Jesuit tops Bishop Manogue under rare Friday night lights while seeking permanent lighting

Jesuit High School hopes Friday night’s display on its Carmichael campus was just the beginning of things to come.

On a campus that opened in 1963, Jesuit historically has played home football games on Saturday afternoons due to an absence of lights within Marauder Stadium. Only once before have the Marauders enjoyed the traditional fun and festive high school atmosphere found only under the Friday night lights in the fall.

But Friday’s season-opener served as a possible glimpse into the future for Jesuit football, which treated its fellow students, fans and community with its first Friday night home game in five years, a 30-14 win over Bishop Manogue of Reno.

“This felt like football,” Jesuit head coach Marlon Blanton said of the cheerful atmosphere.

According to Jesuit athletic director Hank Weinberger, Jesuit’s first true home night game was in 2018, 55 years after the school opened. Jesuit rolled to a 49-14 win over Rio Americano, its rival from down the road on American River Drive, under rented stadium lights.

The lights for Friday’s game against Bishop Manogue — and for this coming Friday against St. Ignatius of San Francisco — are part of a temporary use permit through the Sacramento County Planning Commission. The permit is being issued as part of a pending request to the county from Jesuit to install permanent lighting at Marauder Stadium.

Jesuit submitted its proposal to the county last September. According to the county’s planning and environmental review, a Planning Commission hearing with opportunities for public and agency input is slated for late summer. Weinberger emphasized the importance of considering the surrounding residential area, which could potentially see an uptick in noise and traffic during future Friday night contests.

“We’re committed to fully executing all steps and requirements for this process,” Weinberger told The Sacramento Bee. “We’ve been focused on adjusting our standard daytime game operations over the last couple months in planning how to change things and execute a well-planned night contest that’s spirited for our fans while being respectful to our neighbors.”

In recent years, Jesuit has taken Zero Week as its bye week to push Saturday afternoon home games further into mid-September to better deal with increasing heat waves throughout Sacramento in the early portion of the football schedule.

“There have been concerns, especially during this region’s extreme heat season, which has steadily gotten worse,” Weinberger said. “We’ve also learned a lot about heat illness, air quality and just general safety for our student-athletes. We’re more aware now than we’ve ever been in putting student-athletes in a safe position.”

Aside from safety concerns, Jesuit’s Saturday game environments just have a different vibe, Weinberger added.

“We draw students from several different ZIP codes in the Sacramento area, and when they all go home Friday after school, a lot aren’t coming back on Saturday for a game,” Weinberger said. “We want to provide that experience for the students in our community but also respect the process. We want to let the process with the county play out.”

In 2019, Jesuit “hosted” Folsom in a season-opener at Sacramento State. In 2017, the Marauders played some Friday afternoon games with 4 p.m. kickoffs. In 2014, their season opened against De La Salle at UC Berkeley’s Memorial Stadium, a game originally scheduled for Levi’s Stadium, home of the San Francisco 49ers, in Santa Clara. Jesuit faced Elk Grove in a Delta League game at Levi’s Stadium later that season.

“The environment of playing at night time, the players look forward to it, but it’s also about the community,” Blanton said. “It’s a great opportunity for families, players, the school, the community, students and fans to be a part of a night game at Jesuit. But at the end of the day, it’s still football.”

And as for actual football on Friday? Jesuit led 28-7 at halftime thanks to touchdown rushes of 21 and 11 yards from senior Drew Vassar, who also registered a sack on defense. Junior Alan Cordano opened the scoring for the Marauders with a 64-yard TD run in the first quarter.

Senior quarterback CJ Lee went 12-of-19 passing for 184 yards and a TD hookup with tight end Cooper Babb early in the second quarter. Senior Caleb Dixon had a big night, catching three passes for 116 yards, going 4 for 4 on extra-point tries and hauling in an interception on defense against last year’s Nevada state runner-up Miners.

Also making noise on the defensive side for Jesuit were linemen Payton Coss, Tristan Lebrecht and Caleb Hall, who were all disruptive in the Bishop Manogue backfield.

“Our defense really carried us,” Lee said. “They did their thing and that’s all I can ask for from a quarterback standpoint.”

Jesuit felt the roar of the raucous student section from the time they ran onto the field for pregame warmups.

“That was probably 100 times more than what we get every (other) game,” Vassar said. “It’s really empowering to see all those people supporting us and getting out here and getting hyped for us. The fan base really helped propel us to where we needed to be.”

Jesuit will host one more Friday night game next week against St. Ignatius before its annual Holy Bowl showdown with Christian Brothers at Sacramento City College’s Hughes Stadium on Sept. 9. The remainder of Jesuit’s home games will be played on Saturdays. Delta League play begins Sept. 15 at Sheldon.

This story was originally published August 25, 2023 at 11:36 PM.