Don Bosco Prep's Elijah Ibitokun-Hanks rushed for career-high 171 yards and had three touchdowns.
Photo by Vincent Carchietta
wanted to make a point Friday night. The defending national champions may have had their 46-game winning streak snapped earlier this season, but the Ironmen needed to show that they are a
Don Bosco football team, with or without star Jabril Peppers.
The Ironmen did — and added a little sweetener to their 31-8 Big North United victory over visiting Paramus Catholic, which fell to 4-1 overall and 1-1 in the league. Don Bosco got to show it is still Don Bosco to Peppers himself, there to face his former teammates before an overflow crowd of 8,000 at Charles Granatell Stadium for the first time since transferring last year after his sophomore season.
It was, however, another junior, Bosco's explosive
Elijah Ibitokun-Hanks, who proved to be the headliner, rushing for a career-best 171 yards on 31 carries, including touchdown runs of 1, 29 and 18 yards.
"I knew I had to play football, and keep my focus, and there was a lot of motivation about this game," Ibitokun-Hanks said. "You saw with the coaches during this week of practice how much this game meant to them, as well as the players. I had to do it for them, and it was a great sense of motivation. People think this and that about this game, but I wanted to play my game. I wanted to show what I could do. I wanted to be the better back at the end. I knew there was a competition going on and what Coach Toal always says, I wanted to be tough guy."
Paramus Catholic's Jabril Peppers faced
his former teammates Friday.
Photo by Vincent Carchietta
The Bosco-Paramus series had been a one-sided affair for some time. The last time the Ironmen lost to Paramus was on November 25, 1999, Thanksgiving Day, losing 14-9 in Toal's first year as head coach at Bosco. Since then, the Ironmen have literally run over the Paramus, winning the next 13 games, including Friday night, by a combined score of 561-48.
"We don't worry about winning or losing. We worry about the process of just getting better, and the kids got better, and it's a process of getting better every day," said Bosco coach Greg Toal, whose team is now 5-1 overall and 2-0 in the Big North United. "To their credit, the kids didn't put into any of that stuff floating around before this game. We didn't have guys saying they were going to twitter this and twitter that out there. They stayed focused.
"I learned about some kids tonight. They're a Bosco team, and that's the best thing I can say about them, they're a Bosco team. I wasn't sure early after [the 13-6 Gilman loss on September 8], but, no, this is a Bosco team. To beat a team [20-10] like St. Thomas Aquinas (Fort Lauderdale, Fla.) the next week, you have to be a good football to beat them. I think the stamp was put on it that we're a Bosco team when we beat Aquinas."
The game started exceptionally well for Paramus, when junior
Keyon Washington blocked a Bosco punt on the Ironmen's initial series. But that seemed the start of myriad problems hanging on to the ball for the Paladins.
A Paramus fumble caused by all-everything defensive end
Alquadin Muhammad translated into Bosco's first scoring drive of the game, a 13-play, 79-yard drive that ended with a Ibitokun-Hanks 1-yard touchdown plunge.
See all the scoring on QUIXSCORE.Paramus turned the ball over on its first two possessions, three times in the first half, and four times total in the game, including a dropped punt by Peppers deep in the fourth quarter with the game well decided.
Elijah Ibitokun-Hanks dives into the end
zone for one of his three touchdowns.
Photo by Vincent Carchietta
Bosco ended up with 284 yards of total offense to Paramus's 180, with a scant 42 coming on the ground.
"We didn't make plays tonight, but you know what, I'm going to blame myself. You have to blame yourself as a coach," Paramus coach Chris Partridge said. "I felt as if I didn't prepare them enough here. We came into game ready to go, and we were feeling a little too good about ourselves. We were tested here. But I still feel we have a very good team here and I can't wait to play Bosco again in the playoffs. That's the mentality we're going to take. We're going to rebound from this."
As for Peppers, who played well defensively, he finished with 18 yards on seven carries and was a nonfactor on offense. Afterward, he downplayed the hard feelings his transfer may have had with some of the Bosco people.
"It wasn't very difficult for me, I think both sides know that I'm over here now and they're over there, and this is my new family," said Peppers, who left the game at one juncture early in the second half, with a slight limp in his left leg, but did re-enter the game. "I expected a great game and that's what they gave us. I came out like this was like any other game, I didn't want to psyche myself too much. I think we learned we have a lot of fight in us, but we still have a lot of work to do. We'll definitely see them again. They'll definitely see a different Jabril next time."
Muhammad wouldn't mind seeing his former teammate again, either. Bosco's rampaging 6-foot-4, 230-pound defensive end had two sacks and a fumble recovery going up against Paramus's 6-5, 295-pound junior tackle
Juwann Bushell-Beatty. Muhammad also drew an unsportsmanlike call at the end of the first half for celebrating a tackle.
But in the end, he was the one celebrating a big victory.
"This meant a lot to us," Muhammad said. "Jabril thought he was going to come in and take over and thought it was a one-man show. It's never a one-man show with Bosco. This game right here was personal. There was a lot of smack talking and stuff like that. We had a great week of practice and it went well. We're a team on a mission now. We upped the bar and we're going to continue playing the way we are, This is better than ever—it's sweet."
It was the 58th straight victory over a New Jersey opponent for head coach Greg Toal and Don Bosco Prep.
Photo by Vincent Carchietta
