Prep football: Jesuit takes advantage of turnovers, wins Holy Bowl over Christian Brothers
Jagger Shaddix looked down at the new trophy he was given a few minutes earlier. It read “Most Valuable Player” for the rivalry series between Christian Brothers and Jesuit.
“Word’s can’t really describe it,” the Jesuit senior said following his team’s 21-7 victory in the Holy Bowl in front of some 15,000 fans at Hughes Stadium in Sacramento. The annual rivalry game is one of the biggest high school football stages in Northern California during the regular season.
“The Folsom game hurt a lot,” he said, “and I put a lot of work into the offseason, so the work is starting to show off.”
Last year’s November playoff game against top-ranked Folsom serves as a painful memory for the Marauders. It was the Sac-Joaquin Section Division l semifinal played on Jesuit’s home field. Folsom came back to win 22-21 on the strength of a 15-yard touchdown with 1:36 remaining and took the lead with a 2-point conversion.
That loss for Jesuit came after opening the season against Folsom, losing 56-7. It was a campaign that began with frustration, peaked with an impressive 10-game winning streak, and ended in heartbreak after nearly getting revenge for the only loss on the schedule. Folsom, of course, went on to win the Northern California 1-AA title by beating powerhouse De La Salle.
Fast forward to Saturday, and Shaddix was feeling grateful for his new trophy after being his team’s best player, serving as a power running back and forceful defensive tackle against Christian Brothers. Jesuit improved to 3-0 on the season and hosts Sheldon on Saturday in a Delta League opener on Saturday.
“Getting the win felt nice, but I felt like we could have done better. There were a lot of mistakes,” Shaddix said.
Added head coach Marlon Blanton: “It’s a win, we got a lot to improve on, a lot to work on. But it’s always good to win the Holy Bowl.”
Indeed, the Marauders’ defense took away four fumbles, returning one for a touchdown 35 yards by Anthony Seibles, and forced two additional turnovers on downs. But Christian Brothers hung around for most of the night on the strength of a defense that played well after allowing a 7-yard touchdown run from quarterback Trenton Dewar on the opening series.
Jesuit failed to capitalize on the Falcons’ giveaways, with their only other offensive touchdown coming after a long Tristan Canaan kickoff return to the 1-yard line. That was followed up by Shaddix’s 1-yard touchdown.
“We came in with our heads high,” Shaddix said. “I felt like we came in a little bit too cocky. We were viewing down on them, we weren’t expecting them to come out that hard.”
Jesuit’s defense sacked Falcons freshman quarterback Deakon Holden four times. Shaddix had one along with four tackles, a forced fumble and fumble recovery.
But Holden impressed, given the circumstances. He’s been thrust into the starting lineup after expected starting quarterback William Littlejohn fractured a finger in a preseason scrimmage. Holden threw a highlight reel touchdown pass to star receiver Phillip Bell on a fade route in the second quarter.
“It takes some guts to play in this game as a freshman and play as well as he did,” Blanton said.
Littlejohn was in uniform Saturday and would have been available in case of emergency. But his throws during warmups lacked his usual zip coming off the injury to his throwing hand. Head coach Larry Morla said Littlejohn, a junior, will have to win the starting job back from Holden despite his status coming into the season.
“It’s a competition,” said Morla. “You just don’t get a job handed to you. You have to work for it. Deakon worked to get that job and he hasn’t really done anything to lose it yet.”
Christian Brothers (2-2) was coming off an unimpressive 42-14 defeat at the hands of Sheldon last week. The practice schedule leading into Saturday was thrown off by the heat wave forcing practices at night. Intensity and physicality were focuses from Morla.
“Every day we practiced defense and our scout offense did a great job replicating what they do,” Morla said in preparing for Jesuit’s veer rushing attack. “And that’s why our defense came out with bad intention and we did our job. And our defense played great. When you turn the ball over four times on offense, when your special teams gives up a big kick return, those are the mistakes. We have to play a perfect game to beat that team.”
For Jesuit, the victory was its 12th in the last 13 games of the Holy Bowl matchup. For Morla and Christian Brothers, they hope their young roster can mature and turn the rivalry’s tide starting next season.
“We’re young but we’ll be back next year,” Morla said. “They better be afraid because we have 12 sophomores that are hungry that are going to come back for next year.”
This story was originally published September 11, 2022 at 6:23 AM.
