DANVERS — It was Senior Night at St. John’s Prep, where the undefeated Eagles looked to continue their winning ways Friday night against one of their Catholic Conference rivals, St. John’s of Shrewsbury.
Piling up over 500 yards of total offense with a balanced run/pass attack, the Prep would come away with a 53-19 victory Friday night at Glatz Field.
Quarterback Chris Vargas threw for 210 yards and a touchdown while running backs Jordan Toribio and Maxwell Parent each had 89 yards on the ground, with Parent rushing for two scores and throwing another to Anthony Sanderson off a direct snap.
Ranked No. 1 in the state’s Division 1 power rankings, the Eagles have now scored 272 points in their six contests, an average of 45.3 points per game.
Still, head coach Brian St. Pierre shined light afterwards on what he felt his team needs to work on moving forward, with games at Malden Catholic next Friday and hosting Catholic Memorial on Saturday, Nov. 1 prior to the state of the state playoffs.
“Defensively, way too many yards, too many points; offensively we did what we wanted to do. Generally, pleased,” St. Pierre surmised of the Eagles’ Friday night performance.
“I’m really happy for those guys,” St. Pierre added of his 12th graders who were honored. “We had a lot of seniors play really well tonight, so it was great to see. (Fullback) Jack Shrayer with a touchdown and (receiver) Ethan Stefanovich, too.”
Parent scored on a 40-yard touchdown run and Toribio added the 2-point rush to get St. John’s Prep going on early.
After captain Aaron Radke picked off St. John’s of Shrewsbury quarterback Brad Perry, the hosts pulled off a trick play to score again. Parent took a direct snap and threw the ball to tight end Anthony Sanderson. Parent’s ensuing 2-point conversion run made it 16-0.
The visiting Pioneers (now 3-3) would gain some life after a St. John’s Prep fumble, with Perry finding teammate Cole DiPersio for a 10-yard touchdown. But rushing scores from Parent (1 yard) and Shrayer (17 yards) in the second quarter increased the Prep’s lead to 32-6.
With 12 seconds left in the first half, St. John’s Shrewsbury scored again when, on 4th-and-10, Perry found Keegan Spaulding for a 33-yard touchdown. It appeared they’d have some momentum going into the break … before the next kickoff, that is.
Captain Pierson Scala of the Eagles took the return back 40 yards before Vargas, the super sophomore and national 5-star recruit, found Stefanovich for a 30-yard scoring pass as time expired in the second quarter. That made it 40-13 for the locals.
“Pierson Scala had a great night as a senior captain; so did the two (senior) linemen up front, Gio Corea and Joe Irzyk,” St. Pierre said. “Alex Turrisi and Aaron Radke in the back end on defense, too. Those guys led us and they all had good nights.”
Toribio and backup quarterback John Budrow each had 1-yard scoring runs in the third quarter, with running time the rest of the way.
Speaking again of his seniors, St. Pierre noted, “Those guys have waited their turn to play here. They’re good players, and they had to wait till their senior year to be big parts of what we were doing offensively,” St. Pierre said.
The Eagles will meet Malden Catholic Friday (6 p.m.) at Brother Gilbert Stadium in Malden next.
St. John’s Prep 53, St. John’s Shrewsbury 19
at Cronin Stadium, Danvers
St. John’s Shrewsbury (3-3);0;13;6;0;00
St. John’s Prep (6-0);16;24;13;0;53
Scoring summary
SJP — Maxwell Parent 40 run (Jordan Toribio rush)
SJP — Anthony Sanderson 4 pass from Parent (Parent rush)
SJS — Cole DiPersio 10 pass from Brad Perry (kick failed)
SJP — Parent 1 run (Parent rush)
SJP — Jack Shrayer 17 run (Toribio rush)
SJS — Keegan Spaulding 33 pass from Perry (Deignan Guiney kick)
SJP — Ethan Stefanovich 30 pass from Chris Vargas (Pierson Scala pass from Vargas)
SJP — Jordan Toribio 1 run (Liam Cullen kick)
SJS — Cole DiPersio 70 pass from Perry (Deignan Guiney kick)
SJP — John Budrow 1 run (kick failed)
Individual Statistics
RUSHING: St. John’s Shrewsbury — Liam Deso 14-74, Cole DiPersio 1-16, Brad Perry 1-10; St. John’s Prep — Maxwell Parent 8-89, Jordan Toribio 10-89, Sam Josey 9-65, Jack Shrayer 2-21, Jayden Toppin 5-6, John Budrow 1-1.
PASSING: St. John’s Shrewsbury — Perry 15-26-239-3-1; St. John’s Prep — Chris Vargas 10-16-210-1-0, Budrow 3-4-40-0-0, Parent 1-1-4-1-0.
RECEIVING: St. John’s Shrewsbury— DiPersio 6-112, Keegan Spaulding 2-66, Deso 5-35, Scott Cronin 2-26; St. John’s Prep — Riley Selvais 4-90, Ethan Stefonovich 3-57, Toribio 1-49, Pierson Scala 4-43, Anthony Sanderson 2-15.