UNIVERSITY SCHOOL, Ohio — Walsh Jesuit football coach Nick Alexander spent three seasons at John Carroll University as its quarterbacks coach for Rick Finotti.
His ties to the football program there remain strong, which is why Walsh Jesuit spent part of its summer there for a minicamp.
The Warriors returned there Friday night and improved to 6-0 on the season with a 20-12 win against Benedictine.
“It was weird being on that sideline,” said Alexander, a Mayfield graduate in his sixth season at Walsh, which is seventh in this week’s cleveland.com Top 25. “To be here at John Carroll and to get this win and to find a gritty way to get a win reminds me back to that feeling like I’m with Finotti again.”
That grittiness came in the form of 327 yards rushing, paced by junior Marty Tobin’s 211 yards on 30 carries. Senior quarterback Keller Moten ran for 76 yards on 13 attempts, including two touchdowns to bookend the Warriors’ scoring. They answered a go-ahead TD run by Benedictine senior running back Chris Maloney with a 12-yard TD pass from Moten to Milan Parris with 18 seconds left in the first half.
Maloney rushed for 203 yards to pace the 19th-ranked Bengals (4-2), who are at Elyria Catholic on Friday next week. They finished with 257 yards total and scored just three points in the second half.
Walsh, which plays host to rival Archbishop Hoban next Friday, gained 409 yards as a team. Moten threw for 92 yards on 11-of-25 passing, finding Aiden Henry for 41 yards on eight passes and Parris for 47 yards on two connections.
Watch the highlights above and hear from Moten, Tobin, junior cornerback James Brewer III and Alexander.
Contact sports reporter Matt Goul on X (@mgoul), Threads (@mgoul) or email ([email protected]).
