DANVERS — After yet another Division I state championship in 2022, the St. John’s Prep football team is back in the state tournament semifinals after a 56-34 victory over BC High.
The score shows a dominant win for the Eagles, but it didn’t come so easy in the first half. Trailing 22-18 at halftime, the Eagles knew they had some changes to make, and outscored their opponents 38-12 in the second half.
Prior to its quarterfinal matchup, the Eagles only trailed for a total of five minutes all season, dating back to week two. So, needless to say, Prep coach Brian St. Pierre was happy to see his team fight through adversity on a big stage.
“I think anytime you have a good response to a difficult situation it’s always good for a team,” St. Pierre said. “I just think [the coaching staff] challenged them to play to our standard, and they came out and handled their business.”
St. John’s Prep has won three out of the last four Division I state titles, and St. Pierre knows the winning culture the program has built comes in handy in its most important games.
“That kind of [playoff] experience always helps,” St. Pierre said. “This is a program that’s built on playing big games against good opponents, so [the semi-final] will be nothing new for us.”
Although St. Pierre has plenty of returning experience from last year’s state title team, he believes his current team has built its own identity.
“I think they share a lot of commonalities in terms of their work ethic, their toughness, and the way they play. But each team’s different, different personalities, they do it their own way,” he said.
The standard and discipline of the program never wavers and is a large part of the reason St. John’s Prep has had so much recent success.
“It’s the willingness to roll up their sleeves, put their hands in the dirt, and work,” St. Pierre said. “I don’t know that we’re ever going to be the most talented team in Massachusetts, but you can control how hard you work, how much you buy in, your willingness to sacrifice, and be unselfish for a bigger goal.”
St. Pierre also mentioned that this is what makes his job so rewarding.
“When you see that, it makes you proud. Because they’re listening, they’re buying in, and they’re learning it’s about the team,” he said.
As for Friday’s semi-final matchup, the #1 seeded Eagles will face off against #4 seeded Andover High school, and with plenty of prior experience against the Golden Warriors, he knows his team is in for quite the battle.
“We’ve played them quite a few times in the playoffs the last seven or eight years. We played them last year in round two, we also scrimmaged them early this season in camp, so we are familiar with them to some degree,” St. Pierre said.
“You don’t get to this point, the state semis, unless you’re a really good ballclub. So we’ll gladly accept the challenge and we’re excited.”
Of course every game produces a new game plan for each opponent, but St. Pierre says that “every week is its own animal”, and that remains consistent with Prep’s upcoming opponent.
“The overall tenets of what we believe in the program will never change, we’ll strive to play very physical on both sides of the ball and special teams. If we do that we should be alright,” he said.
In its victory against BC High, St. Pierre opted for a run-heavy offensive output, but he is confident that no matter what the offensive game plan is, his team will find success.
“We’re balanced when we need to be balanced, but if you’re having trouble stopping certain things in the run game, I’m not going to move away from it,” St. Pierre said. “We strive to be a team that, offensively, can play in whatever type of game.”
Even as the excitement starts to rise on St. John’s Prep campus with yet another state title appearance on the horizon, St. Pierre and his team are taking things one step at a time.
“We’re just looking at Andover right now. “We’re very appreciative of the opportunity, it’s a privilege to play this deep in the playoffs. We are going to get on the practice field and go,” he said.
The semi-final showdown against Andover takes place on Friday at Woburn High School with kick-off scheduled for 6 p.m.
