Ingram's Big Day Helps Mater Dei Roll Over Pope John

Photos courtesy of Ken Cook http://theessentialnews.net/

MIDDLETOWN - Sensational senior running back Malik Ingram exploded for 302-yards rushing and four touchdowns on 21 carries for his second 300-plus yard game of the year leading No. 3 seed Mater Dei to an easy 49-14 win over sixth-seeded Pope John.

After picking up 176 yards on 11 carries and three touchdowns in the first half alone, Ingram added another 126 yards and a touchdown on nine carries in less than a quarter of work in the second half.

Ingram’s last run of the afternoon was for 47 yards before calling it a day with four minutes still remaining in the third quarter and the score 42-14.

On many of his runs he used his trademark spin move for additional yardage and on multiple occasions he carried Pope John defenders on his back before they could wrestle him to the ground.

“Malik’s a horse,” said Mater Dei head coach Dino Mangiero. “The good thing is we can go inside or outside with him and he responds. He’s just a great running back and I think he ran great today.”

Unofficially, Ingram now has 1,218-yards rushing and 18 touchdowns on 143 carries eclipsing the 1000-yard rushing mark for the third-straight season. He’s averaging 8.5 yards per carry this season but Saturday he averaged a whopping 14.3 yards per carry.

It appears Ingram is taking his game to the next level at just the right time.

“This is my second game rushing for over three hundred yards so now I do feel I have to step up my game more because I’m a senior this year,” said Ingram. “I definitely have to step it up more now that it’s the playoffs and I have to be more of a leader for the team at this point of the season and at this point of my career at Mater Dei.”

Ingram hasn’t committed yet, but so far he has scholarship offers from: Army, Navy, Southern Connecticut and Colgate.

Mater Dei (7-4) now advances to semifinals of the NJSIAA Non-Public Group III Tournament and will meet its rival, second-seeded Red Bank Catholic (5-3), on Friday, November 22 at Count Basie Field in Red Bank.

The two schools met in last year’s Non-Public Group III final in a hard-fought game that could’ve gone either way with the Caseys prevailing, 14-10.

“We’re looking forward to going to RBC Friday night to play those guys,” said Mangiero. “The guys are talking about it and hopefully we’ll be ready for it. It’s a big matchup and it was a physical game last year.”

Ingram has been looking forward to a rematch with the Caseys ever since the loss.

“This is it, we’ve been waiting for this the whole season,” said Ingram. “We’ve waiting for this ever since we lost to them for the state title. So this is something we’ve been looking forward to for a long time and we’re going to be ready.”

Once again Penalties were an issue for Mater Dei on Saturday or the score could’ve been even more one-sided. The Seraphs were flagged for 125 yards worth of penalties and in the first half alone they were guilty of 11 infractions.

“In our last game against Manalapan I think we jumped offsides 10 or 11 times,” said Mater Dei head coach Dino Mangiero. “Part of the problem is our young linemen. The three offsides in the second half, all sophomores. The holding penalty, a 10th grader.

“Penalties have been a problem all season,” Mangiero added. “Believe it or not, it’s getting a little better every week. But we have to get things cleaned up, because penalties are killing us.”

Mater Dei scored on its opening possession going 55 yards on just five plays with Ingram running for 13 and 23 yards before taking it in from a yard out.

Pope John did a good job making it a game early. They intercepted Mater Dei sophomore quarterback Alex Brown and scored three plays later when sophomore quarterback Peter Delaportas connected with junior wideout Jarelle Robinson for a 75-yard touchdown on a post-pattern bomb.

Ingram answered with a 61-yard jaunt down the right sidelines for a score helping the Seraphs overcome three penalties on the possession.

Two possessions later the Seraphs got on the board again. On second-and-23 from the Lions 45, Brown found senior Notre Dame commit Clarence Lewis on a slant over the middle. Lewis caught the ball around the 35 and outran the nearest defenders the rest of the way for a 45-yard catch-and-run touchdown and a two score lead.

Lewis finished with three catches for 81 yards and a touchdown and picked off two passes on defense, while Brown completed 6-of-11 passes and a touchdown for 122 yards with two interceptions.

With the score now 21-7 with 6:23 left in the second quarter, the Lions struck again thanks to holding and facemask penalties on the Seraphs. On second-and-inches from the Mater Dei 25, Tyler Ruscher bolted up the middle for the score to pull within 21-14 with 4:44 remaining in the half.

That would be it for the Lions offense though. Mater Dei's defense dominated the rest of the way limiting Pope John to just 64 yards the rest of the way.

They recorded five sacks on the afternoon with junior defensive end Dominick Giudice leading the way with 2.5 sacks. Sophomore linebacker Ra’Jahn Cooper and junior linebacker Jahqual Talmadge each had one and senior defensive lineman Khurram Simpson shared a sack with Giudice.

Giudice stood out all afternoon roaming sideline-to-sideline and making one big stop after another. He finished with double-digit tackles with five tackles for loss, including his 2.5 sacks.

“It was a great game but all the penalties are inexcusable,” said Giudice, who now has a remarkable 17 sacks in 10 games. “But we came out on top and we’re ready to get back to work tomorrow.

“We just came in and attacked on every play,” added Giudice. “We say on defense, every play, play like it’s our last play. We made some adjustments here-and-there but we just wanted to keep going and play aggressive football and play as a unit. Everyone’s working together like a brotherhood and our defensive line is very hungry. Everyone’s a beast along the defensive line and we’re always trying to get the ball, get to the quarterback and make them fear us.”

Ingram got Mater Dei’s lead back to two touchdowns right before the half with a 30-yard run to push the lead to 28-14.

At halftime, Mangiero decided to keep the ball in Ingram’s hands and he responded with an ironman-like performance.

“The looks they were giving us were a little challenging maybe in the first half so we just said in the second half, ‘Lets come out and pound them,’” said Mangiero. “We have what we consider one of the best backs in the state so we figured lets give him the ball and see what happens.”

And the strategy worked out quite well for the Seraphs.

On their first possession of the second half, Ingram carried the ball on eight of the Seraphs 10 plays, including five straight carries, and he accounted for 79 of the Seraphs 80 yards. He capped off the 10 play, 80-yard scoring drive with a 4-yard touchdown run to push the score to 35-14.

“No, I did not know that was going to happen, coach did not mention that,” said Ingram with a sly smile. “But whatever, I did what I was told and it worked out. I can thank the coaches for that.”

On the Seraphs ensuing possession they had a first-and-10 from the Pope John 18 when Lewis took a direct snap from center and pitched it to sophomore Kyree Drake on a jet sweep. Drake then turned it up field and bolted down the left sidelines for an 82-yard touchdown run and a 42-14 lead with seven minutes left in the third quarter.

Isaiah Noguera then finished off a 78-yard scoring drive, which Ingram kickstarted with a 47-yard run on first down, with a 9-yard touchdown run to extend the lead to 49-14.

That would be Ingram’s last touch of the day with four minutes still left in the third quarter as Mangiero began to substitute freely with a running clock now in play.

Unofficially, Mater Dei finished with 456-yards rushing and a 122 yards passing for an eye popping 578 yards of total offense.

“The RBC game was in the back of our minds but we just wanted to get past this game and win this game,” said Giudice. “We knew we had RBC looming and that’s what we were looking for and we can’t wait to go Friday night.”

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