Thomas Jefferson leans on ground game in win over Laurel Highlands

By: Jeremy Tepper
Friday, October 9, 2020 | 11:28 PM

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After Thomas Jefferson (4-0, 4-0) finished walloping Laurel Highlands (1-4, 1-3), coach Bill Cherpak addressed his team and simply said, “We played like we should,” and then called the team into a huddle.

After a win like that, Cherpak didn’t have to say much. The Jaguars dismantled the Mustangs, 58-0, after rushing out to a 44-0 first-quarter lead. After that, Thomas Jefferson put in its backups and continued to dominate in a mercy rule victory, leading 58-0 at halftime

“We had a physical advantage, and we knew that. We wanted to come out and establish the line of scrimmage and run the ball,” Cherpak. “We had such great field position. I don’t think we had it on our side of the 50 the whole first half. So that helped, too.”

Coach Richard Kolesar knew his team was in for a tough game against Thomas Jefferson, but mistakes made it even more difficult to gain traction. Laurel Highlands struggled all game with punting, having two blocked and others go for short gains. On top of all that, Thomas Jefferson recovered three forced fumbles and had an interception.

“They’re a state championship football team. That’s what you get when you play a state champion,” Kolesar said. “They’re physical. They play aggressive, and that’s what we’re trying to learn to do.”

Thomas Jefferson’s first touchdown was a sign of things to come, starting at Laurel Highlands’ 25-yard line after a fumble, and quickly scoring on an 11-yard run by Conner Murga. A few minutes later, Jordan Mayer blocked the Mustangs’ punt out of the end zone for a safety. A couple minutes later, Murga scored on a 47-yard run. And then another touchdown on a 31-yard run.

It was 23-0 with just under three minutes to go in the first half, but the Jaguars were far from done.

Less than a minute later, Preston Zander picked off Joe Chambers’ pass and took it to the end zone for a 43-yard touchdown. After a fumble recovery at the Mustangs 10-yard line, Murga ran it in for a 10-yard touchdown. Another blocked punt before the quarter was over, and Murga scored from 21 yards for his fifth touchdown of the game.

“We just got a lot of breaks. They really had no chance in the first quarter because they gave us such great field position,” Cherpak said. “We wanted to pound the ball and get them to change up their defense, and they really never did. I think our line played pretty well.”

Thomas Jefferson has leaned more on its passing attack this season, but on Friday, the running game dominated. The Jaguars threw just one pass: a 9-yard touchdown to Joseph Mendyk. Other than that, the Jaguars ran every time, with Murga leading the way. Murga filled in for a banged up DeRon VanBibber and ran nine times for 140 yards and five touchdowns.

“He hits the hole quick, and he’s strong and he runs through some tackles,” Cherpak said. “In a situation where we had a size advantage and we had a physical advantage, if you do that, you’re going to break off some big runs.”

Cherpak said the defensive gameplan mostly centered on Laurel Highlands’ do-everything star Rodney Gallagher. The Jaguars largely shut him down, outside of a 60-yard gain on which Gallagher reversed field and broke a number of tackles.

“We were behind the sticks a lot. They played fast,” Kolesar said. “It’s tough to simulate some of that line play in practice. We didn’t execute well enough.”

Watch an archived broadcast of this game on Trib HSSN.

Tags: Laurel Highlands, Thomas Jefferson