Granite Bay impressive in win over Jesuit

Granite Bay's varsity football team perhaps turned in its strongest performance of the season on Friday night during a 31-20 defeat of Jesuit in the team's Sierra Foothill League opener. The Grizzlies worked up a 17-0 lead at halftime before Jesuit got on the scoreboard in the third quarter. The Grizzlies led 24-7 after three quarters before eventually winning 31-20, as the game never got closer than 10 points. "Our kids played really hard against a good football team," Granite Bay coach Joe Cattolico said. "We felt good about that, as we knew it would be a tough one. The kids really competed, and that was our biggest takeaway. We have no complaints on the effort part of it." Two big defensive plays helped the Grizzlies get off to a great start in the game; one made on special teams by James Pease and another made on defense by Darnell Turner. "After we scored on our first drive, Jesuit almost ran the kick back but James Pease made a touchdown-saving tackle," Cattolico said. "Then a few plays later, Darnell ripped the ball out of their running back's hands at the goal-line and that was a big turnover for us. Without either play they would have scored and it could have changed the way the ball game played out." Turner was all over the field on both sides of the ball, particularly early on. He scored the Grizzlies first touchdown after taking an inside handoff from Isaiah Ene and running 18 yards around right end. Then he ripped the ball from the Marauder back to save a touchdown. A few possessions later, Turner intercepted a pass and the Grizzlies turned that into their second touchdown of the game, as they took a 17-0 lead after a one-yard run from Ene. Prior to that score, the Grizzlies got a 36-yard field goal from Jimmy Deslaurier. "We tend to relatively have a repetitive formula where we have a couple guys who make a lot of the plays for us and Darnell and Isaiah are those guys," Cattolico said. "We're trying to get more guys to step up and make those plays for us." Once again, the Grizzlies ran the ball well, as Ene gained 133 yards on 22 carries and scored three times, twice on runs in the second half to go along with his touchdown in the first half. The Grizzlies also had Turner pick up 54 yards on four carries, while Dylan Tetz ran the ball six times for 50 yards. "I thought our offense line did a nice job," Cattolico said. "Jesuit has some really nice players up front and our kids, on both sides of the ball, did a good job of holding their own. Defensively, we held them to only one touchdown in the first three quarters of the game." With SFL play now under way, things won't get any easier the rest of the season for the Grizzlies. Next week they travel to Oak Ridge (3-1) who is coming off a hard-nosed 12-8 win over Del Oro (3-1). "Every week is going to be a battle," Cattolico said. "All three of our league games Friday night were competitive games between pretty good football teams. It's not going to get any easier for us."