Racking up four big touchdowns Saturday, Charlotte Amalie High’s Shaquille Petersen carried his team to victory and a spot in the territorial tackle football championships with a big win over the St. Thomas Private School Arawaks.
CAHS first got the ball first deep in its own territory and made it onto the board early when wide receiver Cursim Hansen ran a five yard stop rout, caught a pass from Shaquille Richardson, then took it about 70 yards for the score.
Not to be outdone, on the Private Schools’ next series Arawaks quarterback Carson Wessinger hooked up with teammate Richard Driscoll, who broke a tackle and took it all the way for a 50-yard touchdown. The extra point was no good, and the score was tied 6-6.
On CAHS’ next possession, Omar Fernandez took a handoff up the middle, then broke to the outside, where he found nothing but daylight, and took it in for the touchdown. After scoring the extra point, CAHS was up 14-6.
The teams traded the ball back and forth for a couple of possessions until CAHS found itself with the ball on its own 30-yard line. Dropping back, Richardson found Petersen wide open in the middle of the field. Petersen broke three tackles on his way to the end zone. With the extra point missed, CAHS held a 20-6 lead before the first period ended.
In the second quarter CAHS had the ball on its own 40. Richardson handed off to Fernadez who took it up the middle – just when it looked as if he was about to get tackled, he did a little Barry Sanders shimmy and broke to the outside, taking it up the sideline for the score.
The extra point was no good, and CAHS held the 26-6 lead to half time.
In the second half, Petersen exploded for three more scores, finishing the game with four in total. CAHS cruised to the 50-12 win.
After the game, CAHS head coach Francisco Jarvis had great things to say about his tight end/wide receiver.
“He is a man playing amongst boys,” Jarvis said. “Shaquille Petersen could very well be in the top 10 high school receivers in the nation, but because he lives here, no one knows about him. But we’re looking at some Division I schools for him, we just have to make sure he continues to play at this high level and keeps his grades up.”
Petersen, who lists schools in Florida and New York among his college options, said he’s been working hard to prepare for life after high school.
“We’ve just been practicing hard, and I’ve been trying to use that to gain some skills for college,” he said. “It’s just been a lot of hard work, practicing every day, rain, snow, it doesn’t matter, but I think it really shows on the field. But today, I really felt it was a team effort, and that everyone really helped me out there.”
In terms of strategy, Jarvis said the team wanted to “keep it simple” Saturday, since they only had a few days of practice over the last three weeks.
“To accomplish something like this in such as short matter of time, I’m very, very pleased,” he said. “This is the best team I’ve had in my 12 years of coaching by far, and I’ve told them that we’re going to far if we keep together and we keep practicing.”
CAHS will represent St. Thomas-St. John at the territorial varsity football championships on St. Croix, whose teams still have several make up games left to go. Territorial tackle football commissioner Arthur Jamison said at this point, the Barracudas from the St. Croix Educational Complex hold the top spot in their district.
