Bloomfield crushes St. Pius after halftime, claims 4A title

Bloomfield St. Pius 7.jpg — Bloomfield head coach Mike Kovacs holds up the Class 4A state championship trophy and celebrates with his team after defeating St. Pius 62-28 on Saturday at Bobcat Stadium in Bloomfield.

Bloomfield St. Pius 6.jpg — Bloomfield running back Tyler Reinhardt gets by St. Pius linebacker Ogochukwu Anozie and into the end zone for a score in the fourth quarter during the Class 4A championship game on Saturday at Bobcat Stadium in Bloomfield.

Bloomfield St. Pius 1.jpg — Bloomfield head coach Mike Kovacs congratulates St. Pius quarterback Isaiah Carpenter for a good game at the conclusion of last year’s Class 4A state championship game.

Bloomfield St. Pius 10.jpg — Bloomfield's Peyton Duncan runs through a big gap in the St. Pius defense and into the end zone for a touchdown in the third quarter during the Class 4A championship game on Saturday at Bobcat Stadium in Bloomfield.

Bloomfield St. Pius 14.jpg — St. Pius wide receiver Christian Moralesy hauls in a pass in front of Bloomfield's Andrew Himes in the first quarter during the 2024 Class 4A championship game at Bobcat Stadium in Bloomfield.

Glen Rosales Glen Rosales Glen Rosales for the Journal

Published November 30, 2024 - 8:05 p.m. Modified November 30, 2024 - 10:41 p.m.

BLOOMFIELD — St. Pius rode big plays to stay in the game in the first half, but Bloomfield broke out a deluge of even bigger plays in the third quarter Saturday to win its second Class 4A state championship in the past three seasons.

“We knew about that coming in because Bloomfield is a great team,” Sartans coach Curtis Flakes II said. “They’re well coached. They made adjustments. They won the special teams battle. They scored two or three touchdowns off that, and they deserve it.”

After the teams were deadlocked at 22 through the first half, Bobcats quarterback Blake Spencer busted out a 72-yard quarterback draw on a designed play right up the middle, giving top-seeded Bloomfield (12-0) the first of four touchdowns in the third quarter and sparking the team to a 62-28 win.

“We’ve been using that play all year,” he said. “The whole line blocked super well for me, opened the hole wide up. I saw the opening. And there was just no one there to touch me. No one was there to tackle me so I was able to take it to the house.”

Spencer finished with 91 yards rushing and three touchdowns and threw for 148 yards and another score.

It was that jolt that that put the Bobcats up 29-22 and got them going, said Bloomfield running back Peyton Duncan, who had 133 yard rushing with two touchdowns, as well as a scoring catch.

“Oh, that lit the team up,” he said of Spencer’s run. “That was what made us keep going. Seeing my quarterback go for a long touchdown made me so happy, like he could run the ball, and people don’t realize that.”

Duncan said his quarterback’s rushing score also inspired his own running.

“I saw that and I thought, ‘No, I gotta be doing that, too,’” he said with a smile.

And later in the quarter, Duncan did just that, going 84 yards for a score.

The Bobcats fell behind 2-0 early when Spencer was called for grounding in the end zone.

No. 2 St. Pius (11-3), took in the ensuing drive on a 19-yard scoring run from Hershul Olloway Jr.

The teams then traded touchdowns throughout the rest of the half, with Sartans quarterback Isaiah Carpenter hitting two passes of 38 yards, as well as a 74-yard touchdown to Curtis Flakes III, who finished with 161 yards on eight catches.

Carpenter, who threw for 211 yards by halftime, managed 63 in the second half.

“The coaches just told us to refocus our minds,” Spencer said of Bloomfield’s second-half success. “We didn’t get down on ourselves. I mean, we picked everyone up. And I’m pretty sure we had them pretty gassed going out through that second half. We did everything we could to come out strong and we got on top.”

St. Pius did manage to score the second-most points against Bloomfield this season, which had given up only 61 points — including seven shutouts — in the previous 11 games.

The Bobcats topped off the second-half bludgeoning by blocking consecutive punts, recovering one at the Sartans’ 3-yard line, from where Duncan took it in; and McKell Colbert snaring a fortunate bounce on the other one to ramble in from 35 yards out.

“They just found some weaknesses that we had in our defense, and they exploded,” coach Flakes said. “It got them some big plays, and then they came after the special teams. Just hats off to their coach (Mike Kovacs). Man, he’s a straight-up guy. He’s first class. His team is first class and that quarterback, he’s a special kid. Man, he’s a special kid. He did what special kids do in special situations.”

Flakes said he sees this as just the start for a St. Pius program loaded with young players.

“They bought into the culture and they believe,” he said. “They came out when people didn’t think we would be here, and they kept faith. They came together and they played week in and week out. We proved it. We just kept winning and that allowed us the opportunity to be blessed to play here on Saturday. Unfortunately, it didn’t fall our way. But that’s okay. Yeah, you learn more from losses than you do from wins, right? So we just get back to it, and we’ll be back next year.”