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Efficient Jesuit rolls past Holy Cross for 9-5A win

By Christopher Dabe, Staff writer

Game date: Friday, October 1, 2021

·        BY CHRISTOPHER DABE | STAFF WRITER 

·        PUBLISHED OCT 1, 2021 AT 10:00 PM | UPDATED OCT 2, 2021 AT 9:04 AM

Jesuit scored seven touchdowns and kicked a field goal on its eight possessions in a lopsided rivalry win against Holy Cross on Friday.

Game MVP Jack Larriviere threw three touchdown passes and ran for a score in the first half, and the Blue Jays rushed for three touchdowns after halftime to win 51-7 at Tad Gormley Stadium.

The big highlight for Larriviere came early in the second quarter. With Jesuit backed up at its own end zone after a punt bounced out of bounds, Larriviere scrambled behind the goal line and found junior wideout Jace Larsen open near midfield. He caught the pass and ran the rest of the way for a 96-yard touchdown.

"It's a great atmosphere, a great experience, a big win not only for our team but also the Jesuit community," said Larriviere, who completed 13 of 14 passes for 200 yards. "A lot of fans are here, people that possibly have not come to a game in a while. It's great to see the team winning again."

Larsen caught the first two touchdown passes from Larriviere. Senior wideout Keith Pittman caught the third touchdown pass. His touchdown on a fourth-down play put Jesuit ahead 31-0 just before halftime.

The first three Jesuit possessions ended with a touchdown. The Blue Jays converted five times on third down the first two times they had the ball. Those drives took 10 and 13 plays.

"Jack did a great job executing the game plan, Jesuit coach Ryan Manale said. "But you got to give hats off to the offensive line and to the receivers for making the plays. They extended drives, I'm super proud of Aiden Corbello kicking a field goal there in the first half."

Junior Darren Duplesis, sophomore Patrick Bern and sophomore Beau Perez rushed for touchdowns in the second half. Perez, a quarterback, ended a 10-play drive in the fourth quarter that lasted longer than 8 minutes.

Corbello kicked a 38-yard field goal in the second quarter.

Jesuit (2-1 overall, 1-1 District 9-5A) won after it lost last week in three overtimes against Brother Martin.

The Blue Jays have won the past four games against Holy Cross. Jesuit holds a 60-40-1 series record. The teams first played in 1922.

Holy Cross, which lost to Shaw in a district game last week for the first time since 2015, opened with three first downs on the opening drive but struggled after that. The only points came when sophomore wideout Koby Young got behind the defense and caught a long throw from sophomore quarterback Cole Canatella for a 73-yard touchdown.

"You keep working hard and hopefully something good will happen to you along the way," Holy Cross coach Nick Saltaformaggio said. "This district is not kind - shouldn't be. Football is not kind. This is the way it's going to be until we find a way out of this."

Jesuit plays next week against St. Augustine and Holy Cross (1-2, 0-2) has a nondistrict game against Helen Cox.

Contact Christopher Dabe at cdabe@theadvocate.com.

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