CLASS 5A: Holtville latest victim of Catholic dominance

BJ Bedgood spins away from Holtville Bryant Boone (16) and Arkevious Turner (4) in Catholic’s win over the Bulldogs on Friday. (Tim Gayle)

By TIM GAYLE

Since taking over as head football coach at Catholic in 2021, Kirk Johnson has established a standard of play for first-round playoff games.

The Knights score a lot. Their opponents do not.

Catholic continued the tradition on Friday, rolling past Holtville 52-0 for the Knights’ eighth consecutive first-round playoff win.

“It’s a testament to our coaches,” senior cornerback Rickie Williams said. “Coach ‘J’ comes in every day with the same intensity. He won’t let the standard go down. The others guys beside him -- Coach Tre (Wilson), Coach Sawyer (Kendrick), Coach Jeremy (Johnson) -- all of those guys won’t let the standard down. Then it’s us as players, holding each other accountable, making sure we’re not skipping the reps, make sure we’re going hard in practice. If we mess up, making sure we correct it.”

Catholic, which started that run in Class 3A, has moved up because of Competitive Balance Factor and on Friday won its first-ever Class 5A playoff game against the Bulldogs.

“It’s just playing hard and playing our brand of football,” Williams said. “It doesn’t matter who we play -- big, small, fast, physical -- we’re just playing our ball.”

It was the Knights’ 25th consecutive victory, including 14 shutouts in that span. Over Johnson’s four years as a head coach, Catholic has outscored its first-round playoff opponents 197-27.

The domination of Holtville was so thorough, the Catholic starters only surrendered 23 total yards and one first down before leaving the game at the end of the third quarter. Holtville, which was playing its best ball over the last three weeks to qualify for the state playoffs, put together a solid defensive effort in the first half but had no answer for the speed of the Knights on either side of the ball.

“They were good defensively,” Johnson said. “Coach (Cory) Lee is known for his good defenses, being a part of (coaching staffs at) Prattville and Pike Road, and we knew they were going to give us some different things. But we also knew we had to make some adjustments. The mix between (tailbacks) Giovanni Hayner and Josh Harriell is a really good ‘Thunder and Lightning’ type situation. Every tackle you make on Gio, he’s bruising you, then you put the ‘slicer’ in there in Josh and he makes you miss. It’s a really good combination.”

It was the first playoff game for Catholic freshman quarterback Kingston Preyear as well. After the first drive ended with a JP Costa field goal, the final seven directed by the freshman all found the end zone.

“I was a little nervous before the game, but after the first snap, we got out there and got the offense rolling,” Preyear said. “We drove the ball down the field. We didn’t score (a touchdown) on the first drive but that’s playoff football. We’re not going to score on every first drive now.”

On the next drive, he hit Michael Sheffield with a 44-yard touchdown pass; Harriell ran 26 and 40 yards for touchdowns and his 48-yard run set up a Hayner 2-yard touchdown run on the next play; and Sheffield reeled in a 70-yard touchdown pass for a 38-0 halftime lead.

“I was just going through my reads and getting the ball to my playmakers,” Preyear said.

A Zaylon Jackson run and a JJ Williams catch added two more third-quarter touchdowns.

Preyear completed 17 of 19 passes for 333 yards and three touchdowns, with Sheffield gaining 159 of those yards on just four receptions. Harriell rushed for 118 yards and two touchdowns on eight carries, while Hayner had 67 yards and a touchdown on 12 carries.

Defensively, Gavin Phelan had seven tackles, including one for loss; Jo Pierce had five tackles, including two for loss; and Dylan Rogers had four tackles, including two for loss.

Catholic (10-0) will travel to Citronelle (9-2) for the second round of the 5A playoffs next week. Holtville ends the season at 4-6.

The Bulldogs finished with three first downs and 60 total yards. Daishaun Zeigler led Holtville with 24 yards on 12 carries.