No. 4 St. Joseph football shuts down Darien as Jake Rios does it all in convincing victory

DARIEN - St. Joseph football coach Joe Della Vecchia smiled a bit when he was asked about senior Jake Rios .

" Bugs Bunny ?" he said of the guy who can seemingly do it all for the Hogs.

Rios was in that cartoon mode once again, and was part of a shutdown defensive performance when No. 4-ranked St. Joseph defeated Darien 28-7 on opening night Thursday.

Rios caught a 41-yard touchdown pass from senior Jack Mooney, one of three long TD throws from the quarterback, consistently stymied Darien's special teams with kickoffs into the end zone, and even put a punt at the 1-yard line, which helped lead to a touchdown four plays later.

"He does a lot," Della Vecchia said. "He's kicking off into the end zone, he was big for field position, he's a great punter. There are a lot of things he does that you don't see in the stat sheet. He's big for us every week."

The game was a battle of FCIAC blue bloods, with the teams combining for 23 playoff appearances , 16 CIAC finals berths and 10 championships in the last 12 seasons. Darien had won six straight in the series from 2014 to 2021, but the Hogs have now won three of the last four meetings, including the last two .

For Darien, the opportunities were there but between some dropped passes and missed chances, the momentum never materialized.

"We left a lot of meat on the bone," Darien coach Andy Grant said. "I chart big plays on the sideline and there were like seven and if we could've swung a few of those, it would've been a different game. The punt return cost us, the hitch-and-go cost us. That's discipline, that's focus or a lack of focus and it's lots of things that are correctable."

The teams were sluggish to start. Neither cracked 100 yards on offense in a first half that included nine punts and a turnover on 12 possessions.

The Wave took the initial lead when quarterback Hugh Dunlap connected with Bruce Hopkins for a 36-yard touchdown following a St. Joseph fumble in the first quarter.

The Hogs answered in the second, driving 85 yards and scoring when Justin Daniels got behind the defense and caught a 32-yard TD pass from Mooney.

A little later in that frame, Rios placed a punt inside the 5-yard line and senior Kyle Wicker kept it in at the 1. The Hogs' defense kept Darien there and when the Wave punted from its own end zone, Michael Charland returned the kick 37 yards for a 14-7 lead.

"I've been practicing my special teams a lot this offseason, practicing my punts and my kicks, so it was great to see it work out," Rios said.

Mooney then threw two TD passes in the third quarter, first to Joey Baskin for 47 yards and then to Rios for 41 yards to ice the game for the Hogs.

Jake Rios, St. Joseph: As is typical, the senior did a bit of everything for St. Joseph, catching four passes for 86 yards and a touchdown, starring in the defensive secondary, and handling kickoffs and punts, even pinning Darien back at its own 1-yard line in the second quarter.

"Our theme all week was let the defense win the game for us. Our goal was to score three touchdowns and then we'd have a good chance to win. On offense, we did enough and we let those guys play." - St. Joseph coach Joe Della Vecchia.

ST. JOSEPH 0 14 14 0-28 DARIEN 7 0 0 0- 7

D-Bruce Hopkins 36 pass from Hugh Dunlap (Gannon Collins kick) SJ-Justin Daniels 32 pass from Jack Mooney (Jake Rios kick) SJ-Michael Charland 37 punt return (Rios kick) SJ-Joey Baskin 47 pass from Mooney (Rios kick) SJ-Rios 41 pass from Jack Mooney (Rios kick)