The pleasant warm fall evening in the valley provided a perfect backdrop in Elk Grove on Friday night for the latest contest and a key Delta League matchup between Jesuit JV Marauders and the Elk Grove Thundering Herd.  The story of the game was defense as the Red Brick Wall shut down the prolific running attack of the Thundering Herd all night. The teams traded possessions without success for the first and most of the second quarter. The linebacker duo of Hunter Donelson and Soren Peterson continued their strong play racking up another big game of tackles including several for losses. Matthew Marsh had some key tackles in the first half including a bid time tackle for loss near the end of the half to force an Elk Grove punt giving Jesuit a chance put some points on the board. Shortly before halftime, Daniel Susac was able to convert passes to Tyler Sloan (17 yards) and Jacob Hall (29 yards) to put Jesuit in the red zone.  After a nice eight yard gain by Kiran Reddy on the ground Jesuit was set-up with first and goal at the six yard line.  Susac noted something in the way the Herd was defending the tight end, and audibled for a corner route. Cooper Shults picked up on the defense as well and a well-executed corner route resulted in a Susac to Cooper touchdown. A successful PAT from Gabe Neuman put Jesuit on the board heading into halftime with Jesuit leading 7 – 0 at the break.

The Big Red Jesuit D, led by excellent tackling all around continued to stop the vaunted Elk Grove rushing attack. In addition to more punishing stops by Donelson and Peterson, several other Marauders made their impact felt during the second  half. Donelson added to his presence by ripping the ball away from an Elk Grove runner and rambling 21 yards to set up a scoring opportunity for the Marauders. Tino Foondos played a stellar game on the interior D-line including a big tackle for loss. Nick Blake continued his strong play on defense with several tackles, a big pass deflection, and a fumble recovery. As the defense continued to dominate for Jesuit, the offense was having trouble putting points on the board. In the fourth quarter the Big Red offense was able to strike again after Kiran Reddy punched it in from 1 yard out to put the icing on the cake of an impressive second half drive. A rare missed PAT left the score Jesuit 13- EG -0. Jagger Saca, making his first appearance of the season following an pre-season injury played well at running back in his return. Jagger put together several tough runs and had his first reception of the year out of the backfield for 12 yards to keep drives alive as the game wore on. The Big Red D made it clear the Herd was not going to see the end zone on this night as their defense continued to shut down the Elk Grove running attack forcing them to throw the ball; which was clearly outside their comfort zone. Blake, Reddy, and Anthony Chideme-Alfaro had a number of impressive pass deflections and near interceptions to quell any hope from the Herd they would find ways to score. Josh Drinen also got into the act making several key tackles with his teammates to demonstrate a team wide dominate performance for the defense. Late in the fourth quarter Susac found Jacob Hall for a 29 yard touchdown pass to conclude the scoring killing any thoughts of a rally for the Thundering Herd. After another solid PAT kick from Neuman the final Score was Jesuit 20, Elk Grove 0 keeping the Marauders undefeated in Delta League play heading into next week.

The Jesuit JV team travels to Delta League foe Sheldon on Friday night, October 13th at 5PM.

Offensive Statistics:

Passing

• Daniel Susac – 8 for 16 – 116 Yards – 2 TD’s

Rushing

• Kiran Reddy – 5 carries for 32 yards and 1 TD
• Jagger Saca – 8 carries for 21 yards
• Ace Saca – 4 carries for 5 yards
• Mauricio Murguia-Sarin – 2 carries for 4 yards 
• Daniel Susac – 2 carries for 0 yards
• Team total – 21 for 62 yards and 1 TD

Receiving

• Hall – 5 catches for 81 yards and 1 TD
• Shults – 1 catch for 6 yards and 1 TD
• Sloan – 1 catch for 17 yards
• Jagger Saca – 1 catch for 12 yards
• Team total – 8 for 116 and 2 TD’s

Defensive Statistics:

Tackling

• Soren Peterson – 9 tackles (2 for loss)
• Hunter Donelson – 8 tackles (1 for loss, fumble rec/ret)
• Nick Blake – 3 tackles, 1 pass deflect., 1 fum rec
• Tino Foondos – 5 tackles (2 for loss)
• Josh Drinen – 3 tackles
• Matthew Marsh – 3 tackles (1 for loss)
• Kiren Reddy – 3 tackles

Special Teams

• Neumann – 2 for 3 on PATs
• Blake – Punt 3 total for 30 yard average