The St. Anthony Saints football team strolled onto their home field Saturday to face off against…themselves. After a long-awaited opening night, the Saints’ game against Lakewood on Friday was cancelled due to a positive COVID-19 test on the opposing side.
The Saints responded by scheduling an intrasquad scrimmage to sharpen their skills and give the kids a chance to still compete despite the cancellation.
“Not playing last night the kids were down, but it is what it is. It was good to play today in a competitive environment,” said Saints head coach Mario Morales.
The team played a shortened scrimmage, about 3 quarters long, and hoped to iron out some wrinkles before next Friday’s home game against Mary Star of the Sea.
Junior quarterbacks Jacob Martinez and transfer Joey Howorko both got a chance to showcase their arms in the scrimmage, but were limited in their running opportunity to err on the side of caution.
“I couldn’t really run today because I wasn’t live, but I’m looking forward to doing that next week,” Howorko said when asked about what he’s looking forward to showcasing in the Saints’ opening game. “I think the first couple plays we started off slow and then we found our rhythm and got it going. Just gotta work on some other things this week at practice and get better.”
The Saintss slow start offensively was caused by a strong defensive line who were able to get to the QBs quickly as well as lockdown sophomore safety Jonathon Ferguson who was not allowing any plays to be made on his side of the field.
Howorko was able to turn things around once he came in under center. Showing his ability to move around and stay patient in the pocket, the 6’4”, 220 pound transfer was able to find tight end, T.J. Mitchell and wide receiver, Kweku Claybrook to put some points on the board.
St. Anthony will host Mary Star of the Sea next Friday at 7 p.m. at Clark Field.
