REPLAY: Jesuit overcomes early miscues, valiant H.L. Bourgeois for non-district win

METAIRIE – Coming off five straight victories in Catholic League play, Jesuit ventured out of district play Saturday night to host H.L. Bourgeois.

Despite being Senior night, there was the obvious potential for a letdown.

That was glaringly evident early on but the Blue Jays righted a listing ship to overcome a host of mistakes to subdue H.L. Bourgeois 42-13 Saturday evening at Joe Yenni Stadium in a game heard on NASH ICON 106.1 FM and seen live on CrescentCitySports.com.

Senior quarterback Jack Larriviere ran for two touchdowns and passed for two others while Jaron Duplessis rushed 19 times for 101 yards for the Blue Jays, who rushed for 247 yards and wore H.L. Bourgeois down.

Larriviere was just 3-of-9 for 61 yards and two touchdowns with an interception and he rushed nine times for 19 yards and two scores.

“It was a little frustrating early,” Larriviere said. “Everybody else was doing their job. I knew I needed to pick it up and we did and it worked out well.”

Playing without all three starting linebackers and a couple of other key players, the Blue Jays had to play a lot of reserves.

To say that Jesuit started poorly would be an understatement.

Jesuit won the toss, took the opening kickoff and on the first play from scrimmage, Jack Larrivere’s flat pass was intercepted and returned 22 yards for a touchdown by Ja’Colby Harris to give the Braves a 6-0 lead after a missed extra point just 16 seconds into the game.

The Blue Jays subsequently fumbled the ball away on its next two possessions, with its first three possessions ending with turnovers but the Jesuit defense hung tough, keeping H.L. Bourgeois from scoring on either of the other two mistakes.

Jesuit then got a big play on special teams as Harris fumbled a punt and Hunter Dufnac recovered at the H.L. Bourgeois 6-yard line.

Larriviere scored on the next play, a 6-yard touchdown run and Aidan Corbello nailed the extra point to give the Blue Jays a lead they would not relinquish at 7-6 with 3:10 to play in the opening quarter.

The Blue Jay offense finally got going in the second quarter, driving 83 yards in 12 plays, taking 4:23 off the clock with Larriviere connecting with tight end Hollis McDaniel on a 10-yard touchdown pass to give Jesuit a 14-6 lead with 6:31 to play in the first half.

Jesuit then forced another turnover as Christian Jackson hit Braves quarterback Noah Prosperie who fumbled and Braden Helm recovered at the H.L. Bourgeois 17-yard line.

Five plays later, Harry Reinhardt scored on a 1-yard run to increase the Jesuit lead to 21-6 with 4:17 to play in the first half.

H.L. Bourgeois came out to start the second half and looked ready to make a game of it, driving 65 yards in five plays with Prosperie hitting Tyrese Stark on a 23-yard touchdown pass to cut the deficit to 21-13 with 9:50 to play in the third quarter.

Jesuit responded with a nice 79-yard drive in 13 plays, taking 4:42 off the clock with Larriviere scoring on a 3-yard touchdown run and it was 28-13 by the end of the third quarter.

On the first play of the fourth quarter, Larriviere capped a nine play, 66-yard drive with a 40-yard touchdown strike to Jace Larsen to open up a 35-13 lead with 11:47 to play in the game.

“Jace Larsen ran a nice sight-and-go route,” Larriviere said. “He beat the corner deep and the O-line gave me protection, I put where it needed to be and Jace did the rest.”

The Blue Jays completed the scoring by driving 60 yards in 10 plays with reserve quarterback Liam Parenton scoring on a 2-yard run.

Jesuit overcame four turnovers to secure the win.

“We came out sloppy,” Jesuit coach Ryan Manale said. “This is probably the sloppiest I’ve seen us play. One of the big thigs we talk about is not beating ourselves. We had a lot of things that beat ourselves tonight. The first three possessions we throw a pick six, fumble, fumble. On special teams, we had two penalties and we didn’t know how to handle a blocked punt. That’s on me to prepare these guys well enough.”

Now 7-0 as a result of receiving a forfeit victory over Brother Martin, Jesuit has a chance to complete an unbeaten season and to win an outright District 9-5A championship next Friday night when it hosts Archbishop Rummel at 7 p.m. at Tad Gormley Stadium. A victory was assure Jesuit of a top three seed and a first-round bye in the Division I playoffs. It would be Jesuit’s first Catholic League title since 2011.

“I think in Division I, you really don’t know where you’re finishing,” Manale said. “That’s stuff that I can’t control, my kids can’t control, I don’t think any of the schools can control. Whatever happens, happens. The last thing that I’m doing or my team’s doing is worrying about what anybody else is doing. We have our own stuff to clean up.”

Larriviere is ready for the chance for an unbeaten season and district championship.

“This week we’re going to have a short week going into our last game of the season with Rummel,” Larriviere said. “We know we need to win this one to get some momentum going into the playoffs.”

FINAL

JESUIT 7 14 7 14 42

HLB 6 0 7 0 13

Scoring:

1st Qtr.

HLB—Jacolby Harris, 22-yard interception return (kick failed)

JES—Jack Larriviere, 6-yard run (Aidan Corbello kick)

2nd Qtr.

JES—Hollis McDaniel, 10-yard pass from Jack Larriviere (Aidan Corbello kick)

JES—Harry Reinhardt, 1-yard run (Aidan Corbello kick)

3rd Qtr.

HLB—Tyrese Stark, 23-yard pass from Noah Prosperie (Austin Ledet kick)

JES—Jack Larriviere, 3-yard run (Aidan Corbello kick)

4th Qtr.

JES—Jace Larsen, 40-yard pass from Jack Larriviere (Aidan Corbello kick)

JES—Liam Parenton, 2-yard run (Aidan Corbello kick)

First Downs:

JES 17, HLB 7

Penalties:

JES 6 for 70 yards, HLB 6 for 43 yards

Sacks:

JES 1, HLB 2

Turnovers:

JES 4, HLB 2

Rushing Yards:

JES 247, HLB 44

Passing Yards:

JES 61, HLB 16

Total Yards:

JES 308, HLB 60

Individual Rushing:

JES—Jaron Duplessis 19 carries for 101 yards, Harry Reinhardt 13 carries for 60 yards and 1 touchdown, Jasper Parker 11 carries for 47 yards, Patrick Berrigan 3 carries for 20 yards, Jack Larriviere 7 carries for 19 yards and 2 touchdowns, Liam Parenton 1 carry for 2 yards and 1 touchdown

HLB—Noah Prosperie 11 carries for 40 yards, Gemir Matthews 5 carries for 9 yards, Tyrese Stark 2 carries for 2 yards, Da’Quan Diggs 1 carry for -1 yard, Da’Waun Diggs, 10 carries for -6 yards

Individual Passing:

JES—Jack Larriviere 3-of-9 for 61 yards and 2 touchdowns, 1 interception

HLB—Noah Prosperie 3-of-9 for 16 yards, 1 interception

Individual Receiving:

JES—Jace Larsen 2 catches for 51 yards and 1 touchdown, Hollis McDaniel 1 catch for 10 yards and 1 touchdown

HLB—Da’Waun Diggs 1 catch for 7 yards, Sha’ron Thompson 1 catch for 5 yards, Da’Quan Diggs 1 catch for 4 yards