BACK TO BACK: Catholic holds off Moody to win Class 5A title
For the second consecutive year, Catholic takes home the blue trophy, this time as the Class 5A champions. (Drew Gayle)
By TIM GAYLE
BIRMINGHAM -- Giovanni Hayner’s journey through the 2024 football season was emblematic of the path his Catholic football team took.
The more the senior running back was dismissed or overlooked, the more determined he became to prove everyone wrong.
Hayner rushed for 611 of his 1,068 yards in the playoffs, including a 126-yard performance against Moody that earned him most valuable player honors and gave the Knights a 17-14 win over the Blue Devils for the Class 5A state championship at Protective Stadium on Thursday night.
“The journey’s been tough,” Hayner said. “It’s been a wild ride. I was truly blessed. I just always showed up to work.”
“I’m proud of him,” Catholic coach Kirk Johnson said. “That’s what Catholic football looks like. His freshman year and sophomore year, he sat behind a guy at Auburn, Jeremiah Cobb. Then his junior year, he finally gets an opportunity and gets hurt and Josh Griffin steals the show. He never once complained, he just showed up every day, picking up weights and doing the little things.
“Nobody knows he was hurt at the start of this year. When he came back for game three, he was on and popping.”
Hayner’s first run, which covered 20 yards on the game’s first play from scrimmage, set up the second play, a perfect pass down the sideline from Kingston Preyear to BJ Bedgood that covered 52 yards and gave the Knights a 7-0 lead 27 seconds into the contest.
Catholic would score on two of its first three possessions, appearing to reach the end zone on a 29-yard run by Zaylon Jackson on the final play of the first quarter. Officials ruled Jackson was down just short of the goal and Miles Khatri scored two plays later out of Wildcat formation for a 14-0 lead.
“I think we were blinded by the lights a little bit,” Moody coach Jake Ganus said. “Losing (star receiver) Joe (Dozier a minute into the second quarter) really hurt the passing game. They were loading the box (to stop the run) but we came out in the second half and we got ‘heavy’ too and ran it and ran in successfully. I was really proud of the fight from the defense. Holding that team to 17 is tough.”
The Blue Devils (11-3) started swinging the momentum in their favor in the second quarter and outplayed the Knights in the third period, scoring on their first possession of the third quarter and two plays into the fourth quarter to tie the game at 14-14.
“We weren’t going to quit,” Ganus said. “That’s a team that if you do lay down, they’ll beat you by 40 like they do pretty much everyone else.”
But Moody still had the momentum in the fourth quarter and the Blue Devils, taking over at their 15-yard line with 9:35 remaining, started marching down the field on the Knights. Facing third down and a yard to go at the Moody 46, Kaleb Goff was stopped for no gain by KJ Washington. On fourth down, Goff got the ball again and was stopped again near the 47, but a Moody lineman emerged from the pile with the ball, still running toward the Catholic goal.
Officials marked the ball at the 47 and gave Moody a first down, but Johnson challenged the ruling on the field. Officials put the ball on the 46 and gave Moody another fourth-down run. Goff was stopped again for a yard loss, giving Catholic the ball.
“All I know is (referee Kip Powe) said he was short of the line, but he fumbled the ball forward so it was a first down,” Johnson said. “That doesn’t really make sense.”
Johnson won that appeal and a later one as well when officials originally gave Braden Wright a first down on a fourth-and-13 pass from Charlie Johnston, then reversed the call after reviewing replay and awarded Catholic a first down.
“I don’t think I can talk about the officiating,” Ganus said. “Very, very disappointed in the first one. It was a first down. They challenged the spot and then (the ruling was) an inadvertent whistle, which is not a challengable deal. I’m not sure about the replay, not necessarily sure how we’re able to determine if the ball is a first down or not with the sideline film.”
The first ruling gave Catholic the ball on the Moody 45 with 5:48 remaining and Hayner promptly ran 35 yards to put the ball deep in Blue Devil territory, leading to the game-winning field goal from J.P. Costa with 3:21 remaining.
The second ruling gave Catholic the ball with 2:21 remaining and the Knights were able to run the clock down to 1:12 before turning it over on downs. Four plays later, Charles Chappelle intercepted Johnston’s desperation heave on the game’s final play to help the Knights extend the state’s longest winning streak to 29 games with back-to-back state championships.
“Going back to back is a blessing,” Catholic senior linebacker Kam Miller said. “This group, I knew we were special from the start. It started off tough, but we bought into the program, we bought into the standard. It was built into us. The standard was something we knew from the start and all we had to do is get everybody else to buy in with us and we get results like this.”
Catholic ended the season at 14-0 with a 5A state title, a year after going 15-0 and winning a 4A championship.
“It means a lot,” Johnson said. “We read all the posts, we read all the comments, we see all the stuff. Our coaching staff takes a hit … but we coach our butts off and our kids show up and they work their butts off. To have the opportunity to play in two (championship games) as a head coach and win both of them? It’s life changing.”