Draper • It took five years and a realignment to allow Utah’s two largest Catholic schools a chance to renew their rivalry on a football field.
After being blasted 56-14 on a beautiful Friday evening, Judge Memorial may want to wait another five years.
Juan Diego didn’t need any Hail Marys, though the two teams prayed before and after the game.
In a show of unity, the teams knelt together alternating players in a circle to offer a prayer for ailing Hillcrest football coach Cazzie Brown after their game.
JUAN DIEGO 56, JUDGE MEMORIAL 14 <br>• Zach Hoffman scores four touchdown as Juan Diego races to a 42-0 lead. <br>• Parker Edgington passes for one Judge touchdown and runs for the other. <br>• The two Catholic schools play football against each other for the first time in five years.
The ending displayed the friendship that both coaching staffs and players of the two schools possess. Many of these athletes grew up playing against each other in Catholic leagues.
Juan Diego had too big of an offensive line, too much practice in veteran coach John Colosimo’s run-oriented veer offense and too much of quarterback Zach Hoffman.
Hoffman not only was the field general for the often-complicated veer, but he also managed to score four touchdowns before Colosimo, a Judge alumnus, pulled the starters early in the fourth quarter.
“We have been playing against them since middle school,” Hoffman said. “Judge has always been a great team with great coaches. … I have nothing but respect for Judge.”
More important for Hoffman, whose 43-yard run was the longest of four touchdowns that gave Juan Diego a commanding 42-0 lead, was that his team got back on track after a rough opener.
“Last week, we had a rough game,” he said. “We wanted to come out this week and improve. We knew it was a rivalry game. But we wanted to focus on the game.”
The Soaring Eagle were focused, getting touchdowns from Hoffman, Peyton Seem, Tristen Tonozzi, Jayden Madry and Hunter Easterly.
“We had to get our work in,” Colosimo said. “I tried to play a lot of kids but still worked on the things we have to work on. I never like to beat anybody like your fellow Catholic school or anybody else like that. But sometimes it happens.”
To Judge’s credit, the Bulldogs never quit fighting. Quarterback Parker Edgington was responsible for two second-half scores, one on the ground and one on a pass play.
Colosimo said the state’s two largest Catholic schools, now both in Class 3A, have been trying to schedule each other for several years but things lined up perfectly this year.