Last Friday, Jesuit football fell to 0-3 when they suffered a 43-14 road loss to the defending Oregon state champion West Linn, and the Crusaders’ tough non-league schedule isn’t done.
The Lions scored a season high in points against Jesuit, clicking on offense with ease throughout the entire game. Even with starting running back Hudson Hardy out with a knee injury, the Lions racked up 199 yards and two touchdowns on the ground. Junior quarterback Baird Gilroy threw for 230 yards and 4 touchdowns.
The Crusaders front seven struggled to stop the three running back tandem from the Lions as senior Ryan Vandenbrink ran for 39 yards and a touchdown on seven carries. Senior Cade Johnson took 9 carries for 69 yards, and junior Cal Royer ran for 34 yards on 5 yards.
However, a bright spot on the Jesuit side ended up being senior running back Lonnie Burt who rushed for 96 yards and two touchdowns on 21 carries.
“I feel like our offensive line played really well against West Linn, the gaps were open for me to create some big plays,” Burt said. “On defense, we worked really hard and played for each other, but we made too many mental mistakes by missing the gaps and blowing coverages.”
The game started out with the Crusaders failing to convert on fourth down, opening a door for the West Linn offense, leaving them a short field to get on the board. West Linn ended up scoring on that drive with a 7 yard reception from junior Wyatt Smiley.
After West Linn took an 8-0 lead, a few possessions followed and West Linn had possession again. It was Junior Treynor Cleeland that was able to get the Crusaders the ball back in the way of a strip sack. With the ball back in the red zone, the Crusaders put the ball in the hands of senior Lonnie Burt who followed his offensive line for a six yard rushing touchdown.
“Playing both linebacker and quarterback, I was able to see both sides of the ball for the majority of the game,” Cleeland said. “I saw a lot of really good things we did against West Linn. On defense, we forced a turnover, a few turnovers on downs, and some key third down stops.”
Cleeland, who made his second career start, completed 9 passes on 22 attempts for 84 yards and one interception.
Although being able to keep it close with the defending champs for the first quarter, the Crusaders fell behind quickly and were never able to hang with the Lions.
It was junior Danny Wideman who scored a 74 yard touchdown to end the half, propelling the Lions to a 29-7 lead.
To start the second half, Lions star tight end Gus Donnerberg scored on a 44-yard reception in which Jesuit linebacker Rowen Lewis unintentionally deflected the ball perfectly into Donnerberg’s hands.
“The big deciding factor of the game was the big play West Linn had on offense. They didn’t stun us defensively, but that tipped ball for a 60 yard touchdown is one of those moments in football,” Cleeland said.
“West Linn is a really good team. They have talent all around in every position, and with that one of the best coaching staffs in the state. They are a well put together and coached team.”
After the 60 yard dagger by Donnerberg, the Lions soon scored again, putting the lead at 36-7 and thus putting the game out of reach to the Crusaders who have struggled to score points throughout the first few games of the season.
The defending champs may have been too much for the Crusaders to handle, but the Crusaders did make some positive steeds on both sides of the ball. They rushed for over 100 yards and were able to get on the scoreboard more than they have all season.
“The franchise really stepped up and we had a ton of good runs throughout the game,” Cleeland said. “Not only did the line do well, but the receivers improved and made a ton of difficult catches as well.”
Jesuit may have made gradual improvements, scoring only 14 points proved to not be enough against West Linn’s potent offense who have scored an average of 40 points per game. Through the first three games of the season, the Crusaders have been outscored by their opponents 99-20.
Though this stat may be nauseating to the Crusaders, the level of their out of conference should not be ignored. Jesuit has faced the top two ranked teams in the state of Oregon in West Linn and Central Catholic and started the season, facing the Skyview Storm who are a highly ranked team in the state of Washington. The out of conference gauntlet that the Crusaders have been challenged with is still not over as the highly touted Tualatin Timberwolves will travel north to face Jesuit at Cronin field this Friday.
“For us as a team to turn it around from our 0-3 record is to have the thought to improve each each. We have done that so far, but faced top 5 teams from both Oregon and Washington,” Cleeland said.
“We hold ourselves to a higher standard and want to play against the best, and sometimes things don’t turn out how we want them, but from this great competition, we are going to be a really good team later in the season. We move one week at a time and now it’s tualatin. They are another Oregon powerhouse and we will be in another dog fight losing a few of our guys last week during West Linn.”
After matching up against some of the premier talent in the Pacific Northwest the past few weeks going head to head with the likes of Wiley and Gus Donnerberg, Josiah Molden, Crew Newman, and Timmy Mitchell, the Crusaders face a fresh batch of skilled players on Tualatin.
Senior three star and Arizona State commit Jayden Fortier immediately jumps off the page as a player to keep an eye on. Standing at 6-foot-5 and weighing in at 220 pounds, Fortier is a matchup nightmare.
Fortier is oftentimes even too big for a defensive back to keep up with and too fast for a linebacker to match up with. Fortier has been one of the fastest rising on the entire west coast, hauling in 10 division one scholarship offers.
Look for senior defensive back and Washington commit Elias Johnson to go toe-to-toe with Fortier.
As talented as fortier is on the Tualatin side, he is just one of three extremely talented players on the Timberwolves. Keep an eye out for Portland state commit receiver Kenen Elder and senior defensive back AJ Noland who holds offers from nearly every Tvy League school.
After an 0-3 start, the Crusaders will yet again look to bounce back. . Another thing to keep an eye out for is Coach Potter’s quest to become the winningest high school coach in Oregon state history. Potter only eight games away will need to win the rest of the regular season scheduled games and also make a deep playoff run.
Jesuit has been dominant in the Metro League for over three decades under Coach Potter and have no plan on giving up the title as Metro champions. Senior linebacker Hudson Lewis spoke on how the crusaders can continue dominance throughout conference play.
“We just have to keep practicing hard and limit our own mistakes, we have been our own worst enemy through the first three games of the season. As long as we stick together as a team, we should be able to conquer the Metro together.”
The Crusaders are confident and understand what they need to do in order to get back in the win column. They have made it clear that the mistakes need to be limited and the front seven needs to be stout. Jesuit fans are looking forward to seeing the adjustment made and how they clean things up against yet another talented and highly ranked team.
The Jesuit Crusaders face off against the Tualatin Timberwolves this Friday on Cronin field at 7:00.
