‘V’ is for Vondell and Victory: Langston Powers Tide to 42-21 Win

It’s a fact that Everett has the most productive passing offense in the state led by quarterback Jonathan DiBiaso.

On Saturday the Crimson Tide showed it can take the ground route as well with senior Vondell Langston seizing center stage in the biggest game of the season to-date.

Langston scored two touchdowns and rushed for 203 yards on 15 carries to help Everett High beat Xaverian, 42-21, before a large Homecoming Game crowd at Everett Memorial Stadium.

With Xaverian stocking up on defensive backs, the Tide utilized the draw play to perfection and Langston displayed his speed and strength to rack up some key long-gainers.

Langston wore jersey No. 44 instead of his customary No. 4 as a tribute to his teammate Chris McCarthy who is out for the rest of the season with an injury.

“Vondell is like a brother to me,” said McCarthy after the game. “We’ve gone through everything together, practices and weightlifting, and for him to wear my jersey just means everything to me.”

The Everett offensive line of Pat Sullivan, Brandon Conde, Nick Stanfield, Mar Fils-Aime, and John Montelus performed very well against a potent Xaverian line that featured 6-2, 275-pound junior Mo Hurst, son of former New England Patriots player Maurice Hurst.

While Langston earned Herald “Star of the Week” honors for his effort, DiBiaso had another sterling performance, going 23-for-39 for 313 yards. The senior southpaw threw touchdown passes to Kenny Claj and Jalen Felix as Everett’s offense churned out 569 yards.

But DiBiaso’s highlight reel moment came on a 39-yard touchdown run that sealed the victory. DiBiaso eluded two tacklers just beyond the line of scrimmage and scampered along the sideline where it appeared he would head out of bounds. Instead he made a cut and was greeted by an Xaverian tackler at the 10-yard line before he barreled through the remaining Hawk defenders and into the end zone.

“I just scrambled, rolled out of the pocket and missed some guys,” said DiBiaso. “I was pretending that I was going out of bounds and just switched into another gear up the sidelines. I think I tricked them. They made contact with me at the 10-yard line and they were trying to strip the ball and didn’t wrap me up really so I kept on moving my legs and getting extra yards and it paid off.”

Coach John DiBiaso explained the effectiveness of the offensive plan and why Langston became the go-to guy in the second half.

“We noticed that the pass rush was dying down and their defensive linemen weren’t able to get up in our face and they were dropping a lot of guys into zone – that’s why I thought the draw play worked very well – they had actually seven or eight guys in coverage. They kept dropping people so we kept running it.”