DANVERS — The St. John’s Prep football team defended its home field Friday night, as the reigning Division 1 Super Bowl champions took down St. Mary’s by a score of 26-7 at Cronin Memorial Stadium.
“It was definitely a little weird to be out there this time of year, but we’re grateful to be playing right now,” said St. John’s Prep coach Brian St. Pierre. “After getting this game last minute, we didn’t have much time to prepare and we just came out and played. We’re a young team right now and we’re trying to get guys experience, but we need to get a lot better.”
Prior to the game, the Eagles honored their group of 17 seniors — Nicholas Barrett, Sean Cicerone, Thomas Corwin, Francesco DelGaizo, Garrett Dunn, Willem Hendriks, Steven Lafferty, Max Laplante, Matthew Loughlin, Robert McGowan, Donald Paglia, Emil Pinales-Santana, Justin Saslaw, Brett Smith, Collin Taylor, Christopher West and Peter Wiehe — for their contributions to the program over the years.
“You’ve got to lean on your seniors every year, and this year we have good captains and good senior leadership,” said St. Pierre. “We’re playing a lot of sophomores and juniors, so our older guys do a good job of leading the way.”
Prep quarterbacks Victor Harrington (6-for-9, 74 yards, touchdown) and Jack Perry (4-for-6, 39 yards, touchdown) did well moving the ball through the air, while receivers Jackson Delaney (five receptions, 63 yards, touchdown) and Jesse OFurie (five receptions, 50 yards, touchdown) hauled in a number of catches. Running back Ryan Grenier rushed for 78 yards and two touchdowns in the win.
For St. Mary’s, quarterback Ali Barry completed 5-of-14 passes for 50 yards and one touchdown, while receiver David Brown Jr. had four receptions for 46 yards and one touchdown. Nick Sacco and Jack Marks played well on the defensive line.
“We came out and took a game against a good football program and just wanted to compete, and we played hard for four quarters,” said St. Mary’s coach Sean Driscoll. “We struggled offensively, but defensively we held our own for the most part. We’ve got a young football team and this was a confidence booster in a lot of ways.”
The Eagles got off to a strong start on both sides of the ball, with Matt Mitchell grabbing an interception on the opening possession of the game and then backing it up with a nine-play drive on offense. That drive was capped when Harrington found OFurie on a slant route over the middle for a 12-yard touchdown, putting Prep up 7-0.
The Spartans only gained one first down on the ensuing possession, and soon enough St. John’s had the ball back. The Eagles went on to complete a five-play drive that resulted in a one-yard touchdown run by Grenier to make it 14-0.
St. John’s Prep extended its lead even further midway through the second quarter, when Grenier broke free for a 43-yard touchdown run to make it 26-0.
The score remained there until the final seconds of the game, when the Spartans were finally able to strike on offense. Barry reared back and connected with Brown on a 31-yard pass in the end zone to avoid the shutout and get some positive momentum moving into next week.
St. Mary’s (0-1) plays on the road at Arlington Catholic next Saturday (1).
“Any time you can play an opponent that’s better than you, you take that opportunity and hope it makes you better,” said Driscoll. “Now we’re getting into our league and hopefully we can build on what we’ve done here.”
St. John’s Prep (1-0) hosts BC High next Saturday (12:30).
“We’re going to be getting into the Catholic Conference next week and we know we’re going to have to be better than this,” said St. Pierre. “We’re going to hit it hard in practice this week and try to come out strong next Saturday.”