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Sweet win for Jean-Jacques

Sunday, September, 16 By Hector Longo
Staff writer

DANVERS — Meaner, hungrier and yes, even a little bit nastier.

Haverhill’s Corey Jean-Jacques, all 5-foot-11, 286 pounds of him, kicked the door in on his senior year of competition, Wilfork-ing it in the trenches for St. John’s Prep in yesterday’s 31-7 win over Central Catholic.

For a guy like Jean-Jacques, there is no sweeter victory than knocking off Central Catholic. But to do it as a senior, at home before a nice crowd of about 900 had the big fella grinning from ear-to-ear afterward.

“We thought Central would try to run it up inside, and he was a huge part of stopping it,” said Prep coach Jim O’Leary of Jean-Jacques, who was in on six tackles for the afternoon. “Central’s interior line is its strength. They’re big and tough, and Corey did a heck of job with things up in there.”

For Jean-Jacques, it was just another sweet win over his closest geographical rival.

“It’s sweet for sure, because I know some of those guys,” said Jean-Jacques, who welcomes the challenge from Everett, the state’s perennial No. 1, next week. “But every week is going to be tough, and we have to stay together and keep working as hard as we can.”

He put up a 44-4 mark as a heavyweight on the wrestling mat and finishing as the No. 3 heavyweight in The Eagle-Tribune’s prestigious King of the Ring rankings as a junior. He also comes from an amazing lineage where older brother Terrance won a pair of New England titles.

But Corey leaves no doubt as to where his bread is buttered.

“Football is definitely my number one sport,” said the Eagles’ two-year starter.

Seeking life on offense: Central, which had its way in the opener with Marlboro, struggled mightily with the Prep defense, especially in the first half.

In fact, up until Santino Brancato broke off a 25-yard run with 1:40 left before halftime, the Raiders had totalled just seven yards on 12 plays.

“We missed a key block on every play. It was just very frustrating,” said Central coach Chuck Adamopoulos. “Nothing clicked. Give them credit, their defense played well, but I’d like to think we’re going to be a better offensive team than we showed today.”

Central finished with just 173 yards of offense on 30 snaps. And 58 of those came on a 58-yard prayer/connection between sophomore QB Mike Milano and senior Mike Barry.  

Raider bright spots: Statistically, there really weren’t many and Adamopoulos’ assessment matched the numbers.

“We really came in thinking we could win this game, and how we played was a disappointment,” said Adamopoulos. “So really, there weren’t a ton of bright spots.”

The real deal: St. John’s Prep coach Jim O’Leary was talking about how his team right now sat in a group with a lot of elite teams in Eastern Mass., teams like Brockton, Xaverian, BC High, Reading, Everett and some others.

After watching the Prep overhaul Central, making it look as easy as it did, you’d have trouble making the argument against that view.

St. John’s played tough inside, matching the Central strength, and it’s tough to attack the Eagles’ skill guys. Halfback Johnathon Thomas runs hard, in the mode of Salem’s Jerickson Fedrick. Thomas nearly outgained the Raiders on his own, racking up 156 yards on 25 carries. Lucas Bavaro is the high-school rover/monster back that every high school coach would want. QB Jack Sharrio is a returning starter, who makes all the throws. He hit on 8 of 12 passes for 135.