FOXBOROUGH – Six days after playing an instant classic on Thanksgiving, Xaverian and St. John’s Prep one-upped that game on Wednesday night.
With the Division 1 Super Bowl on the line at a frigid Gillette Stadium, the Hawks came out with a wild 31-25 win for the program’s first title since 2015.
Xaverian (11-2) got 122 rushing yards, 101 passing yards and three passing TD’s from star quarterback Henry Hasselbeck in the win. St. John’s Prep (11-2) got 106 yards rushing from Cam LaGrassa in the losing effort.
“I think they reached down just one little percent more. I always ask them to get better 1% each day, 1% each week and we just reached into the reserves and we were able to do that,” head coach Al Fornaro said when asked how his team was able to beat the hunted Prep twice in less than a week.
“I know a lot about the tradition here, between my uncles, my father, my other family friends…beating the Prep is one of the most special things you can do,” said Hasselbeck. “You’ll remember it your whole life and I 100% can say I will remember this my whole life. I have so much respect for them. It feels good to be on top.”
Just two plays into the game, Xaverian coughed up the ball as Mason McSweeney came up with a strip and Anthony Carusi recovered at the Hawks’ 25. Five snaps later, Jimmy Nardone punched in a TD from a yard out, but the ensuing two point attempt by Nardone was no good.
After both teams traded punts, Xaverian took over at its own 25 with 1:19 left in the first. The drive lasted 11 plays and ended with an impressive 19 yard touchdown catch and run by Will Wood. Hasselbeck – who used his legs quite a bit on the drive – hit Wood with a quick out and with a defender draped all over him, he ripped the ball away and ran in for the score. Joseph McDonald added the PAT to make it 7-6 Hawks with 7:40 left in the half.
After forcing another Prep punt, Hasselbeck and the offense was back out at the X 44 with 5:25 to go. Eight plays later, Hasselbeck rolled to his right and threw an absolute time to the back of the end zone and into the waiting arms of Caleb Brown for a 25 yard touchdown. Luke Bell’s PAT made it 14-6 Hawks with just 1:05 to play in the half.
With the assist of a late hit call during its ensuing drive, Prep worked down to the Xaverian 38 in the final minute. With just 21 seconds remaining, Deacon Robillard hit Merrick Barlow with a dime of his own for a 25 yard TD to cut it to 14-12. Atto-point run was stuffed, sending the teams to the locker room with the two-point difference.
Prep opened the third quarter with a methodical nine-play, 74 yard march that ended with a four yard TD run for Gael Garcia, putting SJP back up 18-14 after a blocked PAT. The lead didn’t last long though, as a 55 yard Hasselbeck run two snaps later set up a one yard touchdown run for Mike O’Connor. Another Bell extra point put the Hawks back up 21-18. The back-and-forth battle continued as Prep answered with an eight-play drive that ended with Robillard hitting a wide open Garcia for a 16 yard TD and Langdon Laws’ PAT made it 25-21 Eagles with 3:18 left in the quarter.
Less than a minute into the fourth, Hasselbeck was at it again, this time hitting Brown for an 18 yard touchdown pass on a 3rd-&-9 slant, pushing the Hawks back in front 28-25. After forcing the first punt in a while, the Xaverian put together another nice drive that crushed clock and eventually ended with a 33 yard field goal from Bell, pushing the lead to 31-25 with five minutes left in the game.
Xaverian needed one last stand as Prep made things real interesting late, getting down to the red zone before one final pass break up in the end zone sealed the deal and sent the Hawks streaming off the bench and over to the massive Hawks Nest student section.
“I’ve been to 10 schools in my life, three high schools, there is not any fan section, any student body like we have with the Hawks Nest,” Hasselbeck added on the atmosphere and celebrating with the fans. “From underclassmen showing up to everything, kids want to come. Kids want to theme.
“It just means so much to the school. It means so much to this team. It means so much to everybody and that’s what we do here at Xaverian. I love it.”
