A look at this week’s five best games.
This game, known locally as the Pulaski Road Super Bowl, is one of the state’s classic rivalries. The schools are barely two miles apart and usually closely matched — Rice leads the series 22-18 and the last five games have been decided by a total of 31 points. The Crusaders (6-2,1-1 CCL/ESCC Blue) have a Player of the Year candidate in senior quarterback Jack Lausch, heading to Notre Dame as a preferred walk-on for football and baseball. Running back Aaron Vaughn and defensive lineman Roderick Pierce, who has Illinois and Kentucky offers, also are impact players. Marist (6-2,0-2) also has a premier quarterback in Coastal Carolina recruit Dontrell Jackson Jr. Can anyone or anything stop Loyola? The Ramblers graduated a deep, talented senior class from the state’s top-ranked team in the pandemic spring season. And they retooled their offense around senior running back Marco Maldonado (763 total yards,14 TDs) and junior quarterback Jake Stearney (1,391 passing yards,13 TDs).
