Bell’s record-breaking night beats St. Peter’s Prep to Pope John football review

Tyler Bell threw a school-record six touchdown passes and completed 26 of 36 attempts for 387 yards as St. Peter’s Prep defeated Pope John 58-47 at Caven Point Athletic Complex in Jersey City.

In the loss, Pope John running back Tylik Hill ran for 389 yards and six touchdowns on 30 carries.

St. Peter’s Prep (4-4) trailed 47-44 when Bell, a junior, found Hunter Watson for a 33-yard touchdown pass to take the lead with 5:40 left. The Marauders then recovered a surprise onside kick and set up Bell’s sixth touchdown pass, a 22-yard strike to Christian Cruz on a 4th-and-7 with 1:58 remaining.

Andres Perez completed seven receptions for 170 yards and three touchdowns, while the senior added TD catches of 75, 23 and 32 yards. DJ Brown had 10 catches for 110 yards, Watson had six catches for 67 yards and Ty’ire Clark also caught a touchdown. Tyler Barksdale ran for 102 yards on 19 carries and Bell ran nine times for 43 yards and a touchdown. As a team, St. Peter’s Prep totaled 550 yards of offense.

Bell immediately set the tone, as he did on the first play from scrimmage, throwing a swing pass to Perez for a 75-yard touchdown after just 19 seconds.

The lead proved to be short-lived as Hill’s scored a 56-yard TD run just 50 seconds later.

Hill’s third TD, a 1-yarder with 10:01 left in the half, gave Pope John a 20-15 lead that it held until the fourth quarter, when Bell scored a 26-yarder with 7:39 left in the game. Score fought the Marauders had a lead of 44-40.

Just 51 seconds later, Hill regained the lead from Pope John (2-6) with a 58-yard score.

As a team, Pope John ran for 447 yards on 40 carries and totaled 537 yards of offense.

Each team also had a special teams touchdown in the third quarter when Jordan Rodriguez returned a kickoff 80 yards for a score and Pope John’s Nick Struble returned a blocked punt four yards for a touchdown.

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