NEW ORLEANS (WGNO) — The Holy Cross Tigers defeated East St. John, 56-19 Thursday night at Tad Gormley Stadium.
How It Happened:
The Tigers drew first blood with a 2-yard touchdown run by Ke’Rynn Smith in the first quarter to give Holy Cross the 7-0 lead.
In the opening minutes of the second quarter, a Jake Roberts sack forced East St. John to punt the ball from inside their own ten. Koby Young turned it into a 36-yard punt return for a touchdown to give the Tigers the 14-0 lead.
East St. John quarterback Lorenzo Zeno would respond minutes later with a 60-yard touchdown run to cut the Holy Cross lead to 7.
The Tigers would answer with another scoring drive capped off by a 5-yard touchdown run from Claude Johnson to take the 21-7 lead.
On the ensuing kickoff, East St. John’s Dwayne Brown weaved his way through a wave of Holy Cross Tigers for an 85-yard kickoff return for a touchdown, but a failed extra point attempt would make it a 21-13 ball game.
Just before the half, Holy Cross quarterback Cole Canatella would connect with Krosse Johnson for a 60-yard score to give the Tigers the 28-13 lead at the break.
Holy Cross opened the second half with a four-yard touchdown run by Ke’Rynn Smith to extend their lead, to 35-13.
East St. John’s final score of the night would come after an interception by Ja’Hyi Jones. Zeno would keep it himself for a 12-yard touchdown run but a failed two-point conversion would keep the score 35-19.
Claude Johnson would lead another Holy Cross charge down the field with a ten-yard touchdown run to give the Tigers a 23-point cushion.
Holy Cross would never look back.
Up Next:
The Tigers’ first regular season under head coach Scott Wattigny ends with an 8-2 overall record and a 4-2 mark in Catholic League play.
Holy Cross entered the night No. 3 in the Division I select power rankings and will discover their playoff seeding on Sunday when the brackets are released.
Here are the highlights of tonight’s action that will be featured on WGNO’s Friday Night Football.
You can catch all of the high school football headlines and highlights every Friday night at 11 p.m. on Nola 38 the CW.
The replay follows at midnight on WGNO.
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