Last season, John Fennell started at linebacker for St. Rita.
With Steven Armbruster graduating, Fennell moved to quarterback this season and earned the starting job.
How’s it gone so far in 2026? Quite well.
Fennell scored on a pair of 2-yard runs and also threw a 24-yard TD pass to Vinny Stubitsch to lead St. Rita past visiting St. Francis 28-12 on Sept. 11 in the Catholic League Green.
“We wish John could play defense for us, too, because he’s one of our better players on defense,” St. Rita coach Martin Hopkins said. “The transition has gone pretty good. John was always a quarterback. Last year, we had Steven and John was one of our better players, so we wanted to get him on the field anywhere we could.
“We knew that he would be the quarterback (this) year, so it was interesting to see a quarterback be one of our better defensive players. You don’t usually see that.”
Against the Spartans, the 6-1, 195-pound senior carried 15 times for 55 yards and completed 10 of 17 attempts for 152 yards.
“John’s been doing a really good job of just managing our offense in terms of running and passing,” Hopkins said. “He does a good job of running the ball and we do some read-option with him. He also does a good job throwing the ball.
“He also had a couple of good boots (Friday). And he had a big scramble on third down on our 2-yard line during a 99-yard drive. It was third-and-10 and he scrambled for 30 yards and we wound up sustaining that drive for a touchdown. He’s able to do a lot of things with his feet and make plays happen on his own. He’s just been doing a really good job.”
It was a nice bounceback for the Mustangs (2-2, 1-0), who lost 31-0 to Loyola in Week 3.
“That was definitely one of the things we stressed,” Hopkins said. “We wanted to make sure that we didn’t let one game turn into two bad games.
“I think the guys answered the bell when we told them to start fast because St. Francis is a really good team and we can’t get behind and have to try to catch up with those guys. It was good that we got that lead on them early on.”
The other points of the game for St. Rita came from Brandon Johnson Jr., who scored on a 72-yard run. He finished with 146 yards on 18 carries.
“Brandon has been doing a really good job,” Hopkins said. “Everyone knows we’re going to run the ball for the most part and they load the box up, but he’s still able to get 5 or 6 yards.
“(Friday), he had a big breakaway carry and run for a touchdown and that kind of pulled us away a little bit at the end. It’s good to see him continue to have success…He’s patient and he runs hard. He doesn’t go down easy. He trusts his offensive line and his blockers in waiting for the hole to open up.”