WILDWOOD, NJ –There is a saying in sports, and you hear it a lot in football, when one player goes down, it's next man up.

Marquise Cooper was the next man up for Roman Catholic Saturday.

AJ Gaymon, the swift senior running back, who scored on an exciting 61-yard run to tie the game against West Catholic Prep, 7-7, late in the first half, took a hit on the ankle on the Cahillites’ next series and had to be helped from the field.

Enter Cooper, a 5-11, 200-pound junior. He carried the ball twice in the first half for 17 yards, but was a workhorse in the second half, rushing 12 times for 44 yards with a 4-yard touchdown run as the Cahillites scored 21-unanswered points to beat West, 28-7, in the wind and rain from Tropical Storm Hermine hovering off the coast of Cape May.

“When AJ went down it was my time to shine and I did,” said the young man everybody called Coop. “I have a lot of confidence in myself. I felt really good. Everybody has a job to do and they did. I got in and did my part.”

Roman quarterback Anthony Butler, who rushed for 55 yards on 10 carries and was 3-for-3 passing in the second half for 66 yards and a touchdown, said, “we lost one of our guys and Coop stepped up and did a great job for us."

The game was scheduled for a 11 a.m. start, but with rain coming down sideways, from end zone to end zone, the officials decided to start 15 minutes early.

The first quarter was scoreless but it appeared Roman had grabbed the lead early in the second quarter when Gaymon returned a punt 70 yards for a touchdown but a penalty nullified the score.

West Catholic took a 7-0 lead with 5:01 left in the first half when senior Supreme Kemp took a handoff and ran around right end 25 yards for a touchdown.

The lead didn’t last long. After the kickoff, Gaymon carried twice for eight yards and senior Miles McLeod picked up a yard setting up fourth and one from the Roman 39 yard line. Gaymon took the handoff from Butler and ran into a hole up the middle then cut outside to his left and sprinted up the sideline to the end zone. Freshman Ryan Flaherty’s kick tied the game.

“I saw the hole then I cut outside and ran for daylight,” Gaymon said simply. “We really wanted this game. We have been talking about it all preseason.”

After halftime, the game belonged to Roman. Coach Jim Murphy said they didn’t change much, it was just a matter of adjusting to the conditions.

“Just a couple of minor things,” Murphy said when asked about changes he made. “Really it was just a matter of getting acclimated to the conditions and that was for both teams really.”

Roman took the second half kickoff and controlled the ball for nearly five minutes, marching 62 yards in 10 plays. Cooper carried seven times for 28 yards behind an offensive line that was dominating. He scored with 7:10 remaining in the third quarter to give Roman a 14-7 lead.

“The o-line did a great job,” Murphy said. “They did a beautiful job in pass protection and a beautiful job run blocking. All-in-all I am extremely pleased.”

West Catholic took the ensuing kickoff and held the ball for 10 plays with Da’vion Kidd-Jackson completing six-of-seven passes for 42 yards, but his fourth down pass at the Roman 36-yard line was nearly intercepted and Roman took over from there.

The Cahillites took two plays to score. Jordan Haynes ran 40 yards on a reverse to the West 24-yard line. From there Butler connected with Joey Bristow for a touchdown and a 21-7 lead.

Gaymon returned on Roman’s next series, carrying several times on 12-play, 71-yard drive with McLeod scoring on a 3-yard run late in the fourth quarter to close out the scoring.

“Our main objective today was everybody just do your job and don’t worry about anything else,” Murphy said. “And that’s what they did.”

Box Scores

Roman           0          7          14        7          -           28       

West               0          7            0        0          -             7

W-Supreme Kemp 25 run  (Jahlil Sanders kick)

R-AJ Gaymon 61 run  (Ryan Flaherty kick)

R-Marquise Cooper 4 run (Flaherty kick)

R-Joey Bristow 24 pass from Anthony Butler (Flaherty kick)

R-Miles McLeod 3 run (Flaherty kick)