The intense rivalry between St. Paul’s and Jesuit had come down to a Friday night bash in the Mercedes-Benz Superdome in the Big Easy. After coming off of a blow-out loss against Edna Karr last week, the wolves knew how important this game would be. Jesuit offered many threats to St. Paul’s especially quarterback Trey LeForge. If the wolves wanted to come out victorious, they would have to keep him contained and eliminate his long passes. The wolves also had some great attributes in their receiving and running squads. The wolves started off with a bang on their first offensive possession and scored on a ten yard touchdown screen pass to Mitch Brumfield. Yet the Blue Jays were unable to score on their first possession as a holding penalty ended their hopes of three points. Eventually, The Blue Jays were able to score when LeForge delivered a 25 yard touchdown pass to Nathan Zimmer. Just before half-time, the wolves put up seven more points when quarterback Ryan O’Krepki threw long bomb touchdown pass to make the score 14-7 wolves at the half. The wolves quickly continued their offensive success with an eleven yard touchdown run  made by Mitch Brumfield to put the wolves up 21-7. The Blue jays soon answered with a deep touchdown pass to Chris Mills which put Jesuit only one touchdown away from tying the game up. The wolves answered with an impressive drive but the momentum  suddenly ended when Jesuit’s Jakirai Wiley intercepted O’Krepki’s pass at mid-field. Not wanting to miss the great opportunity, LeForge hooked up with Daren Wilford for a twenty yard touchdown pass to tie the ballgame at 21-21. Once again, The wolves were unable to score, and the ball went back into the hands of Jesuit’s relentless offense. Jesuit was working on another impressive drive when out of nowhere, St. Paul’s Jase Stubbs intercepted one of LeForge’s passes with only 1:44 left on the clock. The wolves were able to drive the ball down into Jesuit territory which was in field goal range. With less than five seconds on the clock, Grant Hebert jogged on the field to attempt a game winning 33 yard field goal. All of the pressure mounted on Hebert, if he misses the kick, it is a tie, and if he makes it, the wolves win. The snap was perfect, the hold was perfect, but the kick was wide left. Everyone in the stands shook their heads in disbelief that this incredible game had come to a crushing tie. But wait! The referee had thrown a penalty flag against Jesuit for roughing the kicker, so Hebert would get another chance to win the game. Now the ball was placed five yard closer, and Hebert jogged back onto the field for a second go. Once again, a perfect snap, a perfect hold, but this time, a perfect kick by Hebert. The wolves had done it. By the luck of Friday the thirteenth, the wolves defeated Jesuit 24-21 in a heart-stopping victory.  All of the wolves ran on to the field to slap Hebert on the helmet for a job well done. The players then ran over to the student section, and celebrated with their fellow classmates.

      Coach Kenny Sears (head coach) surely had a thriller of a game to be his 100th victory coaching St. Paul’s. Jim Derry of the Times Picayune interviewed Coach Sears after the game, “I got wet, and this will certainly be memorable against the mighty Blue Jays,” Sears said. “We kept our poise, and things swung around things swung around… at the end, we came up with the plays and put ourselves in position to win.” You could definitely agree with coach when he said the boys kept their poise. After all, playing in the Superdome is not an everyday game. After interviewing many players, it is obvious that there is no greater privilege in high school football  than to play in a stadium like that. Not everybody was satisfied with the outcome of the game though. Wayde Keiser (Jesuit  head coach) said after the game, “In my opinion, we tipped the **** ball, and we didn’t get the **** call!” No matter the call, this was one of the most exciting games these two schools have ever seen. For Jesuit, it will go down as “the big one that got away”, for Saint Paul’s it will go down as “a luck of the thirteenth victory”. Turns out the saints are not the only winning team in the dome.