DANVERS — Brian St. Pierre has a chance to do something unique in St. John’s Prep football history: win a championship both as a player and a coach.
St. Pierre accomplished the former in 1997 when his Eagles beat New Bedford in the Division 1 Super Bowl. The Prep moved a step closer to the latter Saturday by defeating Central Catholic, 21-0, in the Division 1 North final at Glatz Field.
With the win, the Eagles move straight to the Division 1 Super Bowl on Dec. 1 against perennial Prep nemesis John DiBiaso and Catholic Memorial. The game is at Gillette Stadium in Foxborough at a time to be announced (Division 1 has no teams in Central or Western Massachusetts).
“This is a special place,” said St. Pierre, who was the team’s quarterback when, as a senior, the Eagles won a dramatic victory over Xaverian on Thanksgiving to qualify for the postseason, and then defeated the Whalers for the title. “It’s why I came back here to coach.”
In between, St. Pierre quarterbacked Boston College to two bowl victories, and was MVP of the Motor City Bowl; and then played for a number of teams in the NFL, including the Arizona Cardinals, where he was backup to Kurt Warner when the team made the Super Bowl.
If there were ever a championship “trap” game, Saturday’s game against the Red Raiders would have been it. All eyes pointed to a rematch between The Prep and Everett for a Super Bowl berth after the Crimson Tide survived a Week 3 tussle with the Eagles (26-14). But Central put an end to those hopes by upsetting the Crimson Tide last week. So even though The Prep had beaten Central in Week 2, St. Pierre was wary.
“Central Catholic is a very good team,” he said. “They went into Everett and won.”
Gusting winds put a bit of a crimp into St. Pierre’s game plan to do a lot of passing, but even so, the game couldn’t have started better for the Eagles.
“We hoped to win the toss, defer, take the wind, stop them, and then come down and score. We checked off all those boxes.”
A defense that combined for six sacks Saturday got started early with a three-and-out, after which offense became the Matt Crowley show. The junior quarterback completed his first five passes and ended up at 10-for-13, 173 yards and a touchdown (he also set a single-season record for passing yards with 1,081).
After running back Trent Tully (shouldering almost the whole load after Aise Pream went down with an injury) capped a long drive with a 3-yard plunge to make it 7-0, Crowley combined with Luke Brennan on a 49-yard thing of beauty in the second quarter. Crowley’s play fake lured Central’s defense toward the pocket, and he hit Brennan with a bullet about 10 years from the line. Brennan ran untouched to the end zone.
“That was designed,” St. Pierre said. “We faked them up and then threw the ball behind them.”
Tully’s 8-yard run in the fourth quarter capped off the scoring.
Now, the Eagles get ready to play at Fenway Park the night before Thanksgiving against Xaverian, and then at Gillette against Catholic Memorial.
“Ask me later how you prepare for that,” said St. Pierre. “I just want to enjoy this one.”
