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As good as the Juan Diego athletic programs have been since the school opened its doors back in 1999, there is one thing they had not accomplished. One “monkey they couldn’t get off of their back”. The Soaring Eagles had yet to beat their heated rival, Judge Memorial, on Judge’s home court… until Wednesday.

While Judge came into the game at 8-4 on the season, the Soaring Eagles came in at 4-5. When asked about their early season struggles, Coach Sonny Tangaro was quick to state, “We got a two week late start, 14 of our 24 players were still playing football so we started the season with a real skeleton crew”.

Another reason for Juan Diego’s slow start to the season was that they played a challenging schedule that Coach Tangaro said was “deliberately scheduled”. Three of the four losses came against the state’s best, Lehi, Lone Peak, and Bingham. The fourth came against San Bernardino of California.

On Wednesday, that non-region experience paid off. Trailing 12 to 11 starting the second period, the Soaring Eagles came out scorching the nets and smothering the Bulldogs offense. The Judge Memorial offense was so non-existent in the second period that Zach Myaer scored their first bucket with 3:30 left before halftime. Throughout the scoreless stretch, Juan Diego went on a 14 to zero run as the period proved to devastating for the Bulldogs to overcome by game’s end.

“It’s great. It’s a long time coming for sure, good to get the monkey off our back”, said Juan Diego star, Ajay Pizza who led the way with 15 points. Point Guard, Morgan Hesleph was Juan Diego’s other top scorer on the night finishing with 12 and connecting on two three-pointers.

“I think we’re more of a team this year, we came together really good, stretched the defense and I really think that helped us down the stretch”, continued Pizza, “It’s a great statement game”.

Although the Soaring Eagles pulled away with a big second period, Judge Memorial stepped up its defensive intensity in the second half and made Juan Diego fight and claw for the victory until the very end. Every time that Judge drew close, Pizza and Juan Diego had the answer.

Myaer led the way for the Bulldogs with 12 points while big man, Will Whitt controlled the paint with 11 points and an impressive 17 rebounds… but the gritty, “fight ‘til the end” effort of Judge Memorial came up just short as Pizza watched the clock tick to zero and proceeded to toss the ball up to the ceiling as the Soaring Eagles prevailed 40 to 36 against their long-time nemesis.

For Coach Tangaro who spent nearly 30 years as a coach at Judge before making the transition to Head Coach at Juan Diego, the night was especially gratifying. “It’s always a great rivalry but we’ve been ending on the short end of the stick, and this year bounces finally went our way,” he said with a huge smile. “It’s a very special win for us”.

Juan Diego finally did got that monkey off their back.