In a Physical Spring Game, Jesuit Bests DeLaSalle, 17-14

Michael Torry breaks into the open for a long gain that puts the Jays in field goal range as time winds down.

Jesuit’s annual spring football game, played against the DeLaSalle Cavaliers and in front of more than 1,000 fans who gathered on a steamy Thursday afternoon at Pan American Stadium, accomplished three goals:

1. It provided an outlet for players “chompin’ at the bit” to get physical and be able to tackle someone other than from their own team.
2. It gave the coaches of both teams a better idea of who will be starting in key positions when the 2016 season gets underway in slightly more than three months.
3. It was highly entertaining for the fans, especially the fanatics who haven’t seen a live prep football game since last winter.

Tight end Drew Black is dragged down after catching a pass for a short gain.

For the record, they were keeping score. The Jays were up two touchdowns at the end of the first half. The Cavs rallied in the second half to tie the score, before Jesuit executed a final drive that put the Jays and kicker Jake Chanove in field goal range. Chanove punched it through the uprights for a 17-14 last-second Jesuit win. Before the kicking team returned to the sidelines, the refs blew their whistles signifying the end and for this year’s spring game to be archived.

“Our effort was what I expected it would be,” said Coach Mark Songy. “We were extremely physical against a very talented football team. I was very pleased with how we played our first half. The first half, the intensity level was about what I expected it to be and what it needs to be in the Catholic League. I don’t know if we could have played the first half much better than we did. I was real disappointed in the way that we started the second half. That’s a problem. We can’t come out after having played a great first half and come out and start so dog gone slow that you put other people back in the game.

“I told our guys midway through the second quarter that we were letting them (DeLaSalle) hang around too long where we had some opportunities to pull ahead and maybe put the game away and we didn’t,” he continued. “They’re a good football team and they’ll stop you from doing that. But I think we stopped ourselves in some cases as well. So I’m disappointed in that. Other than that, our guys were trying to do the things that we’ve been coaching all throughout the spring. We weren’t necessarily getting them done right, but we’re working in that direction, and that’s a real good place to be in.

Blue Jay fans got their spring football fix taken care of.

The Jays were quarterbacked by Denny Maginnis and Alex Watermeier, both of whom took turns under center. Maginnis will be a senior next year, Watermeier a junior. Both players are competing to start aaat leading the Jays’ offense. Coach Songy was noncommittal, saying he wanted to look at the film of the game.

“Denny missed the first week (of spring practice) because of track and Alex missed the first two weeks because of baseball,” Coach Songy said. “So we really don’t know where we are with those guys yet. All in all, we played well enough to win. I know they did some very good things, but I know they did some things that need to be polished up. As for the quarterback competition, I hope we have competition at every single position. It just makes us so much better. It just so happens that everybody likes to talk about our quarterback competition because it’s a glamour spot, but that’s going to make whoever wins the starting job, that’s going to make them much better.”

When prodded, Coach Songy agreed that the game certainly ended on a positive note for Jesuit. “The guys knew the clock was winding down, we were real short on time, we had to make a couple of big plays, and we made a couple of big plays,” he said. “We got ourselves in field goal position, had enough time outs left to do that, and Jake Chanove put one right through the uprights that won us the game. I think we reacted to pressure real well on that play.”

Who does Coach Songy see stepping up and filling the shoes of departing seniors on the 2016 team?

“I think (linebacker) Cameron Crozier on defense probably played pretty well today,” he said. “We’re certainly counting on him to have a great year. Corey Dublin, our left tackle, we’re counting on him to have a great year. Michael Torry played well at times today. He had the key carry in the ball game that got us down into the field goal area. He’s got to continue to improve, but it was nice to see him pop a long run. Some of the leadership roles to be filled remain to be seen. We’ll have to see how well they play throughout the summer and into fall as to whether they lead us or not. We usually have a couple of surprises that pop up – guys that we don’t think too much about as leaders and all of a sudden they show up and they lead us.”

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The New Orleans Advocate: Spring football game: Jesuit edges De La Salle 17-14 on Jake Chanove’s late field goal

Coach Mark Songy leads the Blue Jays in prayer shortly after the spring game concluded.