The final score of Friday night’s season opener was no surprise as top-ranked Folsom High School handed Jesuit High School a 52-12 loss in front of a large crowd of enthusiastic fans at Sacramento State’s Hornet Stadium.
With the loss, Jesuit has dropped 12 consecutive games to the Bulldogs.
Jesuit Offensive and Defensive Line Coach Sean Morris looks past the final score when evaluating his team’s performance.
“Everyone looks at the scoreboard and they see all the bad, but there’s a lot of good things we did,” Coach Morris said. “Our defense rallied when we needed them to. I thought our guys competed very well.”
While Jesuit receiver Jacob Hall ’21 is also positive about the way his team performed, he credits his team’s lack of focus as the reason they lost.
“We came out in the first half really spirited, but in the second half, we lost that spirit a little bit,” Jacob said. “Our defense did really well, but we slacked off on assignments, and they picked us apart because of that.”
Folsom’s victory was largely due to their work in the trenches as the Bulldogs protected both of their quarterbacks, senior Jake Reithmeier and junior Ari Patu, giving them time to find open receivers from the pocket. On defense, the Bulldogs recorded seven sacks as they constantly pressured Jesuit’s quarterback, Jake Peluso ’21. Jake, who started his first varsity game in place of the injured Daniel Susac ’20, was forced to flee the pocket nearly every play.
Although Folsom’s defense suffocated Jesuit’s offense for most of the game, the Marauders still managed a couple of big offensive plays that displayed their offensive potential..
One of Jesuit’s big plays was a 79-yard touchdown pass from Jake to Jacob, when the latter outran Folsom’s defense for the score..
Jesuit had another highlight play in the third quarter when running back Ace Saca ’21 ran 77-yards for a touchdown.
Besides struggling on offense, Jesuit had some special teams issues as the Marauders missed two extra point attempts and had two of their punts blocked. One of Jesuit’s kickers, Ryan Young ’21, wants his teammates to forget their performance against Folsom and focus on the next game.
“What happened is over with, and we can’t change the past, so there is no sense in worrying about it or letting it get our confidence down,” Ryan said. “We just need to come back and show what we’re capable of next game.”
As expected, Folsom’s star playmakers, receiver Elijhah Badger and running back Daniyel Ngata, had notable performances as the pair of seniors combined for five of the Bulldogs’ seven touchdowns.
Badger scored off a 16-yard touchdown pass from Reithmeier and had a national high school record-tying 99-yard kickoff return. Ngata had three rushing touchdowns, including a one-yard run in the third quarter in which he bulldozed into the end zone, putting the game out of Jesuit’s reach.
After falling to Folsom, the Marauders turn their sights to this week’s game against the Granite Bay High School Grizzlies.
Come out and support Jesuit as they battle Granite Bay this Friday, Sept. 6, at 7:15 p.m.
The orginal story appeared in the Plank on September 3, 2019. Click Here to read the original article
Photo Credit: Joe Watanabe '21