No. 7 Cardinal Gibbons works past slow start, tops Heritage 52-22

Cardinal Gibbons turned in a spectacular final three quarters, and left no doubt as it bounced back from a week six loss against Leesville Road to defeat Heritage, 52-22.

As he has done all season long, running back Jack Grazen shined with three touchdowns for the Crusaders.

Down 7-0 early, the Huskies battled back to even the score with 4:20 remaining in the first. Walker Harris dropped back and located Whit Kane in the end zone for a 10-yard touchdown pass.

Grazen guided Cardinal Gibbons to a 13-7 lead through one when he made a circus catch on a ball that floated through the hands of both a Heritage defensive back and a fellow Crusader receiver before being taken 79-yards for a go-ahead score.

Cardinal Gibbons never trailed from there as Jacob Gill opened the second with 15-yard touchdown catch just 30 seconds into the period.

From 79-yards out once again, Grazen posted six on the board for the Crusaders. This time via a rushing score to make it 28-7 following a successful two-point conversion.

Andrew Harvey’s third passing score of the first half came on a wheel route to Cam Duarte who caught the 12-yard pass and lunged into the end zone for six.

Heritage narrowed the gap before the end of the half when Joshua Crabtree climbed the ladder in the back corner of the end zone to come down with a Harris pass.

Through two, Cardinal Gibbons lead 35-14.

The second half scoring opened with a one-yard rumble from Grazen, then Crabtree corralled another touchdown to make it a 42-22 game with 4:52 left in the third.

Noah Lawrence booted a field goal in the final two minutes of the stanza to give the Crusaders a 45-22 advantage at the end of three.

Looking to seal the victory, Jackson Federman darted in from two-yards out to close out the Cardinal Gibbons offensive effort.

Bouncing back to win improves the Crusaders' record to 4-2 overall. Next week, Cardinal Gibbons continues Cap-7 Conference play on the road at Sanderson. The Crusaders are 0-1 in league play.

Heritage falls to 2-3 overall, but the Huskies can get back to .500 on Monday night when they resume a game from September 27th at Clayton in which Heritage holds a 14-0 lead in the third quarter.

The Huskies have very little time to recover as they travel to Corinth Holders next Friday to open up Northern Athletic Conference play.