St. Thomas Aquinas runs to win over St. Joseph in meeting of state-ranked teams

This article was updated to add new information.

METUCHEN – Chukwuma Odoh bounced to the outside and bolted nearly 70 yards for a St. Thomas Aquinas touchdown in the fourth quarter Saturday against St. Joseph.

One problem – a holding penalty negated the score. Soon, cries shot up from the Trojans’ sideline of “Do it again. Get it back. Do it again.”

Odoh wasn’t too distraught as he got his breath back on the sideline.

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“I scored,” Odoh said. “I turned around. I saw the flag. I’m like, ‘All right, it’s all cool. We got the freshman right here  –the future right here. He’s going to break one of his own to get back for me.’”

Next play, the rookie Ca'si Thomas scooted 72 yards down the same left sideline for a Trojans touchdown.

That was a theme in the second half, as St. Thomas Aquinas did it over and over in the 34-20 win over the Falcons in a high-level meeting of state-ranked and Top 5 Big Central Conference teams.

St. Joseph (5-2) led 14-6 at halftime, but STA (6-2) scored on four-of-four possessions in the second half until taking a knee as the clock ran out.

Odoh scored on runs of 2 and 10 yards, quarterback Roman Blanks added a 1-yard score and threw a 51-yard touchdown to Josiah Zayas, who also got his sixth interception of the season.

STA entered as No. 3 in the BCC in the MyCentralJersey rankings and No. 19 in the New Jersey Super 25 , while St. Joseph was No. 4 and No. 21.

“It was definitely a big week,” senior Chase Young said. “All of our teachers in school were talking about it. It was definitely a really big game for us. … St. Joe’s, they’re a really good team, and the fact that we came out here and beat them today shows a lot about us as a team.”

St. Thomas’ run game excelled in the second half with Odoh, Thomas and Young gulping up yards. As a harbinger, the Trojans put together an 11-play, 99-yard scoring drive to open the second half in 3:44. Odoh finished with 189 yards on 19 carries, and Thomas went for 132 yards on seven carries.

Odoh said St. Joseph was plugging the gaps in the first half and the Trojans “couldn’t really run straight inside” and noted they went to “a little more misdirection and outside runs. Once we started doing that, our running game started working.”

STA was missing All-Division right tackle Elijah Thomas and guard John Howarth. Enter sophomores Christian Pierre and Sebastian Azofeifa stepping up to join Matthew Chuffo, Caden Sternlieb and Channon Johnson excelling on the line.

St. Thomas Aquinas’ stellar defensive play included Chase Young getting an interception and Michael Teague also providing good pass coverage. They got back-to-back sacks by Sternlieb and Anwar Witherspoon and Jose Tejeiro that forced a punt in the fourth quarter.

St. Joseph took the early lead after a scoreless first quarter on a pair of Javon Hudson touchdown runs of 11 and 3 yards, which came on fourth down, as quarterback Justin Scaramuzzo ran the show.

In the end, it was St. Thomas with the statement win and STA coach Tarig Holman was asked to sum up the victory.

“I think just continue to raise the standard and earn the respect that we’re trying to garner for ourselves in this area, something that’s really, really important to us," Holman said. "We want everyone to understand and recognize that St. Thomas is a tremendous school, tremendous football program. So, we’re just trying to continue to build.”

NOTE: The teams used the game as a community service project to promote childhood literacy and partnered with The Marisa Tufaro Foundation. Players read to elementary school students as part of the project.

This article originally appeared on MyCentralJersey.com: St. Thomas Aquinas runs to win over St. Joseph in meeting of state-ranked teams