Havre de Grace seniors Jasai Stansbury and Jordan Day combined for five touchdowns Friday night to lead the Warriors past visiting Bo Manor, 48-14, in the Class 1A East Region football championship game.
Stansbury ran for three touchdowns and Day returned a pair of punts for the Warriors, who are making their third straight trip to the state semifinals. The Warriors (11-1) will travel to Dunbar next Saturday at 1 p.m.
Stansbury's runs came from 6, 7 and 9 yards out, respectively, while Day's punt returns, both in the second quarter, covered 30 and 35 yards, respectively. Stansbury scored once in the first quarter and then scored both Havre de Grace touchdowns in the third quarter.
“The offensive line did a good jcb opening the holes up and basically I just had to run through the holes, follow them and overall everyone played a good game,” Stansbury said. “We did did good, offensively and defensively.”
Day’s first return gave the Warriors a 24-0 lead with 8:43 left in the first half.
“All week we prepared, I was going to stand by right where the first down was and I was just there to make sure there wasn’t any fake punts and the punts happened to come to me, so I made the best of it,” Day said.
The second came eight minutes later to send the Warriors into the half with an 34-7 lead. “No not at all, this time there was a defender right in front of me, so I wasn’t expecting me to catch that and take it all the way, but I did,” Day said of the surprising second return. “Great blocking from my team, so we did what we needed to do.”
The Warriors opened the scoring midway through the first half on their first possession. A 20-yard pass from Alex Gresock to Christian Penrow and Clay Harris kick made it 7-0.
Stansbury’s fumble recovery on ensuing Bo Manor possession gave the Warriors the ball at the Eagles 12. Two runs by Stansbury had the Warriors back in the end zone for the 14-0 lead.
Warriors kicker Harris added two field goals in the first half, They covered 27 and 22 yards, repectively, and he was 6-for-6 on extra-point kicks.
Bo Manor’s (7-5) points came off a pair of touchdown passes. Jake Harris caught a 20-yard scoring pass in the second quarter and Cameron Garcia added a touchdown catch in the game’s final 90 seconds.
Defensively, Jordan White and Penrow had an interception each. Penrow had a second, but it was wiped away by a roughing the passer penalty.
“This (region title) is a lot more special because this year we are more of a collective unit, we are a team, like a real family bind we have here,” Day said. “This is for all the hard work we put in this year and now we’re not finished.”