Prep Comes Up Short in Shea's Debut

The victory-starved Fairfield Prep football players have bought into Tom Shea's no-nonsense approach and he may indeed be the man to get the Jesuits' struggling program turned around. It is not, however, going to happen overnight.

The Jesuits played well in bursts Friday night against Hand, but there would be no storybook ending in Shea's debut as head coach.

Fairfield Prep made too many mistakes - committing five turnovers - and the Tigers converted three of them into 21 points to defeat the Jesuits, 28-14, at rainy Alumni Field.

"Nobody's good enough to give up all the turnovers and win a game," said Shea, decked out in shirt and tie, which already puts him at the top of the list of best- dressed coaches.  "Certainly not us, no one can, so that's something we got to fix."

Shea's debut will be remembered for a 40-minute delay that occured with 3:06 remaining in the first quarter after the officials suspended the game due to several lightning strikes. A steady rain at the start turned into a deluge, although there was only a light drizzle after the contest resumed.

Shea's first game featured an explosive start, as the Jesuits needed only 25 seconds to reach the end zone.

Colin Cinder recovered a fumble at the Hand 34 on the game's opening play. The Jesuits then stunned the Tigers, as Tom Brewster completed a 34-yard TD strike to Elijiah Langston on a halfback option pass on Fairfield Prep's first snap.

The Jesuits moved the ball effectively in the first half and burned Hand's defense with four plays in excess of 25 yards, including C.J. Donohue's 60-yard completion to Kyle Vignone that gave the Jesuits a first down at Hand's 11 early in the second period.

Prep lost 16 yards, however, before turning over the ball on downs. It was one of three times the Jesuits came up empty in the first half after driving inside the Tigers' 40-yard line. Fairfield Prep finished with 168 total yards in the opening 24 minutes.

"We couldn't finish and we had a lot of problems lining up properly tonight," Shea added. "That should be a simple thing to fix, but we got to fix it. We had a lot of alignment issues."

Hand answered with a 12-play, 77-yard drive, tying the contest, 7-7, on Kevin Frey's 4-yard TD run with 7:07 left in the first quarter.

Just before the suspension, Hand's Dillon Wilson returned an interception 21 yards to the Prep 4. On the first play after the game resumed, quarterback Zach Miller scored on a TD run around right end. The extra point failed.

The defenses settled in, and Hand held on to its 13-7 advantage at the intermission.

Prep was victimized by bad luck on its first possession of the third quarter, as Vignone bobbled the ball on a  jarring hit after making a reception. The football popped into the hands of Cory Sweitzer, who returned it 30 yards for a touchdown.

Late in the third quarter, the Jesuits put together a 15-play, 62-yard scoring march. Prep appeared to come up empty, as Myles Gaines' 1-yard TD run on fourth down was called back because of a holding penalty.

However, Donohue fired an 11-yard scoring strike to Vinny McAvey on the final play of the third period to pull the  Jesuits within 20-14.

In the fourth quarter, Prep's defense responded with two stops inside its 20.

After Gaines rushed for a first down to give the Jesuits a first down at their 35 with just under five minutes remaining, the stage seemed set for a storybook finish in Shea's maiden voyage.

But the back-breaker came three players later when Hand recovered a fumbled snap at Prep's 37. On 2nd-and-10, Miller delivered the clincher, hitting Casey Dowd for a 37-yard TD pass with 2:45 remaining. Miller scored on the conversion run to complete the scoring.

Donohue comnpleted 10-of-25 passes for 155 yards with three interceptions (although one was on the Jesuits' final possession), while Fairfield Prep registered 310 total yards.

Afterwards, Shea talked about how he has changed the culture of the program. 

"We work hard year round now, or at least since I started," he said. "We train very hard physically, weight training, our conditioning. 

"It's a change in culture in terms of taking the responsibility to get here to do that kind of work, to make yourself  stronger and faster, and we're starting to do that. Now, there's no quick fixes. That's a long process, but we're seeing some positive results."

While the Jesuits suffered their 14th straight loss, Friday represents progress. Last year, they were routed by Hand, 35-7.