By ROY HESS, Staff Writer
Freshman quarterback Kai Money was the main contributor for St. JosephAcademyin a TAPPS district scoring fest against San Antonio St. Anthony on Friday at Canales Field.
The Bloodhounds prevailed 52-34 as Money rushed for 157 yards and four touchdowns while passing for 218 yards and two more scores.
SJA (5-2, 1-1 district) led the entire way, holding advantages of 23-7 after one quarter, 23-21 at halftime and 31-21 by the end of the third period.
As a freshman, Money has displayed maturity beyond his years at QB, starting even before the regular season began as he won the job with his solid performances during the Bloodhounds’ scrimmages.
His standout play has become pretty much a vital and dependable part of SJA’s potent offense, and his talents were on full display against the Yellow Jackets (1-6, 0-2).
“Yes, it was a typical showing tonight by Kai, and by (sophomore running back) Mario (Garcia), too,” SJA coach Christian Putegnat said. “They had some great runs, and we had some great balls thrown as well.
“We were able to kind of piece together and get our (fast-paced offensive) tempo back,” Putegnat added. “When we get the tempo working like that, it works so much better for us. We’re trying to get it all pieced back together now a month from our last win. I think it’s coming together, and I’m excited.
“We had a little bit of a rocky start tonight (with a missed 31-yard field goal on our first possession), but once we can get our momentum going and get that tempo rolling, we just seem to flow better, and it helps us on both sides of the ball. We’ve just got to keep that tempo up. I’m glad for this victory. We won the day.”
SJA’s win snapped a two-game losing streak.
Money rushed for a 3-yard TD during the first quarter before tossing scoring passes of 95 and 62 yards to Dave Lapeyre and Jorge de la Garza, respectively. Money also tallied on second-half scoring runs of 1, 17 and 11 yards.
The freshman QB completed nine of 14 passes for 218 yards and two scores with one interception. He rushed 21 times to pile up 157 yards on the ground with four TDs.
Garcia finished with 97 yards rushing on 12 carries, including a 31-yard scoring jaunt during the second quarter.
St. Anthony QB Henry Sanchez finished with 177 yards rushing and one TD,and he passed for 110 yards and a pair of scores and an interception.
SJA now goes on the road to play Austin St. Michael’s at 7 p.m. next Friday.