Thomas Jefferson 40, Trinity 7

Joe Carroll connected with Zach Schademan on touchdown passes of 7, 8, 42, 13, and 32 yards, as the No. 4 Jaguars (4-0, 3-0) rolled to a road victory against the Hillers (2-2, 2-1) in the Big Nine Conference. Carroll completed 13 of 21 passes for 216 yards and also connected with Derek Toboz on an 8-yard scoring strike. Schademan had six catches for 111 yards.

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Quarterback passes coach's expectations

September 24, 2012 1:29 am

Even though Joe Carroll is in his first year as Thomas Jefferson's starting quarterback, Jaguars coach Bill Cherpak knew Carroll could be good.

But Carroll has surpassed his coach's expectations.

The first four weeks of the season have been a big coming-out party for Carroll, a 6-foot-2, 185-pound senior who is throwing touchdown passes on a pace rarely seen in the WPIAL. Carroll threw six touchdown passes Friday against Trinity and has 18 for the year.

To put Carroll's statistics in perspective, consider the most touchdown passes in the WPIAL a year ago was 25. It is not known what the WPIAL record is for regular-season touchdown passes, but the most in the past 10 seasons is 30 by Sto-Rox's Adam DiMichele in 2003. The way Carroll is going, he could reach that mark in a few weeks.

"We played him every three or four series in some games last year," Cherpak said. "We wanted to get him some experience to be ready for this year. I really did expect him to be good. But he has really taken the thing and run with it and he has been better than we thought in terms of being a leader."

For the season, Carroll has completed 40 of 65 (62 percent) for 803 yards. That means almost half of his completions have gone for touchdowns.

"Our receivers make it easier for him, too. We have some good receivers," Cherpak said.

Cherpak believes Carroll is a rarity in high school sports these days -- a player willing to wait to become a starter.

"In all sports -- and all positions -- most kids want to play right away or don't want to play at all," Cherpak said. "There are very few kids who look at the big picture and look down the road. They all want immediate satisfaction or gratification. If they don't get it, they move on to something else. He's a good example that if you work hard, do what you're supposed to do, you'll get a chance someday."

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Trinity victim of Jaguars’ ‘comfort zone’

By Matt Shetler

For the Observer-Reporter

This article has been read 637 times

Entering their Big Nine Conference football matchup against Thomas Jefferson, the Trinity Hillers knew they would have their hands full with Jaguars’ quarterback Joe Carroll, who entered the game completing 62 percent of his passes with 12 touchdowns.

The Hillers found out quickly they had no answer for Carroll’s arm as the senior quarterback put on a passing clinic for a half, throwing for five first-half touchdowns as Thomas Jefferson cruised to a 40-7 victory at Hiller Field.

“We came out wanting to throw the ball,” said Thomas Jefferson head coach Bill Cherpak. “We felt we could exploit their secondary, and Joe did a great job of reading the defense and putting the football on target.”

Carroll started the game by hitting Zach Schademan with a seven-yard scoring strike and that wouldn’t be the last time the Hillers would hear from that combination as the duo hooked up for all five of Thomas Jefferson’s first half scores.

After Trinity (2-1, 2-2) went three-and-out to start the game Carroll was 3-for-3 for 55 yards and the touchdown on the Jaguars’ first drive, and then proceeded to hit Schademan with touchdowns of nine and 42-yards to put Thomas Jefferson (3-0, 4-0) up 20-0 after the first quarter.

“That kind of set the tone for the game,” said Carroll who was making only his fourth career start at quarterback. “I just took what they gave us, and I got in a pretty good comfort zone.”

The duo wasn’t done there as they hooked up for touchdowns of 13 and 32 yards in the second quarter to send the Jaguars into the locker room with a 33-0 lead.

Schademan (111 receiving yards) came into the game with five touchdown catches on the season and doubled that total as five of his six catches went for scores. Carroll finished the evening completing 14 of 19 passes for 230 yards and six touchdowns.

“We all work extremely hard with Joe during the week,” said Schademan. “All of us receivers have good chemistry with him. Coming in I felt I could have a big day against their secondary and today just turned out to be my day.”

As impressive as the Thomas Jefferson offense was, their defense was even more impressive, holding the Hillers to one first down until the seven minute mark of the fourth quarter.

In addition, the Jaguars forced four Trinity turnovers, picking off Trinity quarterback Don Mcwreath twice and recovering a pair of fumbles.

“We were really prepared defensively,” said Cherpak. “We knew what they were going to do and we did a real good job early on stopping them. I thought we were sloppy on both sides of the ball in the second half which doesn’t make me happy, but I loved the effort we gave defensively for the most part.”

After entering the locker room in a huge hole, the Hillers defense mounted a much better effort in the second half, sacking Carroll three times and recovering a fumble. Jaguars’ running back Jake Ferrell had 90 yards at the half but the Hillers front limited him to only five second half yards.

“I thought the effort much better in the second half,” said Trinity head coach Ryan Coyle. “It’s hard to take many positives from a game like this, but I thought we played a much more physical game defensively in the second half and liked the way we responded.”

Overall, it was a tough go for the Hillers’ offense. Running back Patrick Frey was limited to 21 yards on 19 carries and McWreath didn’t complete a pass until midway through the fourth quarter, when he hit Jared Deep with a 40-yard completion.

Frey did prevent the shutout though when he scored on a two-yard run late in the fourth quarter.

“It was a tough day all-around.” added Coyle. “Patrick didn’t have many running lanes all night and Don threw some good balls that we just didn’t make plays on. Going forward I’m not really concerned about our backfield. We should be fine going forward.

“It’s just a matter of getting better. We just have to keep working on our weaknesses and keep getting better as a team week-to-week.”