Holy Family, strong from the start, overwhelms St. Agnes in high school football

What a difference a year makes.

St. Agnes defeated Holy Family Catholic by double digits last season. But on Friday, Victoria-based Holy Family drew even with St. Agnes, winning convincingly 25-7 to spoil the Aggies’ homecoming at Sea Foam Stadium in St. Paul.

“We knew it was their Homecoming and we wanted to come and fight for sure,” junior running back Noah Galvin said.

Holy Family (4-0) opened with a 19-point salvo, an opening burst aided in large part by a St. Agnes’ offense cursed with leaving cannonballs to be loaded from the Sea Foam Stadium carpet.

Holy Family took a 7-0 lead then recovered a fumble on the ensuing kickoff in the first quarter. One play later, sophomore quarterback Ethan Ryan hit Noah Galvin for a 27-yard score.

A promising St. Agnes drive ended with a fumble at the Holy Family 20-yard line. The Fire converted an 80-yard touchdown drive capped by Griffin Murray’s second scoring run. And Holy Family led 19-0.

“It was like, ‘Wow that happened quick,’” Aggies coach Sam Thompson said.

St. Agnes (2-2) finally gave a packed homecoming crowd something to cheer about — a short touchdown run by junior running back Evonson Plamann with 2:35 remaining before halftime.

“It felt like the momentum was starting to slip a little bit,” Fire coach Dan O’Brien said.

Holy Family proved it wouldn’t beat itself on the opening drive of the third quarter when it drove 75 yards using almost half the quarter, capped by a 2-yard scoring touchdown by Murray.

“We knew coming out we had to start that third quarter strong because they weren’t going to give up,” Galvin said.

Now ahead 25-7, Holy Family had executed a flawless drive to answer St. Agnes, which won last year’s meeting, 33-14.

The drive was emblematic of the reason O’Brien, who previously led St. Thomas Academy to five consecutive state tournament appearances, left before the 2023 season for the Victoria-based private school.

O’Brien, also the former University of Minnesota director of football operations, hired longtime friends and Minnesota Football Coaches Association Hall of Fame members Jeff Ferguson and Dave Nelson — who boast a combined 10 Prep Bowl state championship — to his staff before last season. Coaxing the duo out of retirement gives Holy Family the ideal mix of experience and enthusiasm to elevate a program coming off two consecutive winless seasons.