Jesuit’s 42-14 Victory a Complete Game for Offense and Defense

Connor Prouet begins his third touchdown run from the 13-yard line, dragging a host of Eagles the entire way.

View the Photo Gallery of the Jesuit – Shaw Game

Jesuit should schedule more football games to be played on Saturday afternoon. That’s just a given after the Blue Jays, winless in their first four district games, showed up at Hoss Memtsas Stadium to battle Shaw.

The story was supposed to be Trey Ragas but Mark Beebe and the rest of the Blue Jay defense put a lid on the Eagles’ vaunted running back. Beebe later had one of Jesuit’s two interceptions.

When it was all over by 4:30 p.m., Shaw’s vaunted running back Trey Ragas, who needed just under 100 yards to set a new career rushing record for the Eagles, achieved that milestone at the very end of the third quarter. Consider Ragas lucky that he got what was needed, and not much more, because the Blue Jays’ defense was all over his number 5. The Eagles’ senior running back certainly had to work hard for every yard.

Oh, by the way, the final score was 42-14. In winning their first district game, the Blue Jays were more relieved that it finally happened. In fact, some of the players might have looked like they forgot what it was like to win, prompting Coach Mark Songy to chide them good-naturedly during their usual post-game impromptu meeting on the field: “Hey, you guys, you won! I’m looking at some faces that are glum. You should be happy. Smile. It’s ok to enjoy this win.”

Coach Songy’s light-hearted admonition actually got some laughs from the Blue Jays, who are now 3-5 overall and 1-4 in district. Jesuit’s 2015 regular season has two games remaining to be played.

Kai Rozas peels off some yardage and later scored his first touchdown of the seasion.

First, the Jays cross the lake to meet Franklinton in a non-district contest on Friday, Oct. 30 with kickoff at 7 p.m. Jesuit closes out the regular season against Brother Martin on Friday, Nov. 6. Kickoff is at 7 p.m. at Tad Gormley Stadium.

And then the playoffs begin. But that’s three weeks from now. Let’s not get ahead of ourselves. Instead, let’s enjoy Saturday’s win over Shaw in which the Jays finally put together a complete game.

“I was just waiting for us to play a complete game and we haven’t up to this point, at least in the last four or five weeks or so,” Coach Songy told reporters afterwards. “Yes, it’s nice to get one under our belt. Shaw’s a fine football team. They’ve played some great competition and done well. I think we finally put it all together today and I’m happy about that.”

Connor Prouet, Jesuit’s leading rusher, ran like a Harvey hare and scored three of the Jays’ six touchdowns (numbers one, four, and five) on runs of 35, 25, and 13 yards. Wide receiver Bryce Musso scored Jesuit’s second TD after catching a 13-yard pass from quarterback Peter Hontas in the back of the end zone. Running back Kai Rozas notched Jesuit’s third touchdown, his first of the season, on a two yard burst up the middle. Malachi Hull iced the cake in the fourth quarter with an electrifying 60-yard punt return that had him tip-toeing along the edge of the Eagles’ sideline all the way into the end zone.

Malachi Hull takes this punt on the Jesuit 40-yard line and races 60 yards down the Eagles’ sideline for the Jays’ fifth and final touchdown.

Kicker Crew Jacobs nailed all six PATs.

On the Jays’ first possession, Hontas and the offense marched down the field with Prouet galloping around the left side from 32 yards out to put the Jays up, 7-0. Jesuit’s defense consistently checked Shaw’s offense and before you could consume a Hoss hot dog, the Jays a 21-zip lead that almost carried over into halftime. But the Eagles lit up the scoreboard with their first touchdown in the final minute of the first half to make it a 21-7 ball game.

The momentum stayed with the Eagles at the start of the third quarter when they scored again, closing the gap to 21-14. Shaw might have had momentum, but then the Eagles were hit with two huge penalties – roughing kicker Crew Jacobs and roughing quarterback Hontas on a pass.

“It’s finally a good thing that somebody else makes those kinds of mistakes and we don’t,” said Coach Songy. “That accounted for 30 yards on that drive. So thanks, thanks for the mistake there. Then we punched it in and went on a little bit of a run at that time. Malachi Hull had a nice punt return and offensively we controlled it on the ground pretty well.”

Hull’s punt return for a TD was his first as well as the team’s inaugural of the season.

Defensive back Matt McMahon runs back an interception from the Jesuit end zone to the 36-yard line.

Jesuit’s defense stiffened like starched shirts and Prouet continued to eat up real estate, this time like a Gretna gazelle. His second touchdown made it a 28-14 game and soon it was a 35-14 spread. Prouet’s third touchdown was something to behold as the junior running back literally dragged three Eagle defenders the final 10 yards before falling across the goal line.

“We finally put it together,” said Coach Songy. “Our defensive staff does a great job putting our guys in position to make plays and we did today. That’s different from a couple of weeks back.”

The story on this cloudy and windy Saturday was supposed to be Shaw’s Trey Ragas setting a new school record for rushing. While Ragas did just that, as one scribe noted after the game, it was a credit to Jesuit’s defense to hold the Eagles’ top running back to about 100 yards.

“He’s a great running back,” said Coach Songy about Ragas. “Defensively, we took care of him and played real well. We put our guys in great position to make plays and they did. Our offense kept the ball out of their hands and that was important. You hate to give up 95 yards to any running back, but Trey is special and we wish him the best of luck.”

Read More…

The New Orleans Advocate: Trey Ragas breaks Shaw’s rushing record, but Jesuit dominates in 42-14 win

Nola.com: Jesuit’s Connor Prouet goes for 3 TDs, spoils record day for Trey Ragas in win over Shaw