Week 9: Jesuit Notches 8 Touchdowns in a 56-21 Rout of Franklinton

Connor Prouet earned a spot in the Jesuit football record book with his six touchdowns against Franklinton in Week 9.

Jesuit’s Next Opponent: Brother Martin Crusaders (6-3 overall; 3-2 in district 9-5a)
When: Friday, November 4
Where: Zephyr Field on Airline Drive (Jesuit players and fans will be on the visitor’s side.)
Kickoff: 7 PM
Admission Info: $6 pre-game tickets ($3 children ages 6-11) are available at Jesuit’s switchboard from 8 a.m. – 4 p.m., beginning Tuesday, Nov. 1 – Friday, Nov. 4. Tickets at the gate are one price: $8. Student IDs and season passes will be accepted for this district game.
Parking at Zephyr Field: $5 per car

Into the Lens: View the Jesuit – Franklinton Photo Gallery

Connor Prouet, the Blue Jays’ go-to running back with legs like a wild stallion, scored not one or two, but six touchdowns — five on the ground and one via air — in Jesuit’s 56-21 win Friday night (Oct. 28) over the Franklinton High Demons.

“This win was really, really big for us,” said Connor Prouet. “It was our first two-game win in a row of the season. Coach (Songy) stressed before the game that we needed to win this to have a winning record (for the 2016 season). All the seniors on the team stepped up and tried to lead as much as we could so we could get some momentum going into the playoffs.”

What’s amazing is that Prouet, while answering reporters’ questions after the game, had no idea that his achievements had just earned him inclusion in two of Jesuit’s individual, and oldest, football records: “Most Touchdowns in a Game” and “Most Points Scored in a Game.”

“Really?” was all of Prouet’s response when informed that his was a Jesuit record performance.

Prouet is a soft-spoken, unassuming senior runner whose 215 pounds on a compact 5’11” frame often has to be slowed or stopped by three or more defensive players. When he’s given the ball, which happens about 20 times each game, the kid unleashes the inner Connor. The Demons should know. They had a devil of a time stopping him last Friday night.

“We played a complete game and had great field position almost every time we had the ball,” said Prouet, who credited Jesuit’s defense and special teams for staking favorable field positions. Prouet also does not forget Jesuit’s senior offensive linemen, players like John Appel, Richard Besselman, Peyton Cox, Corey Dublin, Nick Gauthé (the Jays’ starting center who was injured early in the season), Fletcher Lavie, Nicholas Legier, Cameron Maheu, Jake Tingler, and Cullen Unsworth.

“That’s just me following what my whole line does for me,” Prouet said almost sheepishly. “We have the best linemen in the world, they open up holes, and I just run through them.”

Connor Prouet on Jesuit’s offense: “That’s just me following what my whole line does for me. We have the best linemen in the world, they open up holes, and I just run through them.”

Even Coach Mark Songy expressed surprise when reporters asked him to comment on Prouet’s achievements. “Wow, that’s news to me, I didn’t realize that,” he said upon learning that the senior scored five rushing touchdowns and caught a pass that he turned into a 19-yard touchdown. “That’s a great night for him. Connor’s a really good football player. As Connor goes, we go. He’s a tough, tough running back and people give him a lot of respect, and our offensive line does a great job giving him some opportunities to pop there. I think he’ll be the first to tell you that.”

Prouet carried the ball 15 times for 90 yards and caught two passes for 69 yards in the game against Franklinton. He grinded out touchdowns of 6 yards, 2 yards, 5 yards, 1 yard, and 2 yards, along with the passing touchdown. So far this season, Prouet has racked up 788 yards rushing on 178 carries and scored 11 touchdowns. Additionally, he has nine receptions for 162 yards and three touchdowns. One more thing: Prouet holds on to the ball; he doesn’t fumble.

Prouet’s six touchdowns against Franklinton equals the most TDs scored in a single game by only three other Blue Jay football players, including two from long, long ago: Cyril “Bully Boy” Bassich, who did it way back in 1907 against Loyola, and Edward “Red” Burke who did the same in 1925 against Franklin. For the longest time, Bassich and Burke were the only two Blue Jays to have tallied six touchdowns in a single game. Sixteen years ago, in Jesuit’s 2003 season, Chris Markey ’04 — perhaps the most talented Blue Jay running back since Pat Screen wowed fans from 1958-1960 — became the third Blue Jay to equal the task of scoring half a dozen TDs in a game. And Markey did it twice in that season against Holy Cross and St. Amant. Markey, whose name is plastered throughout Jesuit’s football records, went on to great acclaim as a running back at UCLA, after which he spent a couple of years as a professional in Europe.

Defensive back Matt McMahon blocks a punt and scoops up the ball in the first quarter of Jesuit’s non-district game against Franklinton last Friday night. McMahon ran the blocked punt 29 yards to score Jesuit’s third touchdown.

The 36 points scored by Prouet against Franklinton also equals the “most points scored in a single game” by Messrs. Bassich, Burke, and Markey. According to Ron Drez ’58, author of Gallant Fighting Sons, these two records are the longest surviving athletic records at Jesuit High School. Prouet’s 14 touchdowns through the Franklinton game have him on track to be included among Blue Jays who scored the “Most Touchdowns in a Season,” but we’ll have to wait, hopefully, for several more games to be played before a final tally can be made. (All updates to the individual records are made after the season.)

Another Blue Jay football player, senior kicker/punter Jake Chanove, also has earned a spot in Jesuit’s record book. Chanove’s eight PATs against Franklinton catapults him to a three-way tie for third place in “Most Extra Points in a Game.” Chanove joins fellow Jesuit kickers Ralphie Freibert ’12 and Ryan Retif ’04, each of whom booted eight extra points in a game. Freibert did it twice, first in 2009 against Douglass, then in 2010 against Lakeshore. Retif kicked his eight in 2003 against St. Amant. Junior Henican holds down the numbers one and two spots on that list, having kicked 12 PATs in Jesuit’s game against Verrina in 1920; the following year, Henican swatted nine PATs against Rugby.

Kicker Jake Chanove also earned a spot in Jesuit’s football record for kicking eight PATs in the Franklinton game.

Chanove, who had 17 PATs coming into the Franklinton game, has not missed a PAT so far this season. The eight PATs he sailed through the uprights on Friday night give him a total of 25 extra points, and the season isn’t over yet. Chanove has a spot reserved in another Jesuit football record: “Most Extra Points in a Season.” The name at the top of that individual record is Ralphie Freibert, who had 60 extra points in the 2011 season. If the season ended today, Chanove and his 25 PATs would be included right above the final name listed: Jay “Stump” Marino ’69, who booted 24 PATs in the 1968 season.

This was only the fourth battle between Jesuit (5-4 overall; 2-3 in district 9-5a) and Franklinton (4-5; 2-1 in district 8-4a) on the gridiron. The Jays have won all four games against Franklinton: 40-6 in 2012 and 35-3 in 2013. The two teams did not play in 2014, and last year, the Jays escaped with a hard-fought 19-14 win on the Demons’ home field. Last Friday, it was Franklinton’s turn to travel. After Jesuit jumped out to a 21-0 first quarter lead, only to make it 42-7 at halftime, you had to wonder if the Demon fans were fighting the urge to quietly exit Tad Gormley and stroll across Roosevelt Mall to experience some of the Voodoo Festival.

Cameron Crozier takes down a Demon, one of his eight tackles in the game. Crozier also blocked a punt, picked up the ball, and ran it to inside the 1-yard line.

According to Coach Songy, Franklinton is a much better team than the score indicated. The Demons, with 358 yards of offense (107 yards rushing, 251 yards passing), had more than the Jays, who accumulated 214 on the ground and 110 yards in the air for a total of 324 yards. All three Demon touchdowns were scored on passes of 16 yards, 4 yards, and 12 yards.

“We’ve been watching them pretty much all year,” said Coach Songy, talking about the Demons. “I think up to tonight, they were really hitting stride getting better. The quarterback is very scary, an extremely good football player. They had an off night and we were on, but they’re going to do well. They really are.”

Jesuit’s offense produced the most points in a game so far this season, although the third touchdown came courtesy of the defensive unit. Senior defensive back Matt McMahon blocked a Demon punt, scooped it up, and raced 29 yards to the end zone. In the second quarter, linebacker Cameron Crozier blocked another Demon punt, picked up the ball, and almost made it to the end zone. He was shoved out of bounds on the one-foot line. Jesuit’s final touchdown was a 1-yard run by sophomore running back Will Robinson IV, who had five carries for 56 yards on the night. Junior running back Michael Torry, Jr. carried eight times for 48 yards.

When Connor Prouet rests on the sideline, the running is in the capable hands of Michael Torry, Jr. (25) and Will Robinson IV (29).

Quarterback Denny McGinnis completed seven of 12 passes to six different receivers, including two receptions by Prouet, one of which he turned into a touchdown.

“We had some breaks with special teams early on,” said Coach Songy. “The idea was to keep the ball away from these guys and I think we did a pretty good job with that in keeping them out of rhythm. Attacking on the ground — that’s our deal and kind of the way we play football — and I was pleased with us offensively.”

What did Coach Songy tell the Jays at halftime when they had a 42-7 lead? “We were really concerned with Franklinton’s quarterback,” he reiterated. “We thought he’s a really good football player and we were right about that. We just talked about just coming out in the second half and finishing well. If things continued to go well, we wanted to get a lot of our younger guys in the game.”

The Blue Jay defense was led by senior linebacker Cameron Crozier, who had eight tackles, including six solos, and two quarterback sacks for -12 yards. Three players had five tackles each: senior defensive back Jandon Briscoe, senior linebacker Jacob Baxter, and junior linebacker Hunter Faust. Sonny Hazard, a freshman defensive lineman, and sophomore defensive lineman Perry Ganci, each sacked the Demons’ quarterback.

Quarterback Denny McGinnis floats a pass to Connor Prouet near the line of scrimmage. Prouet turned on the burners and sprinted 19 yards for one of his six touchdowns.

Even though all the teams in the Catholic League will be in the playoffs in two weeks, how big a win was the Jesuit-Franklinton game?

“It was big because they’re back to back wins,” replied Coach Songy. (The Jays last week shut out Shaw, 44-0.) “We continue to improve week after week. I’ve known we’re a good football team all along, but when you’re playing some of the folks that we play and losing by very close (scores), it’s hard to justify those comments. I think we’re starting to hit stride here and we’re looking forward to playing next week. We are showing people that we’re a quality football team and very different from what our record shows.”

“This win was really, really big for us,” echoed Prouet. “It was our first two-game win in a row of the season. Coach (Songy) stressed before the game that we needed to win this to have a winning record (for the 2016 season). All the seniors on the team stepped up and tried to lead as much as we could so we could get some momentum going into the playoffs.”

Read More…

The New Orleans Advocate: Connor Prouet’s 6 touchdowns lead Jesuit to 56-21 win over Franklinton

Nola.com: Jesuit 56, Franklinton, 21: Connor Prouet scores six touchdowns in win