Interception kick-starts Brother Rice
Sepulveda returns pick for TD to spark season-opening win vs. Providence
The focus that Rolando Sepulveda played with Friday night was intense.
Opening the season on the road against a dynamic Providence in New Lenox, Sepulveda and his Brother Rice teammates held just a seven-point lead early in the third quarter.
That’s when Sepulveda, a junior linebacker, recognized the route a Providence player was running on a third-down play deep in the Celtics’ end of the field and jumped in front of a pass. When he got the ball in his hands, his focus turned solely toward the end zone.
“Once I picked it off, I didn’t even hear anything,” Sepulveda said.
His 15-yard interception return for a touchdown — which happened in part because of pressure applied by defensive end Kevin Frazier and others — spurred a dominant second-half defensive effort by Brother Rice’s defense in a 28-7 season-opening win.
Brother Rice held Providence to 156 yards, including just 15 in the second half, during which Celtics quarterback Kevin Conway was sacked six times.
Frazier and others nearly sacked Conway before he released the pass that Sepulveda intercepted.
“I’m worried about if he caught it or
not because our coaches emphasize rally to the ball,” Frazier said of the play. “I see Rolando get it. I’m like, ‘Is he running to go tackle the guy?’ I see him with the ball, and I see everyone else yelling. I’m like, ‘Wow. Crazy.’ That got me hyped. I think that was the tone setter for us.”
The play of the defensive line set the tone for the Crusaders. Frazier, who is in his first year at Brother Rice after playing his sophomore season at Fenwick, recorded a tackle for loss on the first Providence play of the second half. He added two second-half sacks, and defensive lineman Ryan Whelan also had two sacks in the second half.
“No doubt, those guys came out in the second half and made a statement defensively,” Brother Rice coach Brian Badke said. “We felt that we could control up front on both sides of the ball.”
Sacks by Whelan and Frazier on Providence’s third possession of the third quarter set up a short field for the Brother Rice offense after a shanked punt. Quarterback Jack Lausch scored a 16-yard rushing touchdown on the first play of the ensuing drive to give
Crusaders the 28-7 lead.
Lausch accounted for 167 yards and two touchdowns. Running back Joshua Bell added 47 rushing yards and a touchdown. The Crusaders were without standout running back and Toledo recruit Willie Shaw due to injury, although Badke expects him back this season.
“We did some good
things,” Badke said of the offense. “We got to improve on some others. We got to finish drives. We got some things going. We just didn’t finish drives.”
Conway, who accounted for 114 total yards, scored the lone touchdown for the Celtics on a 33-yard run in the first half.
“There’s a team with 15 returning starters,” Providence
coach Mark Coglianese said of Brother Rice. “That’s what I’ll tell the guys too. That’s one of the top teams in the state. We know we’re young. We’ve got some nice players, some nice skill guys. We’re going to learn from it and get ready to go next week.”