‘Fresh’ start sparks Moreau

UNION CITY >> Entering the second half against James Logan, Moreau Catholic held a onepoint lead and Jaylen “Fresh” Ison had 15 yards rushing.

Ison changed that on the first offensive play of the third quarter Friday night.

The 5-foot-10, 200-pound junior took a handoff on the Mariners 5-yard-line and sprinted through the James Logan defense on a 95-yard touchdown run. He ended up with 191 of his career-high 218 yards in the third quarter, including another touchdown run of 44 yards, in Moreau Catholic’s 42-14 victory.

“He has great vision. When he gets through, he’s explosive,” Moreau Catholic coach Rob Gatrell said. “Hats off to the offensive line. We challenged them this week. We knew it was going to be a challenge. If we played physical football, that would put us in an opportunity to get this thing done.”

The Mariners’ win in the Mission Valley Athletic League opener for both teams kept them undefeated this season at 5-0. James Logan fell to 2-3 overall.

After a scoreless first quarter, Moreau Catholic struck first on a 7-yard pass from Bowen Dickstein to Nicolas Ledesma. James Logan grabbed the momentum with 57.6 seconds left in the half when Chase Sims bolted 37 yards to cut the Mariners’ lead to 7-6.

But Ison’s stunning 95-yard run started a 28-0 scoring run for the Mariners.

“We had the ends crashing down, then I had a great block by my fullback Russell Winston III,” Ison said. “Then I saw the hole, and then I bursted with speed, got through, then I saw a defender behind me and cut up across the field, trusted my legs and kept running.”

A 1-yard touchdown run by Ledesma gave Moreau Catholic a two-touchdown lead, then Ison took the ball 44 yards on a oneplay touchdown drive to put the Mariners up by three scores.

“We made some adjustments in the second half,” said Gattrell, whose squad had 59 total rushing yards in the first half. “They were doing a great job stopping our run.”