By John Knebels • Posted December 20, 2024

Before many people had yet to even sit down, sophomore Khyan Billups turned the first play of the game into an 80-yard touchdown jaunt.

It would be impolite to insinuate that any football contest could be effectively over just 14 seconds into a game, but when you’re talking about St. Joseph’s Prep, such an assumption would not be considered farfetched.

And so it was that the Hawks kept scoring, and their opponent kept punting, and the final result – a 35-6 romp over Pittsburgh Central Catholic in the PIAA Class 6A state championship Dec. 7 at Cumberland Valley High School in Mechanicsburg – added more lore to a football program that had just won its third straight crown and, gulp, ninth in the past 12 campaigns.

“We just kept the same mentality, and that was just to keep moving the ball downfield and keep the sticks moving,” said Prep sophomore quarterback Charlie Foulke. “The score didn’t really matter. It was still like it was 0-0. We were playing until the clock hit zero.”

Piggybacking to that first quarter, the Hawks tallied twice more – a 19-yard TD pass from Foulke to freshman receiver Jett Harrison, and then a 45-yard scoring burst by Billups.

Severing any realistically worrisome drama, the Hawks being up by three touchdowns just 12 minutes into the event made the final three quarters an exercise in guessing just how lopsided the final margin would be.

However, as Foulke alluded to earlier, ask any Prep player about concepts such as complacency and feeling internally relaxed, and prepare for immediate and emphatic pushback.

“We play to a standard, not to a scoreboard,” said sophomore linebacker Brandon Lockley. “When the game hopefully gets to that point, we use it as an opportunity to get the next guys ready and roll everyone in so everyone gets a chance to play.”

On the first play of the second quarter, Pittsburgh gave their fans a thrill when they scored to lower the deficit to 21-6. Unfazed – and perhaps simultaneously enraged and annoyed – the Hawks responded with a 10-play, 77-yard drive that ate 4 minutes, 17 seconds off the clock and culminated on a Billups one-yard touchdown.

Before giving way to senior Will Vokolos – who closed the scoring on, fittingly, a 44-yard sprint – Billups accrued 230 yards and three touchdowns on 29 carries. As for his favorite touchdown, it was definitely the 80-yarder on the opening play.

“It felt real good,” said Billups. “I actually pictured myself the day before scoring on the first play of the game, something actually similar to how I scored. What made me start to even think about that was (former star Prep quarterback current playing at the University of Cincinnati) Samaj Jones and how he scored on the first play of the game two years ago.

“When the time came, my linemen blocked everything very well and it was there. I made a guy miss, and it was over. Just green grass after that. But I’m just very thankful for my linemen and them blocking very well for me.”

Looking at the postgame statistics and the players responsible for them, it’s difficult not to portend that the Prep program has several more state championships remaining in the near future.

Foulke is a sophomore. Billups a junior. Harrison is a freshman. Key starting offensive linemen Sean Molley and Jake Namnun are both juniors. On defense, outside of University of Notre Dame-bound senior defensive back Anthony Sacca, most of the marquee contributions in the state final came from underclassmen such as sophomore John Boggs (two sacks), Jason Nitz (three tackles for loss), and Alex Haskell (three tackles for loss).

“It’s really a great environment to be around overall,” said Boggs. “There are so many expectations for this team in the future, and having so many young players on a standout team holds the standard high. The team bonds really well and the chemistry is very strong.”

Nitz concurred.

“It was a real great experience for all of us,” he said. “We have such young guys who competed and won their jobs who also pushed each other every day, and we know we’re going to be together for a while to keep pushing each other.”

That’s really bad news for the rest of the state.

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Contact John Knebels at jknebels@gmail.com or on ‘X’ @johnknebels.