Senior Alan Cordano helps Jesuit light up the night in blowout win over Rio Americano

If there was ever a question of who would step into a starring role for the 2024 Jesuit Marauders, the answer is simple.

Take your pick.

Seven different players scored touchdowns for the Marauders in a 56-7 rout over Rio Americano Friday in Carmichael on an evening that ushered in a new era for Jesuit football. Friday marked the start of the first season at Jesuit with permanent stadium lights.

“It’s special. There’s nothing better than Friday night lights,” Jesuit senior Alan Cordano said. “All the energy, fans, family, it’s special, for sure.”

Cordano loves playing under the lights. As a junior last year, Cordano sparked Jesuit with 93 rushing yards and a touchdown in the Marauders’ season opener under rented stadium lights against Bishop Manogue. He had the opportunity once again to shine for his team on Friday with two short TD runs for the Marauders.

Jesuit’s season-opening victory gave head coach Marlon Blanton career win No. 175. He could only find one word for the feeling of the evening.

“Beautiful, man. Beautiful,” he said.

Opening in 1963, Jesuit went 55 years without hosting football under the Friday night lights. Jesuit has traditionally played home football games on Saturday afternoons at Marauder Stadium. Jesuit’s first home night game came in 2018 against American River Drive rival Rio Americano under portable lights.

Jesuit hosted Bishop Manogue of Nevada and St. Ignatius of San Francisco under portable lights last year as part of a temporary use permit through the Sacramento County Planning Commission. The school has long desired to bring permanent stadium lights to its Carmichael campus.

Numerous concerns have surrounded Saturday home games at Jesuit. From a morale standpoint, it’s hard to reel a student section comprising kids from several outlying ZIP codes back on a Saturday afternoon. From a safety perspective, the midday heat has often been a boon on sweltering Saturday afternoons.

But after a multiyear process, the Sacramento County Board of Supervisors unanimously approved Jesuit’s request for permanent stadium lights in June.

“We sold out on Tuesday, so there’s probably a lot of people that aren’t here that wish they could be,” Jesuit athletic director Hank Weinberger said. “It’s probably going to become our new normal.”

Jesuit scored on its opening drive when Jack Patock rumbled in from 10 yards before recovering a fumble on the ensuing defensive possession. It was then Cordano’s turn to punch in one of his two first-half touchdowns to extend Jesuit’s lead to 14-0.

Rio saved a drive by recovering a Jesuit fumble on a Raider punt. Conner Hergert’s recovery allowed Raymar Griffith to race in for a 16-yard rushing TD to get Rio on the board.

Jesuit scored three times in the final five minutes of the first half. Quarterback Teddy Rios hit Rocco Lucchetti for a 42-yard score. Chris Effiong Jr. broke free for a 60-yard TD run, and Cordano capped the half with a 9-yard score to put Jesuit ahead 35-7 at the break.

Victor Cubero, Miles Hubbard and Maverick Nagel extended the Marauders’ lead to 56-7 after TD runs of 34, 13 and 32 yards, respectively. Jesuit also had four sacks from Michael Bratset, Duncan Broughton, Jayden Jones and Demare Moragne.

“Our goal was to put the secondary in, and we did,” Cordano said. “We’ve got guys from all sorts of positions. Even when we put our secondary in, nothing changes. We still go out there and ball.”

Rio Americano dropped to 0-2 after falling to Granite Bay, 34-10, in last week’s season opener. The Raiders enjoyed a resurgent year in 2023 at 9-3, their best season since 1994.

“They learned how to win, and they learned how to win in tight situations,” first-year Rio Americano coach Bob Ghazanfari said. “There were a couple close overtime games and one-possession games that we were able to pull out.”

Ghazanfari graduated from Davis High School before playing and coaching at Sacramento State. He had coaching stints at American River College, Sacramento Charter, Modesto Christian and Christian Brothers before joining Rio Americano’s staff three years ago.

Last year’s head coach, Reid Sanders, took a collegiate job in the offseason as the running backs coach at West Georgia. It’s long been a dream of Sanders to coach at the Division I level.

Despite an 0-2 start to 2024, Ghazanfari believes this year’s team is better than last year’s. Among the returning Raider starters with crunch-time experience are quarterback Ryder Trantham, defensive end Chase Dinaburg, running back Trace Kloss and linebacker Alex Wallace. With the Sac-Joaquin Section’s realignment, Rio joins the Capital Valley Conference, which features Bella Vista, Christian Brothers, Inderkum, Ponderosa, Vista del Lago and Woodcreek.

“There are no softies on our schedule,” Ghazanfari said. “We’ve got some tough games, but they’re all winnable if we play hard and execute. And, hopefully, we’ll have a shot to get into the playoffs. Our strength of schedule will help.”

Rio Americano travels to McClatchy next Friday while Jesuit heads to Bellarmine College Prep in San Jose. The annual Holy Bowl between Jesuit and Christian Brothers will be Sept. 14 at Sacramento City College.

Nick Pecoraro is a sports journalist and host of “Premier Preps with Nick Pecoraro,” a weekly prep show available on YouTube that recaps games and teams in the Sacramento area each week. Find it at youtube.com/@PremierPreps.

This story was originally published August 30, 2024 at 10:31 PM.