Heroic Hurley leads St. Francis Prep in OT thriller

by Dylan Butler on Sun, Oct 7, 2012 at 1:07 AM

Through the first month of the season, much of St. Francis Prep’s resurgence has been credited to the return to the Belly series and the running of Kadir Wisdom, Justin Guerre and Ruben St. Marc.

But in a highly anticipated clash with Xavier Saturday night, a new hero emerged for the Terriers – quarterback Jack Hurley.

“Jack is very underrated,” Wisdom said. “If it wasn’t for Jack, there’s some plays we wouldn’t make…Our team wouldn’t be complete without Jack Hurley. He’s a leader and he leads the offense.”

Hurley threw four touchdown passes, including a 20-yarder to Wisdom in overtime, to help lead St. Francis Prep to a thrilling 41-35 overtime win over Xavier at Hofstra’s Shuart Stadium.

Hurley was 10-of-17 for 213 yards, connecting with Guerre on a 64-yard touchdown down the sideline and with Ramel Joseph on the tying 2-point conversion with 1:51 left in the fourth quarter to force overtime.

“I couldn’t ask for a better ball,” Guerre said. “It was a perfect ball.”

The remarkable touchdown pass was on 3rd-and-10. The senior from the Rockaways threw a pair of incomplete passes on first and second down, both attempts nearly picked off.

“You just have to shake them off, forget about them and go to the next play,” Hurley said.

On the first play of overtime, Hurley hit Wisdom for a 20-yard touchdown, but George Thomatos’ extra point was wide left, creating an opportunity for Xavier.

As he did for much of the second half, Xavier coach Chris Stevens rode Trey Solomon in overtime. The junior, who had 39 carries for 294 yards and two touchdowns, moved the Knights to the 11-yard line.

Xavier faced a 4th-and-1 from the 11 and Solomon got the ball again. This time, St. Francis Prep (4-1, 4-0 CHSFL AA-A) did something they struggled to do through four quarters – stop Solomon.

Stevens, though, would beg to differ.

“It was a great high school football game, I’m proud to be a part of it,” he said. “I would have liked to have taken my shot 1st-and-10 from the 10. It was an awful call at the end. Unfortunately we let the game come down to that. We make two interceptions late, we win the game.”

Solomon also thought he did enough to get the first down, but he was more upset about defensive miscues, including his own, than the final play of the game.

“I thought I had the first down, but its not really about what I think,” he said. “We made the game too close and we put it into the referees hands and when that happens, you’re probably going to lose.”

Xavier (3-2, 2-2) methodically moved the ball in the first half and built a 21-6 lead on a pair of touchdowns by Brendan McCabe and another by Solomon on its first three drives of the game.

With the Knights getting the ball to open the second half, the Terriers desperately needed a score before the end of the half to stay in the game. Hurley orchestrated a near flawless 62-yard drive in 57.9 seconds, capped by an 11-yard touchdown pass to a wide-open Mark Genovese to pull the Terriers to within 21-13 at the break.

Guerre tied the game at 21 with the first of two second-half rushing touchdowns and a reception on the 2-point conversion with 3:46 left in the third quarter.

Guerre also tied the game at 27 on a 3-yard TD run with 5:26 left in the fourth after Jimmy Wolfer put the Knights in front with an 11-yard touchdown run. A remarkable 60-yard run by Wisdom set up Guerre’s score.

“We just stick with the gameplan,” Guerre said. “We never give up, kept running the ball, kept believing in ourselves and we got the win.”

Solomon responded by marching his team on an 8-play, 80-yard drive capped by his second touchdown of the game to give Xavier a 35-27 lead with 2:14 left.

It was Solomon’s second consecutive game of 250-plus yards on the ground, but the remarkable stat line didn’t mean much as he stood outside his team’s locker room following a crushing defeat.

“Everybody sees those stats and says you played a really great game, but when I look at the film I just see someone who played half a game,” he said. “It seemed I was only playing offense because I didn’t play as well as I had hoped to on defense.”

Guerre hasn’t played on defense since his Pop Warner days, but he came up with a huge interception at the 5-yard line to force overtime. As the Terriers awaited the start of the extra session, there was a confidence on their sideline that came from having already pulled out a double overtime win at St. John the Baptist in Week 3.

“We were like we’ve been through this situation before and we can do it again,” Guerre said.

The Terriers did just that, thanks to an underrated quarterback and a surprising defensive stand.

“It was an emotional rollercoaster every single play,” Wisdom said. “In the overtime I was on my knees praying we would make that stop and we did. I’m so proud of my team.”