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Jesuit Defeats Tigers

By Bill Bumgarner

There were only two differences between Jesuit and Holy Cross on Thursday night: one fumbled punt and one interception.  

Holy Cross committed both and paid dearly for them as the Blue Jays capitalized on those miscues to score 14 points in the fourth quarter en route to a 35-28 victory over the Tigers before 4,000 fans at Tad Gormley Stadium.

Jesuit moved to 7-2 overall and 5-2 in District 11-AAAA and remain in the playoff race.  The Tigers fell to 2-7 overall and 1-5 in the league.

Holy Cross, which had beaten Jesuit three out of the last four times, made the Blue Jays see red again.  The two teams played offensive ping pong for three quarters, trading touchdowns in a 21-21 tie.  

But Ernst Dison, who played both ways and on the specialty teams, fumbled a punt late in the third quarter on his 37-yard line, with Keith DiMaggio recovering.  

Ricky Chanove's two-yard sneak three plays later made it 28-21 in Jesuit's favor.  

Holy Cross' offense responded once again as a Brad Stevens to Jay Giardina pass of 37 yards keyed a drive to the Blue Jay 12-yard line.  But Jesuit's Ty Smith stepped in front of an end zone pass to snuff out the potential game-tying drive.

Jesuit then drove 80 yards in 11 plays to take a 35-21 lead when Chanove hit Rene Pagan with a 26-yard score with 2:50 remaining.

Holy Cross again closed with a 74-yard drive - all through the air - and scored when Stevens hit Giardina from 18 yards with 49 seconds to play.  But Holy Cross' onside kick was covered by Jesuit's Garrett Morris to end the Tiger threat.

Stevens passed for yards on 19 of 31 completions.  Jesuit, in contrast, relied on the ground game, with Mark Smith gaining 142 yards on 24 attempts.  Smith scored the first three touchdowns for the Jays on runs of five, 15 and six yards.

Stevens passed for all five of the Tigers' TDs.  He hit Beau Harvey from 15 yards, Dison from 34 and Giardina from 15 to tie the game for the last time at 1:48 of the third quarter.

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