Driscoll fires 5 TD passes in first start as St, John's Prep rolls past Marshfield

Sep. 10—DANVERS — When things go wrong early in a game, it'd be easy for a team to let down. But the St. John's Prep football team wouldn't a little adversity get in the way of a convincing 49-14 opening night victory over Marshfield Friday night.

The Rams shot out to an 8-0 lead, taking advantage of an inadvertent whistle by the referee after a fumble that the Eagles recovered. But a quick whistle blew the play dead, and on fourth down quarterback Anthony Molander threw a 43-yard touchdown pass to Thomas Kelly a little over two minutes in, with the ensuing two-point pass also good.

"He's a good ref and we've seen him before, but he blew that call and admitted it to me later," said Prep coach Brian St. Pierre, who argued his case to no avail. "It was a rough start for us, but we cleaned things up. I got pretty upset, but it was a human error.

"At the beginning of the game I think everyone was trying too hard, and there was a lot of pent up energy."

The Eagles kept their composure before the large crowd and proceeded to put 42 unanswered points on the board before Marshfield scored again.

Junior transfer Aidan Driscoll had a memorable start at quarterback with five touchdown passes. Two of those went to both senior wideouts Joenel Aguero and Jesse Ofurie, and one to classmate Stephon Patrick. He spread the ball around, completing 11 passes for 227 yards.

"When things don't go your way at first you have to keep your composure," said the Rutgers-bound Ofurie, who finished with four catches for 108 yards. "The guys in our locker room know you have to stay in control and just keep playing. That's the beauty of football.

"We all did our part with some long touchdown catches. We want to build up Driscoll's confidence and trust."

St. Pierre felt Driscoll was able to get the ball to his club's talented playmakers and did a lot of things well.

"This was the result we wanted, but we need to play better (next Friday night at Central Catholic)," he continued. "Defensively we were stout, and assistant coach (Chris) Tolios had a great game plan."

By halftime the hosts had taken total control of the game with a 35-8 lead. The offense was explosive with some long TD plays, starting with a 23-yard catch by Aguero and the first of seven extra point kicks by Jackson Selby. That score came two plays after a Rams punt went straight up in the air and landed on the Marshfield 40-yard line for a 1-yard gain. Dylan Aliberti gained 17 yards up the left sideline before Aguero's big catch.

University of Georgia defensive coordinator Will Muschamp had flown up to see his prized recruit, Aguero, in action, and got a good look at the highly regarded safety, who made several jarring hits.

"Joenel is a great player and has so much explosiveness. He plays hard all the time," said St. Pierre.

"We were missing both starting running back Carson Browne (ankle injury) and guard Christhian Difo, but Dylan and Cam LaGrassa both ran well. We started two sophomores, Jack DiFilippo at left guard and Graham Roberts at left tackle. Both played well."

Ofurie intercepted a Molander pass to set up the second score that put his team ahead for good.

Aliberti, who had over 100 yards rushing, broke off tackle for an 86-yard TD run to make it 14-8. After Marshfield went three-and-out, Ofurie hauled in a pass and raced 71-yards up the right sideline with seconds left in the opening quarter.

The Driscoll-to-Ofurie connection clicked again, this time on an 8-yard TD pass in the left corner of the end zone, and then it was Aguero's turn for a 4-yard pass just before halftime.

Patrick was wide open at the Rams 30-yard line in the third quarter and raced up the right side untouched for a 56-yard TD strike before St. Pierre went to his bench. Sophomore Carl Monks took over at QB and Cam LaGrassa, who scored the final touchdown on the opening play of the fourth quarter, replaced Aliberti.

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St. John's Prep 49, Marshfield 14

at Glatz Field, Danvers

Marshfield (0-1);8;0;0;6;14

St. John's Prep (1-0);21;14;7;7;49

Scoring summary

M-Thomas Kelly 43 pass from Anthony Molander (Brady Crowley pass from Molander)

SJP-Joenel Aguero 23 pass from Aidan Driscoll (Jackson Selby kick)

SJP-Dylan Aliberti 86 run (Selby kick)

SJP-Jesse Ofurie 71 pass from Driscoll (Selby kick)

SJP-Ofurie 8 pass from Driscoll (Selby kick)

SJP-Aguero 4 pass from Driscoll (Selby kick)

SJP-Stephon Patrick 56 pass from Driscoll (Selby kick)

M-Molander 2 run (rush failed)

SJP-Cam LaGrassa 4 run (Selby kick)

Individual Statistics

RUSHING: Marshfield — Jack Marini 8-28, Nic Cupples 6-26, Anthony Molander 5-20, Jason O'Keefe 2-7; St. John's Prep — Dylan Aliberti 9-118, Cam LaGrassa 8-46, Jesse Ofurie 1-31, Aidan Driscoll 2-21, Joenel Aguero 2-15, Tyler Sanon 5-14, Jack Fillion 1-8, Gael Garcia 1-3, Marquese Avery 1-(-1).

PASSING: Marshfield — Molander 11-21-200-1-1, Tor Maas 0-1-0-0-0; St. John's Prep — Driscoll 11-20-235-5-0.

RECEIVING: Marshfield — Thomas Kelly 3-110, Cupples 3-38, O'Keefe, 3-37, Marini 2-15; St. John's Prep — Ofurie 4-108, Stephon Patrick 3-75, Joenel Aguero 3-41, Santi Quiceno 1-11.

Contact Phil Stacey

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