LAWRENCE — It wasn’t easy, but St. John’s Prep finished the job in a battle of state powers.
TheEagles saw a 17-point halftime lead dwindle to just a single score, butsenior captain Deacon Robillard recovered an onside kick with 0:29 remaining and Prep held on for a tough 31-24 in over rival Central Catholic.
“I didn’t love our second half, so we’ll have to work on that,” said St. John’s head coach Brian St. Pierre. “But when you can go on the road in a rivalry game against a really good team, you take the win.
“DeaconRobillard, our backup quarterback, who we a starter for two years, makes the play on the onside return. It really speaks to his leadership and the type of player he is.”
The victory was the third straight for the Eagles (3-0) over the Raiders (1-2), and the fourth in six meetings over the past four years.
“There’sa lot of history in this rivalry, and the proximity plays a big part, too,” said St. Pierre. “We don’t have many rivals that are so close to us. They’re used to playing in big games against great teams. They came out in the second half and it was ‘Game on.’ We just made a few more plays.”
After Central took a quick 7-0 lead in the game’s opening drive, the Prep found it’s groove.
Freshman quarterback Chris Vargas connected on his first three passes of the game, the third a 9-yard touchdown to tight end Josh Haarmann to tie it 7-7 at the end of the first quarter.
The second quarter was all Eagles, with LJ Laws booting a 32-yard field goal and Jordan Toribioscoring touchdown runs of 36 and 3 yards.
Central Catholic rebounded with a field goal late in the third, and a touchdown to start that fourth quarter. But Vargas struck again, throwing a 40-yard touchdown to Merrick Barlow.
Central struck for one more score, but the Prep recovered the ensuing kick, then ran out the clock.
“Wegot up on them and things were rolling pretty well for us,” said St. Pierre. “Then we came out in the second half with a couple rough drives,and they had some good drives. But I liked our response, and we made plays when we had to.”