CCC FOOTBALL: Catholic uses big second half to pull away from Alabama Christian
Catholic quarterback Caleb McCreary breaks open to score a touchdown in the Knights’ win over ACA on Friday. (Josh Griffin)
STAFF REPORT
The rain stopped early in the first quarter, but a saturated field made it unlikely that either Catholic or Alabama Christian would throw the ball.
That was just fine with Catholic quarterback Caleb McCreary, who was content to pick apart the ACA defense with his feet.
“We practice hard regardless of the weather and we’ve had some days like this,” McCreary said. “I guess it worked out in our favor. I like the wet games. I like when it’s muddy.”
McCreary carried the ball just six times, but he tallied 179 yards and four touchdowns to propel the Knights to a 49-12 win over the Eagles and their 26th consecutive regular-season victory on Friday.
The senior, a Troy commitment, has more rushing yards (241) this season than passing yards (142) and is nearing the 10,000- total yard career mark, needing just 234 yards next week against Booker T. Washington to achieve that goal.
“I told Caleb before the season we have to win with whatever it takes,” Catholic coach Kirk Johnson said. “Sometimes, the air isn’t going to be there. He’s nursing a bunch of new receivers. He’s learning how to be a leader.”
McCreary’s leadership was evident in the second quarter when the Eagles scored a touchdown to trim the deficit to 21-12. McCreary responded with runs of 35 and 58 yards the next two times he carried the ball, finishing both plays in the end zone to give Catholic a 35-12 halftime lead.
“We just put the exclamation point on the game,” McCreary said. “We just showed the state of Alabama we can still do it and it’s no fluke. We’re still the standard and we’re still going to play ball.”
Alabama Christian Academy coach Michael Summers was pleased with the way his team played early, but McCreary’s second-quarter surge made the second half unnecessary as the reserves played much of the second half with a running clock.
“I told the kids before the game, in order to beat Mike Tyson, you’ve got to get in the ring with Mike Tyson,” Summers said. “They’re really good, they’re really talented. I liked the way our kids came out. I didn’t think we finished well.
“We’ve got nine new starters on defense, 11 on offense. Whenever you play them, it’s almost like you’re playing 12 guys. They’re one of the best teams in 4A, but we ain’t in 4A.”
A shanked punt gave the Eagles the ball on the Catholic 25-yard line midway through the first quarter and quarterback AC Walters ran through the heart of the Knight defense to the end zone for a 6-0 lead.
“We think AC’s going to be a good player,” Summers said. “It’s his first game at quarterback. I feel like he did really well. That was a really good play call. That was something we saw on film that we could do, reading a guy that you normally wouldn’t read and he hit it. He made the right read.”
Two plays later, the Knights were in front 7-6 on a 60-yard run by McCreary and an extra point by Joseph Reeves.
“We need to learn how to face adversity early in the season so we can respond,” Johnson said. “We knew ACA was a good team. We didn’t have a lot of film on them. We shank a punt, give them the ball on the 25-yard line and they score. We have to learn how to get a stop, hold them to a field goal. But we responded (on offense) pretty well, went down and scored and made it 7-6 and kind of took off from there.”
The next two drives featured scoring runs by Josh Griffin, who finished with 150 yards and two touchdowns on eight carries, and McCreary for a 21-6 lead, but David Ortiz-Ramirez countered with an 83-yard touchdown sprint down the right sideline to make it 21-12.
“First of all, if you fit it up right (defensively), it doesn’t happen,” Johnson said. “Secondly, that’s a good play by that kid. We’ve got to run him down and live to play another play. We were lackadaisical. It’s good we’re getting these things in Week Two and not in Week 14.”
Thankfully for the Catholic defense, McCreary answered the challenge with a pair of long touchdown runs to settle the issue.
“We lost the ability to tackle there late in the second quarter,” Summers said. “We’ve got to be able to set the edge and we didn’t do that after the first quarter.”
Ortiz-Ramirez had just 12 yards on 10 carries the remainder of the game, a reflection of how dominant the Knights were on defense except for the two touchdown plays.
“We always talk about adversity,” McCreary said. “We had to respond for our defense. They held McGill-Toolen to a goose egg last week. We’re going to cut them some slack on the 12 points.”
KJ Washington led the Catholic defense with seven tackles, including three for loss. Charlie Chappelle had five tackles, including a sack and a pair of tackles for loss, and Jo Pierce had five tackles, including one for loss.
William Milner led the ACA defense with six stops, followed by Lane Smith with five and Jaylan McCovery, Darrius Gardner and William Meeks with four each. ACA (0-1) returns home to play host to Lynn at Faulkner’s John Mark Stallings Field next Friday.