SAN FRANCISCO -- On a misty Friday night at Kezar Stadium, St. Ignatius cruised to a 42-21 victory over rival Sacred Heart Cathedral in the annual Bruce-Mahoney game.
Junior running back Henry Vatinel stole the show in the second quarter, breaking free for a 68-yard touchdown to put the Wildcats up 14-7.
“I think it was just the energy of the offensive line, and my fullbacks Gabe McCaffrey and Burke Wynne,” Vatinel said. “I thought they played a great game today. They blocked extremely well and moved their feet.”
In the third, Vatinel rushed 45 yards for another score, pushing the SI lead to 28-7.
Vatinel sealed the victory in the fourth quarter with a 19-yard touchdown run, as SI took a 42-14 lead.
“I think [the win] means everything to us,” Vatinel said. “It means everything to this team, to the coaches, to the fans. Our coaches were really hard on us every day, and we worked very hard every day at practice, so I think it’s a testament to how hard we work every day.”
Vatinel finished with 182 rushing yards and three touchdowns on 14 carries.
The St. Ignatius passing game also excelled throughout the night. In the first quarter, senior quarterback Patrick Brosnan found senior wide receiver Rusty McDonough for a 16-yard touchdown to tie the game at 7.
Late in the second, Brosnan hit McDonough again on a long 42-yard touchdown pass, giving SI a 21-7 lead heading to the half.
Brosnan’s third touchdown pass of the game came in the third quarter when he connected with Nick Menchero for a 33-yard score.
Brosnan completed seven of 13 passes for 148 yards and three touchdowns.
“I thought our guys were very, very efficient,” SI coach John Regalia said. “We’ve been working at our efficiency and working at our execution that way. We were able to hit some shots over the top in the air as well, which is nice to connect on those. We’ve been so close for so long now, and now we’re starting to execute there.”
As for the Fightin’ Irish, they started hot, as sophomore running back Anthony Heard found a huge hole and cruised to a 57-yard touchdown to score the first points of the game.
Junior quarterback Will Irons threw two touchdown passes, both to junior wideout Aer’on Mitchell.
However, the Irish defense surrendered 42 points and 409 yards of total offense to the Wildcats.
“We weren’t stopping the run,” SHC coach Ken Peralta said. “They did a really nice job. They didn’t do anything we didn’t know they were going to do. They just did a nice job of executing.”
The Bruce-Mahoney rivalry, named after late military men from both schools, lasts throughout the school year. The school that wins the most games out of the head-to-head meeting in football, combined with the first league game of the season against each other in boys' basketball and baseball, takes home the trophy. It is the oldest high school rivalry west of the Mississippi River.
“It’s a great win for our program,” Regalia said. “There are a lot of parts to this. There’s the game itself, a league game, a rival game, the tradition of the rivalry and all the different layers of that -- what it symbolizes and signifies -- and both schools are a big part of that. It’s big for both schools.”
St. Ignatius (4-5, 2-4) hits the road to face St. Francis in Mountain View at 7:30 p.m. on Friday night.
Sacred Heart Cathedral (2-7, 1-5) hosts Valley Christian at 7:00 p.m. on Thursday night at Kezar.
