Holy Cross senior Dae'Sean Graves breaks Connecticut's career record for TD receptions

WATERBURY - Holy Cross High senior wide receiver Dae'Sean Graves came into Saturday morning's game at Crosby one touchdown catch away from tying the state's all-time career record, and two away from breaking it.

It took a little bit of time, but the UConn commit caught touchdowns of 37 and 6 yards from senior quarterback Brady Lombardo to become the state record holder with 51 career touchdown receptions. Holy Cross beat Crosby 52-13 and improved to 5-1.

Graves broke Southington star Alex Jamele's former record of 50, set in 2014, by catching two touchdowns in the final minutes of the first half.

After a fumble recovery by the Crusader defense, Graves went deep and Lombardo hit him for a 37-yard touchdown pass with 2:24 left in the second quarter to tie Jamele's record. Holy Cross got the ball back with 50.1 seconds left in the first half, and Graves caught a 33-yard pass from Lombardo to get the ball to the Crosby 6-yard line.

After an incomplete pass, Graves came in motion, moving from right to left. Lombardo caught the snap and pitched it forward to Graves on a jet pass. Graves broke a tackle at the goal line to score and break Jamele's record.

The entire Crusader offensive unit joined Graves in the end zone to celebrate.

Graves finished with eight catches for 132 yards and the two touchdowns, and all of it came in the first half. He is 10 catches away from tying East Catholic star Joey Montalvo's state record of 226, which was set last year. Graves now has 3,229 career receiving yards, which puts him 642 yards away from tying Montalvo's record of 3,871, which was also set last year.

As if Graves didn't have a big enough morning, he also returned an interception 39 yards for a touchdown. Freshman Anthony Serrano also had an interception return for a score for Holy Cross.

Besides the two touchdowns to Graves, Lombardo threw scoring passes of 68 yards to Aaden Hall and 10 yards to Tyler Smith.

Raquim Chapman scored the first touchdown of the game on a 1-yard sneak for Crosby (2-4). Kayden Myers ran for a 17-yard touchdown in the fourth quarter.

Dae'Sean Graves, Holy Cross: The senior wide receiver caught two touchdown passes to break Alex Jamele's all-time state record for career scoring receptions.

Holy Cross 7 42 3 0-52 Crosby 7 0 0 6-13 C-Raquim Chapman 1 run (kick good) H-Nate Craft 10 run (Justin Smith kick) H-Aaden Hall 68 pass from Brady Lombardo (J. Smith kick) H-Dae'Sean Graves 39 interception return (J. Smith kick) H-Anthony Serrano 40 interception return (J. Smith kick) H-Tyler Smith 10 pass from Lombardo (J. Smith kick) H-Graves 37 pass from Lombardo (J. Smith kick) H-Graves 6 pass from Lombardo (J. Smith kick) C-Kayden Myers 17 run (conversion failed) Records: Holy Cross 5-1; Crosby 2-4.