High School Football Game: Number 4 IMG Academy Holds on to Beat Number 10 St. Joseph’s Prep 17-14. The Ascenders, a team of really good players, just won their second game in a row against another strong team in the Top 25 list. Last week, they beat Lipscomb Academy.
The team from No. 4 IMG Academy in Bradenton, Florida, started this year’s high school football season with two wins against other strong teams in the Top 25 list. They just won 17-14 against St. Joseph’s Prep from Philadelphia at a place called Battle at the Beach in Ocean City, New Jersey.
But the IMG team had to work hard because the other team, called the Hawks, scored twice in the second half. One time, their defense helped them, and another time, their special teams did. This made the score 17-0, but then the game got really interesting in the middle of the fourth part. With a little more than four minutes left to play, IMG’s defense stopped the other team on a fourth down, which let their own team use up the rest of the time on the clock.
These strong teams played against each other in 2019, and IMG won 31-25. Some really good players were in that game like Marvin Harrison Jr., Eli Ricks, Kaytron Allen, Kyle McCord.
The players from IMG’s defense did really well at the start, and the offense led by Jayden Bradford slowly scored points against a strong St. Joe’s defense.
The players from IMG’s defense got the ball away from the other team three times in the first half. One time, Ellis Robinson IV caught the ball, another time T.J. Lindsey got a fumble, and then Amari Jones got the ball after an interception. Robinson also made six tackles in the first half, and he also took the ball away.
At the same time, the players from the Ascenders’ team started doing really well after the other team dropped the ball. One of the players, Bradford, ran with the ball for 51 yards and scored a touchdown, which was the first points for IMG. This happened in the middle of the second part of the game. The coach, Billy Miller, was happy because his team added more points with a 29-yard kick, and they were winning 10-0 when it was time for a break.
When the second half started, IMG’s team got more points. Bradford threw the ball to Donovan Olugbode, who ran with it and scored a touchdown. This made the score 17-0.
St. Joseph’s Prep’s team couldn’t do well in the second half when they had the ball, but their defense played better. They got the ball away from IMG’s team two times and scored points with those takeaways. This made the difference in the score smaller.
First, a player named Rameir Hardy got the ball and ran 32 yards for a touchdown after the ball was kicked and blocked by IMG. This happened towards the end of the third part of the game, so the score became 17-7.
Then, another player from St. Joseph’s Prep, Anthony Sacca, got the ball after one of his teammates took it away from an IMG player. Sacca ran 5 yards into the end zone and got a touchdown. This happened with 10 minutes and 39 seconds left in the game, so the score was now 17-14.
A player who’s going to play for the Army, Nick McGlynn, stopped IMG from getting more yards and the ball on a fourth down. This gave the Hawks’ team one more chance to try to score before the game ended. But the players from IMG’s defense played really hard on the last chance and stopped the other team on a fourth down again.
The Ascenders, who have won 2 games and lost none, started the season by winning against Lipscomb Academy with a score of 35-10. Their next game is against a team from Thompson, Alabaster, Alabama.
On the other hand, St. Joseph’s Prep, who haven’t won yet, will play against St. Peter’s Prep from Jersey City, New Jersey, on Saturday.
