On a wet and muddy pitch, a development side of Jesuit Marauders battled rival Christian Brothers in front of a hardy crowd.  Captains on the day, scrumhalf Jacob Nelson and hooker, Sam Schwartz, led the team and set the tone.

Although the conditions made it difficult, Jesuit adapted well and started on the front foot with rookie Lock Carson Harthun ripping a ball of a CB player and then had a nice offload to allow Center Ethan Cline to score just 30 seconds into the match.

Football convert Andrew Tilton hit a penalty fifteen minutes into the game to keep Jesuit moving forward.  The game became a bit of an arm wrestle in the mud, but CB was able to get on the board using their big runners to get over the line.

Then it became the Ethan Cline show, with two quick tries to allow Jesuit to pull away. Jacob Nelson dictated the tempo with some nice kicks and quick tap penalties to keep CB off balance.  He scored and then helped create a try for Sione Nauvai after a big run for Max Richins.

Utility back James Bayard, who had several slicing runs on the day, blocked a kick to score. Tilton hit the conversion to end the half.

Halftime score Jesuit 35 – CB 5

Richins started the second half with another big run to get over the line and Tilton was able to hit another conversion.

The next ten minutes was all CB.  They were able to use their big forward pack to keep the ball tight and get over the line. They also punished some poor passing from Jesuit and put an intercept to the house.  Jesuit righted the ship with Jackson Marchant using some kicks into the corners to pin CB back. Josh Bagwell scored a try that was converted by soccer convert Grant Gini. The Falcons fought to the end and were able to score one last try. 

Final Score – Jesuit 49 – CB 24

Schwartz and Marchant were named Man of the Match. 

“This week was a challenge with poor weather and the loss of several players to other commitments, but we put a team on the field that was competitive,” said Head Coach John Shorey.  “We tried to use this to test some players, try some positional changes and it was a solid performance on the day.”