(Home)

Tigers pin first loss on Jesuit

By BILL BUMGARNER

Only Holy Cross stood between the Jesuit Blue Jays and a Bo Derek season – a perfect 10-0 mark – before Thursday night’s District 11-AAAA matchup at Tad Gormley.

But after seven turnovers, 34 first downs and 750 yards of offense, the Tigers had slapped the uppity Jays in the face, 28-21, denying Jesuit its first unbeaten season since 1962.

Nonetheless, the 9-1 Jays are the Catholic League champions and will meet West Jefferson in the State playoffs next week.  St. Augustine, with a victory Friday against De La Salle, could share the championship with Jesuit.  Holy Cross ended its year 6-4 and 3-4 in the league.

“It was by far our best game of the season,” Tiger Coach L. J. Giambelluca said.  “If anything, we were overly ready for this one.  I sensed we were going to play well.”

The Holy Cross secret was its ability to turn back three Jesuit rallies.  Holy Cross saw two touchdown advantages cut to a single score on three occasions, but each time the Tigers turned the Jays back.

In the final quarter, with the Jays trailing 28-13, Jesuit was stopped at the Tiger 10-yard line on a tackle by Kenny Sears and had two other possessions stopped with interceptions.  The last, by Brian Bossetta, enabled Holy Cross to run out the clock.

Holy Cross jumped out to a quick 13-0 lead, scoring on its second possession as Earl Schneider swept end for 68 yards and a 7-0 lead.  On Jesuit’s next series, quarterback Tommy English’s pass went through Scott Decker’s hands and was picked off by Bossetta, who raced 84 yards for a 13-0 lead.

One play later, Jesuit made it 13-7 as Willie Bradford scored from 81 yards with 11:28 to go in the second quarter.  But Holy Cross bounced right back as Ralph Mollega’s 57-yard completion to George Haley set u a 13-yard run by Keith Baroni who also ran for a two-point conversion, making it 21-7 at halftime.

In the third quarter, a Blue Jay fumble recovery enabled the Jays to drive 37 yards as Scott Senner bolted up the middle for the final 14 yards, leaving it 21-13 as the PAR was missed.

From that point on, Jesuit drove to the Tiger 10 where Senner was stopped by Sears on fourth down.  The Tigers appeared to salt the game away when Bossetta returned another deflected pass for a TD, but the play was nullified by a penalty.  But Brian Belle intercepted English two plays later.

The Jays cut the 28-13 lead to 28-21 when a bad punt snap set up a short 16-yard drive, climaxed when English scored from d2 yards with 3:47 to play.

Jesuit tried an onsides kick. But Haley recovered for the Tigers.  Jesuit had one last chance from its 25-yard line with 2:12 to play but Bossetta intercepted again.

“We had an awful lot of things go wrong in the fourth quarter – the bad snap, then penalty that cost us a score,” Giambelluca said.  “It looked like everything was going the Bleu and White’s way but maybe it made us work harder.”

English finished with 15 completions in 37 attempts for 264 yards while Bradford rushed for 112 yards on 12 carries.  Tim Cosse led the Tigers with 100 yards on 16 carries.

 STATISTICS (Sorry to disappoint our readers, but we were unable to find statistics published in the newspaper for this game.)  Many thanks to good friend Jay Quinlan for providing information about St. Augustine winning their final game of 1984 and becoming co-champions with Jesuit.

(Home)