Brother Martin, Pierce overcome Rummel again with late score

METAIRIE, La. – Bend but don’t break. Come through in the clutch.

Both football clichés were executed in perfect fashion by Brother Martin Saturday night.

John-Paul Pierce scored on a five-yard run with 1:28 to play in the game to lift the Crusaders to a 21-17 victory over Rummel in a District 9-5A contest at Joe Yenni Stadium seen live at CrescentCitySports.com.

It was déjà vu for the Crusaders against the Raiders. For the second straight year, the Pierce drove Brother Martin the length of the field in the final minutes to overcome a deficit to defeat Rummel.

This time, it was a six play, 83-yard drive engineered by Pierce to get the job done. A big play on the drive was a personal foul against the Raiders to sustain the job early before Pierce hit Brady Faust for 34 yards, setting the stage for the game-winning touchdown. Defensive back Errick Lassair moved to running back on the final drive and had three key runs for 25 runs.

After starting the season slowly against a brutal schedule, Brother Martin head coach Mark Bonis has seen his team rally in the final minutes to win two consecutive Catholic League games after turning away Holy Cross 26-22 a week ago.

“We’ve done it two weeks in a row and two years in a row,” Bonis said. “We had to find ourselves early in the year and had to grow up. It could have gone the wrong way. We were young. Since the beginning of the season, we believed our kids were physically and mentally tough enough to grow from it and they have done so. We talk about the process. We had done it in the clutch last year against them last year so we believed we could to it.”

A year ago, Pierce drove the Crusaders 72 yards in the final minute for the game-winning touchdown pass to tight end Michael Parenti in a 27-22 victory.

Rummel had seven trips into the red zone and came away with just 17 points as the Raiders made mistakes or were turned away by the Brother Martin defense.

For Rummel head coach Jay Roth, the disappointment was clear.

“We had many red zone opportunities and didn’t take advantage of them at all,” Roth said. “Defensively, we had a chance to get off the field and couldn’t do it when it mattered in the end. Everybody had a hand in this outcome. You cannot make mistakes and expect to win.”

The Crusaders jumped on the Raiders quickly. On their second possession of the game, Brother Martin drove 52 yards in six plays with Pierce hitting Davonn Moore on a 14-yard touchdown pass and it was 7-0 with 5:37 to play in the first quarter.

Brother Martin expanded the lead on its next possession, moving 80 yards in six plays with Joshua-Payne Morgan scoring on an eight-yard run and it was 14-0 with 2:27 to play in the opening quarter.

Rummel answered with a nine play, 67-yard drive with Keirell Jackson rushing seven yards for a score to cut the deficit to 14-7.

Brother Martin had a chance to stretch the lead but Matthew Alfonso was stopped inside the Rummel one-yard on fourth-and-goal from the one. Rummel missed two great opportunities to score, with Ja’Marr Chase caught a slant pass from Chandler Fields and racing to the three-yard line but he fumbled into the end zone with the Crusaders recovering for a touchback. Rummel later reached the Brother Martin two-yard line but went for it on fourth-and-goal and a pass from Fields for Chase fell incomplete.

The Raiders took the second half kickoff and drove 58 yards in 13 plays before the drive stalled. Chris Freibert booted a 34-yard field goal to cut the deficit to 14-10 with 3:54 to play in the game, setting the stage for the game-winning heroics of the Crusaders.

Pierce completed 11-of-20 passes for 134 yards and a touchdown and rushed eight times for 67 yards and a score. Payne-Morgan rushed 15 times for 77 yards and a touchdown. Moore had three catches for 60 yards and a touchdown.

For the Raiders, Fields completed 14-of-27 passes for 250 yards. Jackson rushed 19 times for 174 yards and two touchdowns. Chase caught seven passes for 109 yards but just one in the second half, when Brother Martin rolled double coverage to him wherever he lined up. Rummel lost despite amassing 486 yards of total offense.

“John-Paul played a very good football game,” Bonis said. “He made really great reads. This may have been his best game from start to finish. He’s been trying to do probably too much on his own. As the guys around him are getting more comfortable around him, he is getting more comfortable. He’s a great player and leader.”

After a 1-4 start, the Crusaders have hit their stride.

“We knew we had it in us to score on the last possession because we had done it before and we work hard everyday to prepare,” Pierce said. “We had confidence in ourselves, even after the slow start to the season.”

With their third straight win, Brother Martin (4-4, 2-2) moves on to face Archbishop Shaw next Saturday at The Shrine on Airline at 1 p.m. on WGSO, 990 AM while Rummel (5-2, 2-2) faces a tall task against John Curtis next Friday night at The Shrine on Airline at 7 p.m.

“If you really believe in what you’re doing and believe in one another, you believe that you are going to get it done,” Bonis said. “This team is starting to believe that.”

Final
AR 0 7 3 7 — 17
BM 14 0 0 7 — 21

Scoring
1st Qtr.
BM—Davonn Moore, 14 yard pass from John-Paul Pierce (Jack Landry kick)
BM—Joshua Payne-Morgan, 8 yard run (Jack Landry kick)

2nd Qtr.
RUM—Keirell Jackson, 7 yard run (Chris Freibert kick)

3rd Qtr.
RUM—Chris Freibert, 34 yard field goal (14-10 BM)

4th Qtr.
RUM—Keirell Jackson, 26 yard run (Chris Freibert kick)
BM—John-Paul Pierce, 5 yard run (Chris Landry kick)

Statistics
First Downs
RUM 23, BM 14

Penalties
RUM 6 for 49 yards, BM 8 for 39 yards

Sacks
RUM 0, BM 2

Turnovers
RUM 1, BM 0

Rushing
RUM 236, BM 184

Passing
RUM 250, BM 134

Total Yards
RUM 486, BM 318