It can be difficult to find St. Pius X’s Grant Holloman on the field, as the junior running back/defensive back is wearing jersey No. 31 instead of his usual No. 3, as a tribute to his injured teammate, senior Ransom Klinger.
Friday night, Marist’s secondary failed to identify him on one big play – a 62-yard pass from senior quarterback Reed Egan that led to the winning touchdown late in the fourth quarter in St. Pius’s 24-14 win over its bitter fellow Catholic school rival. While the War Eagles (5-1, 4-1 in Region 6AAAA), ranked No. 6 in Class AAAA, still hold the overall lead (30-17-3) in the series that dates back to 1962, it was the fourth consecutive win in the series for the Lions (4-2, 4-0), ranked No. 9.
Holloman knows the rivalry well. His two older brothers know the feeling of beating Marist as well. It was his catch on second-and-10 from the Lions’ 20 yard line that set up a Nkem Njoku’s seven-yard touchdown run to give St. Pius a 17-14 lead with a little over three minutes remaining.
“We practice that play all the time, and we knew it would be there because their safety always comes up,” Holloman said of the play, which calls for him to run a seam route from his wing back position. He was eventually tackled at the Marist 17 yard line, and Njoku scored three plays later.
The winning drive came just after St. Pius’ defense forced Marist to attempt a 37-yard field goal that banged off the right upright. Marist was ahead, 14-10 at the time, and was had put together a punishing 14-play drive that started at the War Eagle 20 yard line late in the third quarter.
But three holding penalties helped halt the march. Marist head coach Alan Chadwick disagreed with the calls.
“Bogus,” Chadwick said of the penalties. “We get five holding calls and they get none, and we run the same offense. We’re knocking them dead all second half moving the ball about to score, then all of a sudden three holding calls. Then we miss the field goal and they came back with one big play. That’s it. That was the ball game. One big play.”
“But this group of kids have a lot of heart,” Chadwick said. “They’ll bounce back and we’ll be fine.”
St. Pius head coach Paul Standard said he was proud of his team’s effort.
“We just beat a great dag-gum team right there,” Standard said. “They have a great offense so we knew we weren’t going to get a lot of possessions. We got the stop when we had to and we thought we could get behind them with some play action because they play so close to the line.”
Senior safety Garrett Gooden sealed the win with a little over two minutes left, when he stepped in front of a flat route and intercepted Marist quarterback Jack Dinges’ pass on fourth-and-five from the Marist 25 yard line. Gooden returned the pick to the War Eagle four yard line, and on third down Holloman dove in from one-yard out.
“This feels great, the atmosphere, senior year beating Marist again,” Gooden said. “You can’t beat it.”
Standard agreed.
“The best thing about it is that right there,” he said while pointing to the huge crowd of students, parents and alumni that surrounded his team after the game. “This whole community supports us, and it’s great to be able to get a win like this for them.”
Marist 0 7 7 0 14
St. Pius X 7 0 3 14 24
SPX – Lawson Cooper 11 run (Nick Jones kick)
M – Jack Dinges 1 run (Abner Perez kick)
M – Cameron Pearson 12 pass from Dinges (Perez kick)
SPX – Jones 26 fg
SPX – Nkem Njoku 7 run (Jones kick)
SPX – Grant Holloman 1 run (Jones kick)
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