Postgame: Jesuit head coach Ryan Manale
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NEW ORLEANS — The Jesuit Blue Jays didn’t bring their best offensive performance to Tad Gormley Stadium on Friday night, but their defense made sure they left with a win.
Jesuit overcame five turnovers, including four interceptions from quarterback Taylor Norton, and leaned on a gritty defensive effort to hold off E.D. White in a 24–21 victory.
E.D. White (0–2) had one final chance after stopping Jesuit on downs with just over two minutes to play. Quarterback Grant Barbera drove the Cardinals deep into Blue Jay territory with a mix of runs and passes, moving the ball to the Jesuit 29. But the Blue Jays’ secondary stood tall, forcing four straight incompletions to seal the win.
“Our offense didn’t do great — everyone saw that,” Jesuit defensive back Cole Puneky said. “But it didn’t matter because our defense was able to prevail. We gave up a couple of big plays, but it was nothing major. It was a collective effort.”
Barbera paced the Cardinals with 166 yards passing and a touchdown, along with 69 yards rushing. His highlight came late in the fourth quarter when he connected with Reece Lafont for a 64-yard catch-and-run score. A successful two-point conversion to Brock Wanko cut Jesuit’s lead to 24–21 with 4:31 left, but that was as close as E.D. White would get.
Despite Norton’s struggles, Jesuit (3–0) made the plays it needed. After fumbling on the opening drive — a mistake returned 21 yards for a touchdown by Alexander Percle — Norton bounced back with a 14-yard scoring pass to Benjamin Neff to tie the game in the first quarter.
E.D. White answered with two field goals from Jonathan Lee (31 and 23 yards), and Jesuit kicker Ethan Cabos drilled a 29-yarder just before halftime to cut the deficit to 13–10.
Running back Gavin Palmisano carried the Blue Jays after the break. He scored on a 14-yard bruising run late in the third quarter to give Jesuit its first lead at 17–13. Then, after Norton hit Roman Larre on a 48-yard strike in the fourth, Palmisano broke free for a 31-yard touchdown to push the margin to 24–13. Palmisano finished with 77 rushing yards and two touchdowns.
“All three phases did enough for us to win,” Jesuit coach Ryan Manale said. “It was probably one of the roughest nights Norton’s had in a Jesuit uniform, but for him to battle back and make that big throw in the second half was very good to see.”
While the Blue Jays gave the ball away five times, their defense surrendered just one offensive touchdown all night. They also forced a critical turnover late in the third quarter when linebacker Christian Herbert pounced on a fumble by E.D. White’s Carter Douglass.
That resilience proved decisive against a Cardinals team coming off a Division II select runner-up finish last season.
Jesuit escaped with a narrow win, and though plenty of mistakes remain to be cleaned up, the Blue Jays will take 3–0 over perfection.