Last Thursday, the Dallas Jesuit Rangers traveled to Houston to play a Friday game against one of their most competitive rivals, the Strake Jesuit Crusaders, at the Crusaders home stadium. For some teams, traveling a day early and having a different daily routine before a game throws the team off a bit, but that was not the case for the Dallas Jesuit Rangers.
Even though Dallas Jesuit was well prepared, Strake also came ready to play from the first drive and managed to score off of a 63 yard touchdown run. But this didn’t phase the Rangers, and Head Coach Brandon Hicman explained, ” Our kids never panic. The game is four quarters.” To prove it, the Rangers fought back offensively and scored on their first drive with a touchdown from Garrett Amy ’15. These first two drives, resulting in a touchdown for each team, foreshadowed what was to come: a high scoring game.
After ju
st the first quarter, both teams managed to put up 21 points on the board. 7 points for Dallas Jesuit came off a 45 yard touchdown pass from Bo Schneider ’15, to Peter Lynch ’15 on a fourth down. Another 7 came at the very end of the quarter, but this time it was not the offense who would be scoring. Rather, Mac Elliot ’16 came up with a pick 6 to close the end of the 1st quarter. This pick 6, “got the momentum going for us” Coach Hickman exclaimed.
In order to slow down the Crusaders on offense, something needed to be done with Dallas Jesuit’s defense for the next three quarters, even if that was just playing better 
fundamentally. This is exactly what the Rangers did, and coach Hickman remarked, “We tackled better and got off blocks.” In the 2nd quarter, Dallas Jesuit held Strake to just 6 points, contrasting the 21 they put up in the first quarter. At the end of the 1st half, the Rangers were up 35-27. This was huge for the rangers, and Joseph Stautner ’16 explained, “From that point on, the lead continued to grow as we gained more and more momentum.”
With the Rangers having possession of the ball at the start of the second half, Amy scored his 2nd touchdown of the night, this time from 43 yards out. For the rest of the third quarter, both teams played well defensively, the Rangers holding Strake to 0 points and Dallas Jesuit coming up with just one touch down and a field goal from John Wengierski ’16. Stautner stated that, “Compared to the first half, the defense stepped up to play at a higher level.”
Th
e turning point of the game came in the fourth quarter when the Jesuit Rangers managed to pull away from Strake. Holding Strake to just one touchdown in the entire fourth quarter, the Jesuit defense closed the deal by making big stops on fourth down nearing the end of the game. At the end of the four quarters, your Jesuit Rangers won a well played game against a worthy opponent, Jesuit Strake, leaving the score at 59-35.
Even though the Rangers played a great game, there are always improvements that can be made. Coach Hickman said, “I think we can improve still on mental preparation and focus.” Through 4 quarters, the Jesuit Rangers committed three 15 yard penalties, all of which were simply mental errors. But Coach Hickman said the mental preparation is getting better, and it “comes from our leaders holding each other [their teammates] accountable.”
The 59-35 win over Strake Jesuit concluded the Rangers non-district play and puts the team at a 2-1 record. This week the Rangers do not have a game and will be preparing for their first week of district.
