FRIDAY NIGHT PREPS: Catholic dominates in 35th straight victory in regular season

B.J. Bedgood looks for running room in Catholic’s win over St. James on Friday. (Tim Gayle)

By TIM GAYLE

It might not have gone quite according to script, but Catholic’s 35th consecutive regular-season victory was impressive enough for the defending Class 4A state champions.

First, the Knights’ starting quarterback, Kingston Preyear, was sidelined by a broken finger earlier in the week. Then a pair of miscues on special teams led to a pair of St. James’ touchdowns before the Knights finally relied on a pair of newcomers to pull away for a 42-14 victory at Carlisle Field in the season opener for both teams.

Josh Harriel, in his first varsity game as a Catholic running back, rushed for 155 yards and a pair of touchdowns on 13 carries. BJ Bedgood, in his first varsity game as a Catholic receiver, caught five passes for 77 yards and a pair of touchdowns as the explosiveness of both players showed in the second quarter, helping the Knights take control of the game with three touchdowns in five offensive plays.

“Josh Harriell’s coming in, he’s young but he’s a dog,” said quarterback JJ Williams, who threw for three touchdowns and ran for another. “BJ, he’s confident in his game, fast, throw him the ball and he’ll catch it. He’s very reliable.

“We’re getting there, It’s not where we want it, but we’re getting there.”

And the school’s historic first-ever game as a Class 5A team, thanks to a bump up in classification from Competitive Balance Factor, produced the biggest margin of victory over St. James since 1989 in the first meeting between the two schools since Aubrey Blackwell, then the coach at Catholic, secured the region title with a 7-6 victory over the Trojans in 2017. 

Since then, Blackwell led the Knights to the finals, Kirk Johnson took over as head coach after Blackwell left for another job and Blackwell returned in March as the Trojans’ new coach, setting up an emotional season opener for both teams.

“It’s great seeing a lot of these guys, especially the (former players) who played for me at Catholic,” Blackwell said. “But this isn’t about me and Kirk, it’s about these young men and making them better people every day and using this game of football to do it.”

Two of the young men in the spotlight on Friday night were quarterbacks Chase Perry and Williams, stepping in for two dynamic four-year starters who are now in college. Perry, earning his first start in replacing KJ Jackson, was harrassed by one of the state’s top defenses all night and completed 6 of 19 passes for 104 yards and a touchdown but was intercepted three times.

Williams, stepping in as a replacement for Caleb McCreary, completed 17 of 22 passes for 219 yards and three touchdowns and added 22 yards and a touchdown on five carries.   

“JJ is a swiss army knife and we’ll play him where we need him,” Johnson said. “I thought he did enough in this hectic week. He did what we needed to do, got a win and we’re good.”

Perry’s first interception, coming on a tipped pass, led to a 17-yard run by Harriell five plays into the game, but the Trojans’ defense kept the game close despite the offense’s struggle to pick up any yardage. In the second quarter, a 44-yard Bedgood sprint down the sideline on a short reception, a 69-yard run by Harriell and a 17-yard scoring reception by Bedgood following another interception made it 28-7 at the half.

Harriell had 109 of Catholic’s 111 rushing yards on four carries in the first half, while St. James’ starting tailback, Conner Pruitt, had six carries for minus eight yards.

“I feel like we played pretty good overall,” said Catholic defensive lineman KJ Washington. “I think we could have prepared more on the defensive side. We were a little unprepared but we got into the loop and just kept playing. Some of the adjustments and fits on the back side, we just needed a little more help with it.

“Up front, we put pressure on (Perry) and that’s what we were told to do. Don’t be selfish, let the game be.”

St. James got one touchdown on a 24-yard pass from Perry to Craig Mason following a fumbled punt return by the Knights, then picked up another when Bass Ford recovered a fumble in the end zone after the ball was snapped over Catholic punter Matthew Russo’s head.

The Trojans’ other nine possessions resulted in just 82 yards before the reserves played much of the fourth quarter.

“They played really good up front and we knew we were going to have some struggles trying to block them,” Blackwell said. “They’re really big with their interior four. We tried a lot of things early, different sets, but we came into the game wanting to keep the snaps in each half around 50 to 55 and in the first half we ended up playing 80. We just don’t have the numbers to play that many snaps.”

Blackwell tried to counter the high number of snaps by calling timeouts late in the first and third periods in order to rest his players, most of whom played both offense and defense.

“We’re really young and the guys we have that do have game experience, we’re having to count on them on both sides of the ball,” Blackwell said. “We’re hoping we can grow up some more kids and get some more guys on the field in the next three or four weeks.”

St. James finished the game with 6 rushing yards on 21 carries, playing the entire first and third quarters without a first down as the dominating Catholic defense took the pressure off its inexperienced offense.

“That’s the only thing that matters,” Johnson said. “When we get hit in the mouth, how do we respond? I thought we responded really, really well. Had our back against the wall a couple of times and did what we needed to do.”

On the other hand, he wasn’t happy after witnessing 16 penalties for 150 yards.

“Very, very sloppy on our behalf,” Johnson said. “I think we had five touchdowns called back (for penalties). We’ve got to be better in that regard, for sure.

“It’s the first game of the season, so you never know what you’re going to get. I know that Aubrey was going to coach his butt off and their team was going to play their tails off. I knew that going into it, but you didn’t know what sets you were going to get, what defense you were going to see because it’s been eight years. We just knew at the end of the day we wanted to be victorious.”

He did, thanks to his versatile receiver turned quarterback.

“At first I was going to play receiver, but our starting QB went down and I had to fill in the spot,” Williams said. “I just put my shoes on, came in and did my thing.” 

Catholic (1-0) returns home to play its 2024 home opener against St. Clair County next Friday, while St. James (0-1) travels to Montgomery Academy.

 “The biggest thing I was proud of is how hard our guys played the game,” Blackwell said. “I thought there were a lot of guys that were trying to find a way to get back in. In a really physical, tough football game, a lot of times high school guys, especially their first night, they get hit a little, its physical, it’s fast and a lot of guys are like, ‘I don’t know if I want to go back out,’ but I had guys that wouldn’t let me take them off the field.”