Hempstead Game

The Mavericks traveled to Hempstead to play the undefeated Bobcats in a non conference matchup. A highly ranked  team the Bobcats gave St. John's all they could handle showing some size and speed that the Mavericks had not seen yet this season. With St. John's receiving the ball on the first possession the Mavericks were held to a three and out and Dan Tweardy getting a fine 45 yard punt putting Hempstead at their 32. They then proceeded to move the ball down the field with one pass and 7 runs finishing with a 17 yard sprint to the endzone for their first score. St. Johns receiving the kickoff and Dan Tweardy taking it 27 yards the Mavs started their next possession on their own 33. After a couple of first downs and a 24 yard run by Chris Gow the Mavericks went backwards with a holding penalty on the next play and a 12 yard sack resulting in a 2nd and 32, Two incomplete passes and Tweardy was on to punt. The Bobcats then drove the ball down to the SJS 12 but Jonathan Newar stopped the drive with an interception in the end zone and returning it to the 12 early in the second quarter. The offense again picking up a couple of first downs but could not sustain the drive facing a fourth and 5 at their own 40 had to punt. The defense came in and handed Hempstead a three and out to get the ball back. After a 10 play drive by the offense the Mavericks coughed up the ball on the next play and the Bobcats were able to pounce on the recovery. With a minute left in the half Hempstead was able to make good on the turnover with a 70 yard reverse pass catching the Maverick secondary on the fake for the score and a half time lead of 0-14.
The second half started with Hempstead receiving the kickoff fromTweardy and moving the ball down the field until the defense stiffened up making the Bobcats go for a 42 yard filed goal. Unfortunately the ball hit the goal post and bounced over to increase their lead to 0-17. The Mavs offense was just not clicking and Tweardy was back to punt the ball away. The defense then stepped up and made some plays with Jack Craddock and Wes Wallace leading the way forcing the Bobcats to punt the ball to the Mavericks on their next two possessions but the Mavericks gave the ball right back both times by fumbling the return. Hempstead made good on the second going 5 plays for the score to end the third quarter with a 0-24 tally. The fourth quarter started in the favor of the Mavericks with SJS mounting a 7 play drive to cover 61 yards finally getting pay dirt with Chris Gow taking it in on a 15 yard run. Dan Tweardy tacked on the extra point and the Mavs finally made the board with a 7-24 score. But on the ensueing kickoff the Bobcats speed showed up again finding a crease in the Mavs coverage and taking the ball 60 yards to increase the score to 7-31. That would conclude the scoring for the night while the Mavericks gave a final effort running 11 plays but falling short by two yards on a fourth and twelve with a Gow to Risher Randall completion for 10 yards. Hempstead would then run out the clock to hand the Mavericks a tough loss.