This past Wednesday on October 22nd, the Jesuit Rangers JV team took on their longtime rivals, WT White. At the varsity level, this rivalry is commonly referred to as the Battle for the Saddle. This battle, at any level, is always action packed and usually comes down to the wire.
Last year, the Jesuit Freshman Blue team took on the only WT White freshman team. It was a tough battle that ended in an upset, with the WT White team taking the victory. Statistically, Jesuit dominates this rivalry and wins almost every year.
On both teams, many of the kids who faced each other in the previous year played for the JV teams. Out for revenge, the Jesuit JV team was hungry for a victory.
Heading into the game, Head Coach Rick Leal wanted his team “to control the line of scrimmage” on both sides of the ball. The offense wanted to apply pressure in order to relieve the defense. Respecting WT White, the Rangers wanted to stick to their hard-nosed approach on defense. Coach Leal was confident in his team’s abilities and knew if they played the same football they had been playing all year, they’d be successful.
The Rangers excelled immediately, controlling the pace on offense and dominating the opposition on defense, which prevented WT White from gaining any momentum. Irving Nimitz was able to come back from a large deficit last week, and the Rangers wanted to make sure it didn’t happen again. Defensive back Stephen Rodrigues ’17 said, “The team was upset after giving up a huge lead last week, so we made sure we played harder this week.” The team showed great strength throughout the game.
Even though the Rangers played phenomenally, the Longhorns stayed in the game. The team’s explosive ground attack was able to bust open some huge runs behind a few big carries of 40 plus yards as well as a few touchdowns. However, the Rangers’ secondary locked up the passing game, alleviating some of the pressure placed on the defensive line and linebackers. Safety John Guzman ’17 noted that “the secondary success allowed us to focus on stopping the run.” With this aid, the run defense was able to slow down (not stop) the Longhorn ground attack, but not before the Longhorns secured a few touchdowns.
However, the offense was able to counter with big plays through the air. Quarterback Jacob Palisch ’17 connected with his receivers all game, especially wide-out Luke Laufenberg ’16. Laufenberg credited his success in this game to extensive preparation in practice. Varsity safety John Wunderlick added that “covering Luke in practice is tough. He puts in the necessary work and is an animal on the field.” Laufenberg was able to grab two touchdowns that proved to be deciding. Laufenberg said he “could smell the fear in the Longhorn defensive backs and knew he could beat them deep.”
The Rangers were able to come away with a 35-20 victory over their foe. Defensive end Jordan Rice ’17 explained, “Whenever our offense can put up big points like that I know we can secure the victory.” Rice was confident in his defense’s ability as long as it had a little help from the offense.
Going into next weeks matchup, the Rangers want to focus on putting up big offensive numbers. Facing Irving MacArthur, the Rangers travel out for their final away game. Go out and support the squad, which is looking to advance to 6-2 on the season!
