Submitted photo – The St. Bernard’s players and coaches celebrate their Big 4 championship.

By Ray Hamill — The future looks bright for St. Bernard’s football after the school’s JVs won this year’s Big 4 championship.

The Crusaders went into the final game against Del Norte knowing a win would secure the championship, and after a slow first half the young SB players rose to the challenge in the second half on the way to a dominating 40-0 win.

With the victory the Crusaders closed out with a 7-1-1 overall record and 2-0-1 in league play to edge Fortuna and Eureka for the title.

And they succeeded with a dominating defense and a small group of players that grew together as the season went along.

“We had a lot of good athletes on the team and we played as a team,” head coach Tracy Rice said. “That was probably the best thing about them. We had a bunch of goofy squirrels, but when it came to games they played as a team.”

The Crusaders featured a small roster with just 14 or 15 players available for each game, but they battled throughout the entire fall, with a non-conference loss to Fortuna the only blemish on their record.

The team defense, and in particular the run defense, set the tone all fall and paved the way to the league title.

“We had the best team in league defensively, I feel,” Rice said. “They swarmed the football and they played very unselfish defense. Our defense definitely won games for us.”

That unselfishness and the players’ collective team-first mentality was particularly key.

“They all contributed and there wasn’t a bad apple on the team. They all got along,” the head coach added. “There wasn’t any bickering. There was nobody out there worried about their stats.”

And with just 14 or 15 on the roster most weeks, everybody got to see plenty of playing time.

Offensively, running back KuRon Devlin had a big season and scored many of his team’s touchdowns. 

“He’s one of those kids you love to be around,” Rice said. 

Linebacker Robert Sirrine set the tone on defense and had to be continually accounted for by opposing offenses.

“Robert just played this butt off all year at linebacker,” the head coach said of Sirrine, who also featured at running back. “He led by his performances. He played hard and he’s a really great kid.”

Others impressed as well, including lineman Teqkauri Achane, who was a “big bright spot for us up front,” according to his coach, as well as International student Zuliyaer Abudurekeman from China, who played kicker and immediately took to the new sport.

“He gave 100 percent every play,” Rice said.

The young St. Bernard’s players also benefitted from an impressive group of young coaches, including offensive coordinator Jack Rice, who led the Crusaders to a state championship back in 2015.

DJ Snowton, who is quickly establishing himself as a good young coach in multiple sports, also was on the staff, along with Micah Fontenot, Marcus Finney, Logan Simoni and Dustin Nantz.