To the naked eye, the St. Joe Fighting Irish’s lopsided 35-0 home win Friday night over the West Memphis Black Knights appears to be a showcase of offensive firepower.
But, given that the home team’s defensive front of Chris Moore and James Chow disrupted much of the visitor’s game plan, the St. Joe (3-0) sideline general added a little context.
“We’ve practiced that for two weeks,” St. Joe head John Baker said. “We’ve had two straight open weeks and that contributed to the penalties and missed blocks. Those are the types of things we will work to cleanup this week.”
Senior Jaden Easley served as both opener and closer on St. Joe’s second scoring drive of the game. He picked off an errant West Memphis pass and returned it five yards to his own 28-yard line. A couple of plays later, Easley streaked past a Knights defensive back for a 22-yard scoring strike from junior quarterback Victor Baker. The two point conversion gave the Irish a 14-0 with 8:52 remaining until halftime. Baker’s 22 yard pass freshman receiver Julius McCollum on a previous play set up the scoring drive.
A little more than five minutes later Baker possibly caught the West Memphis defense napping as he connected with senior “Big” John Haggard who went untouched for a 28 yard touchdown reception. The point after gave the Fighting Irish a commanding 21-0 lead heading into the half.
Jaleel Moore blocked a Knights punt at 9:14 of the third quarter setting up St. Joe at the West Memphis 25 yard line. This facilitated up a short pitch and catch touchdown from Baker to junior receiver Ar’mon Hannah on a fourth and 17. The extra point gave the Fighting Irish a 28-0 lead.
Three plays after St. Joe recovered a fumble at the West Memphis 10-yard line. Sophomore running back Kaden Bruce found the end zone on two yard run. The extra point gave the home team a 35-0 at the 3:14 mark of the third quarter. The Irish will travel about a mile and a half south Friday to play Greenville Christian.
