing kickoff with a reverse on the return. However, the Green Terror botched their lateral attempt, and sophomore Jesse Poore recovered the fumble, resulting in the Jays starting their possession on the McDaniel nine-yard line. Anderson converted from the one-yard line on a bootleg to give the Jays their fourth 21-0 first quarter lead in the last five games.
The 21-0 lead didn’t last long as the Terror answered with a score of their own in just four plays. An 80-yard drive was capped by a 20-yard connection from sophomore Matty Callahan to JT Kotowski. The long drive, which brought McDaniel’s deficit to 21-7, was highlighted by a season-long 49-yard run by Callahan.
The Jays regained their momentum, going on a 20-0 run in the remainder of the first half to go ahead 41-7 heading into the break. The scoring started late in the first quarter when Anderson hit senior tight end Brad Foulke on a seven-yard touchdown pass. Freshman Jamie Sullivan tacked on two more field goals (25, 23) before junior Will Nunn added a 17-yard score to freshman David Brookhart right before the half.
Hopkins continued its run of unanswered scores in its first possession of the second half when sophomore Jonathan Germano finished off a 10-play, 74-yard drive on a three-yard run.
McDaniel then scored 10 straight points in the fourth quarter, but it wasn’t nearly enough to recover from the Hopkins lead; the game ended in favor of Hopkins, 48-17.
Anderson was the catalyst for the Jays offense, finishing with 459 total yards. He was 14-18 for 165 yards and two touchdowns while rushing for 38 yards and another touchdown. Germano led the way on the ground, finishing with 58 yards and one touchdown. Sophomore Dan Johnson tallied a team-high six tackles on top of an interception for the day.
The senior class played their final regular season game of their careers, improving their overall record to 40-4 at Hopkins. They have become the winningest class in school history and are one win behind the all-time conference record (McDaniel’s class of 2000 won 41 games).
Hopkins will begin a playoff campaign this weekend.
“Having played in the playoffs the last three years, we know what to expect from a playoff atmosphere. We know it’s a win or go home situation,” Anderson said. ”As seniors, we’re going to do everything we can to make sure it’s not the last game we play in our careers. We saw what happened last year and want to make sure we don’t experience the same thing.”
The Jays will start their postseason with an opening round matchup on Saturday against Rowan (7-3) at Homewood Field. The game has a noon kickoff.
