Alex Alacron, Marcus Jones fuel Brother Rice rout

Brother Rice’s Alex Alarcon and Marcus Jones had a little conversation before Friday’s game.

For the senior quarterback and running back, it wasn’t anything too crazy, anything too out of the ordinary.

It was just a hope and a plan for early in the game.

“We talked about a big pass or a big run early, and Jones did it,” Alarcon said with a smile. “It was great. It just made everything go through the roof for us.”

On this night, it was Jones coming through on the ground early. His 61-yard touchdown run on the second play of the game helped host Brother Rice set the tone in a 34-7 Catholic League crossover victory over St. Laurence.

Jones finished with 118 rushing yards on 11 carries and two touchdowns. Alarcon did double damage, throwing for 216 yards, two scores on 12 of 19 passing while also totaling 54 yards on 14 carries, plus a TD.

Friday’s game marked the first time Brother Rice (4-1) and St. Laurence (2-3) met since 2009.

“We’ve got to finish (offensively), pass or run,” Alarcon said. “Finish, finish, finish our runs, our blocks and our passes, and that was the main thing.”

Late in the first quarter, Alarcon scored on a 3-yard keeper.

The Crusaders defense had two huge stops in the first half on St. Laurence fourth-down tries from inside the Brother Rice 10-yard line.

Late in the second quarter with the Vikings at the Rice 9, Jordan Boyd broke up a pass in the end zone to stall the drive.

“We bend but don’t break,” Brother Rice coach Brian Badke said. “We were kind of banged up but guys stepped up when they needed to. Bend not break, but we’ve got to get better in a lot of areas.”

Boyd added an interception off a Jim Opoka tip on a Martinez pass for Brother Rice in the third. Jones capitalized four plays later with a score to put the Crusaders up 20-0.

Ricky Smalling had two touchdown catches (61 and 6 yards) for Brother Rice. Martinez finished 16-of-34 for 288 yards while Fayezon Smart had a 1-yard rushing touchdown for St. Laurence.

Next up for the Crusaders? Mount Carmel (2-3).

“It’s a big week because they have ruined our season a whole bunch of times,” Alarcon said. “We’ve been waiting for them, taking it one week at a time and now it’s a good, hard week of practice.”