Jamestown’s Tommy Pluton tackles St. Joe’s Giorgio Panepinto for a safety during Friday’s non-league football game at Strider Field. PJ photo by Jason Bauer.
Nolan Klein was at the center of most of it.
The senior quarterback threw touchdown passes of 12, 15, 46 and 57 yards, the last three coming in the decisive fourth quarter, to lead the Marauders to a 41-30 victory over Jamestown in a nonleague football game at Strider Field.
The win improves St. Joe’s record to 1-1 and the Red & Green to 1-1.
For Jamestown coach Tom Langworthy, this was exactly the type of matchup he was looking for as he prepared for the Red & Green’s Class AA opener at Lockport a week from today.
Jamestown’s Aiden Samuelson shook off a St. Joe’s defender for a 44-yard touchdown during Friday’s nonleague game at Strider Field. PJ photo by Jason Bauer.
“I think you learn a lot about yourself in games like this,” he said. “It’s really good competition. They’re a good team with strength, physical speed and big players. This is exactly what you want in a non-league game. I’ve been saying all week that this is a game we needed.”
But Jamestown was leading 22-14 with just under eight minutes left in the third quarter when teammate Chase Bonta caught a blocked punt by Cole Bloomquist in the air and returned it 62 yards for a touchdown that sealed the win.
After that it was all Marauders.
From the final possession of the third quarter to the final key possession of the final period, they scored four touchdowns: Klein completed passes of 15 yards to Giorgio Panepinto, 46 yards to George Kunz and 57 yards to Damone Harden, plus a 30-yard rush by Domonic Cook Jr. Carter Petry made 4 of 5 point-after kicks and St. Joe’s held a comfortable 41-22 lead with 9 minutes and 9 seconds left in the game.
“We didn’t play nearly enough in the second half,” Langworthy said. “I think there were a lot of different moments. We couldn’t sustain drives, we struggled to get first downs, which is always tough. Then they started making big plays and we got some momentum going.”
The Marauders took the lead on their first possession of the first quarter with 8:48 to play on a 12-yard touchdown pass from Klein to Kunz that came on a 44-yard interception return by Breon Campbell Jr. The other score of the first half came on a 65-yard rushing run by Panepinto in the second quarter.
But the Red and Green found a way to gain some ground, scoring in a variety of ways. First, quarterback Dom Gonzalez completed a 7-yard shuffle pass to Carson Panebianco for a touchdown. Tommy Platton tackled a St. Joe’s runner in the end zone for a safety. Bonta threw a halfback option pass to Aiden Samuelson for a 44-yard touchdown. Then, following a blocked punt by Bloomquist, Bonta ran 62 yards for another score with 7:57 left in the third quarter to extend the hosts’ lead to 22-14.
That was just not enough.
“I thought our kids played hard,” Langworthy said. “There were a lot of things we liked, but also some things we didn’t like and we’ll have to find solutions for. But at the end of the day, this game is more ‘win and learn’ than ‘win or lose.’ … I think there are things we can learn from this game. … Overall, this is a game we can look back on in three or four weeks and say it was good for us.”
Notes: Bonta ran 18 times for 95 yards and Bloomquist ran 12 times for 42 yards. … Defensively, Bloomquist had 13 tackles (five for loss) and two sacks, Bonta had 12 stops (three for loss), and Platton had 11 tackles (six for loss) and three sacks. … The Red & Green’s final touchdown came on a 6-yard run by quarterback Adam Kubera with 1 minute, 22 seconds left in the game. Kubera caught Bonta for a two-point conversion pass. … Panebianco completed both point-after touchdown kicks. … St. Joe’s opened its season with a 10-8 loss to the University of St. Andrews in Ontario last weekend, but the Red & Green shut out Frontier, 40-0.
St. Joe’s 7 7 6 21 — 41
Jamestown 0 15 7 8 — 30
SJ-Kuntz 12 Pass from Klein (Petri kick)
7 passes from Gonzalez to Jam Panebianco (Panebianco kick)
SJ-Panepinto 65 run (Petri kick)
Jam Safety (Platton tackles Panepinto in the end zone)
Jam Samuelson 44 pass from Bonta (pass incomplete)
Jam Bonta 62 Blocked punt return (Panebianco kick)
SJ-Panepinto 15 Pass from Klein (pass incomplete)
SJ-Kuntz 46 Pass from Klein (Petri kick)
SJ-Harden 57 Pass from Klein (Petri kick)
SJ Cook 30 runs (Petri kick)
Jam – Kubera 6 Run (Kubera’s Bonta)
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