Bluejays Take Down the O’Neill Eagles
By Naomi Sullivan
Putting an exclamation mark on the win against O’Neill on Friday, September 29, the Pierce Bluejays were able to give coach Darin Suckstorf his 100th career win with the 53-33 defeat of the Eagles.
“It was great to see a better week of practice pay off with a win. It was a great win versus a good team,” Suckstorf states.
In addition to Suckstorf’s accomplishments, senior running back Keenan Valverde also notched an accomplishment during the second quarter when he surpassed the 1000 yard mark for rushing this season. Valverde amassed 185 yards on 19 carries to lead the Bluejays.
Champion White also added 131 rushing yards and 125 passing yards for the Jays in their victory.
The Bluejays wasted no time in the first quarter, scoring the first touchdown from Benjamin Bolling with a 36-yard run taking the score to 7-0. Nearing the end of the first quarter White scored for the Bluejays, racking the points up to 14-0. Kicks by Nils Røstad were both good in the first quarter.
The Eagles tried to fight back by scoring a 3-yard touchdown adding on to the score, making the score 14-7 in favor of Pierce.
Following this, Keenan Valverde scored a rushing touchdown, marking a new score 20-7. Gavin Sullivan caught a 46-yard pass from White making another touchdown, pushing the score to 26-7 in favor of the Jays.
O’Neill added another touchdown with 58 seconds left in the half, but the Bluejays still held a 26-13 lead.
Beginning the third quarter, White ran for a touchdown and the kick by Rostad was good, making the new score 33-13.
The Eagles showed up with a touchdown adding to the score which was 33-20.
With 3:59 left in the third, Valverde found the end zone for the Bluejays and the kick by Røstad was good once again. The score at the end of the third was 40-20 in favor of Pierce.
The fourth quarter saw a touchdown by Kaden Froehlich followed by a Kaiden Fritz touchdown. Both times the PATs were good by Røstad. O’Neill added two additional touchdowns, but had one kick that was no good. Pierce finished the game by winning 53-33.
Senior Gavin Sullivan collected 98 receiving yards in three receptions.
Sullivan states, “We were very aggressive in this game against the Eagles, hoping with that we can bring the same intensity this week against Central City.”
Leading the way defensively for the Jays were Korvin Fritz with 12 tackles and Zachary Meier with nine.
The Bluejays are 6-1 so far this season.
