The Jesuit Ranger Varsity football squad kicked off their second district game this past Friday night, playing against the tough Richardson Berkner Rams. Fortunately this time around, Jesuit won 31-14 to pull even in district play with a record of 1-1. Let’s take a look at some of the highlights of the game.
Rather than just playing only one stellar half, this week the Rangers stepped it up and played an outstanding four quarter game, where both sides of the ball flourished.
Jesuit started the game off strong, scoring relatively early in the first quarter with a 2 yard run by Adam Holtz ‘16, a sophomore running back who is making a name for himself in District 9-5A. This drive started at the Ranger’s own 5 yard line, behind the arm of Bo Schneider ’15, he completed 3 straight passes one of which was a 56 yard bomb to Charlie Eickenburg ’15 that placed the Rangers on the 19 yard line of Berkner. After a pass interference in the endzone, the ball was placed on the 2 yard line, which then led to the 2 yard run by Holtz. The Ranger defense quickly forced a three and out, thus leaving the score after the first possession 7-0 Rangers.
After a Berkner punt, the Rangers started on Berkner’s 46 yard line and after a short possession which failed to reach the endzone, Christian
Roberts ’14 knocked in a field goal to make the score 10-0. The defense then allowed a drive that looked quite promising for the Rams. Starting from their own 20 yard line, Berkner rushed for 11 yards and moved the sticks. On a third and long play, Berkner converted on a pass for 16 yards putting them at mid field. Continuing the drive, Berkner snapped the ball over the quarterback’s head thus leaving them in a second and long situation.
But after an 11 yard run and an 11 yard pass completion, Berkner had a first down and ten starting at the 38 of the Rangers. After a quick run play on first down, which resulted in a 2 yard loss for the Rams, the quarterback had a designed run play that broke through the defense and looked promising until the outstanding effort of senior safety Tyler Kromkowski ’14 caused the Ram’s quarterback to fumble the ball. Pursing the ball, Josh Cummings ’15 and Nick Lanpher ’14 fell on the ball for a Jesuit recovery of the turnover.
The Jesuit offense then started from their own twenty, and pieced together a promising drive with rushes from Adam Holtz and Max Loughborrow ’16. Jesuit began the second quarter inside the Ram’s 40 yard line. With 3 unsuccessful pass plays, Coach Brandon Hickman made a great and gusty play call going for it on 4th down. With a draw play going to Holtz, he broke the run for a good 25 yard gain placing the Rangers on the 12 yard line of the Ram’s. The very next play, sophomore running back Max Loughborrow took the handoff up the middle and scored from 12 yards out, thus putting the Ranger’s up 16-0.
Roberts then made the extra point, held by Parker Rice ’14, to make the game 17-0. The defense then made their way out on to the field and after 6 plays, with 4 runs from the Rams quarterback and 2 pass plays, Berkner was able to find the endzone with a 23 yard touchdown pass. With 7:00 minutes left in the half, the score was 17-7.
The Ranger offense then got a chance to respond to Berkner’s score, but after a penalty, they were not able to convert on 3rd down and
were forced to punt. The defense then was called upon again and after shutting down the run, Berkner’s quarterback converted a long pass play to set up the Rams in Ranger territory. After two quick run plays, the Rams’ quarterback broke a long run of 31 yards to score, thus making the score 17-14 which ultimately would be the halftime score.
Halftime was quite intense, for both teams were fighting for district wins that ultimately allow them to go to the playoffs. Ranger coach Paul Maturi acknowledged that the Berkner coaches, “challenged [us] as a team” and hinted that each team knew what had to be done in the second half and they knew that their seasons were not fully depending on this game, but this was a key game that must be won.
Jesuit’s defense started the second half and they were fired up, knowing to win they must keep the Rams out of their endzone. Berkner started the drive from their own 15 and after an impressive run, which led to a first down, they were called for offensive pass interference. The defense then forced a quick three and out, forcing the Rams to punt the ball away. With a short punt, the Rangers started the drive on the Rams’ 33 yard line. After a long, 10 play drive the Rangers put the ball in the endzone off of a Holtz 5 yard run, his second of the game. The score of the game was now 24-14.
The defense was back out on the field and did a great job of shutting down the run. The defensive line played well and line backers John
Wheeler ’14 and Hayden Clouse ’14 closed down the running lanes. Berkner completed an 18 yard pass play to get into Ranger territory, but one play later, Lanpher drilled a Berkner receiver bobbling the football, thus causing a fumble that was picked up by Taylor Stine ’15.
Jesuit then started from Berkner’s 49 yard line. With a screen pass to Holtz, the Rangers moved the sticks and set up another big Adam Holtz run of 20 yards. On first down, Holtz ran for a good 4 yards, but the next two passes from Schneider were incomplete, setting up a 4th down and 6. Coming up with an outstanding catch and first down for the Rangers was sophomore John Michael Priddy ‘16 thus setting up a 3 yard score for Loughborrow. Roberts added the extra point, bringing the score to 31-14.
Going into the 4th quarter, the game looked to be in the hands of the Rangers, but they still had a quarter to go. With outstanding all around defensive play, the Rangers were able to keep the Rams out of the end zone on their last 3 drives of the game, finishing off the game with an interception on the last drive by Josh Cummings ’15, with the final score 31-14.
Schneider and running backs Holtz and Loughborrow, had outstanding games with Schneider completing 15 of 23, for 225 with no interceptions. The two backs rushed 41 times for 145 yards. Coach Maturi described this second half battle as “about the best football we played as a football team, both offensively and defensively, and special teams” and that Jesuit “finished strong” in this game.
With this win, Jesuit is now 1-1 in district and looking to play W.T. White in the Battle for the Saddle this upcoming Friday. Please come out and support your Rangers.
