SPRING FOOTBALL: Catholic, Homewood battle in low-scoring affair
Catholic’s Caleb McCreary eludes Homewood’s Trust Darnell during the spring scrimmage on Friday. (Tim Gayle)
By TIM GAYLE
In a spring game where offense was hard to find, Catholic junior KJ Washington made sure his sack of Homewood quarterback Will Myers helped his offensive teammates.
“He snapped the ball and I just got through the gap,” Washington said. “He was about to throw it and I knocked it down and tried to scoop and score.
Washington’s six-yard fumble return set up the Knights at the Homewood 15-yard line and quarterback Caleb McCreary scored the game’s only touchdown three plays later in a 7-0 Catholic victory that was cut short by a lightning delay.
Both teams struggled offensively in a pair of 10-minute quarters, with the Knights managing just 10 total yards and the Patriots getting the bulk of their offense on three second-quarter passes.
“I feel like we played pretty well on defense,” Washington said. “The offense could have come out and done a little better but we did pretty good overall.”
The teams had planned to play three 10-minute quarters with the fourth quarter dedicated to junior varsity play, but lightning drew near as the first half ended and both teams waited for nearly 50 minutes in the locker rooms before deciding to call off the second half.
“I hate it for them and for our kids,” Catholic coach Kirk Johnson said. “You’ve got spring to kind of get a look and you want everybody to get in and play and have a good time. I hate they got caught in traffic so the game started later and it took both of us a second to even get a feel for what was going on. You’re doing it for the kids, to have some fun, but it’s hard to have fun with two eight-minute quarters and a 45-hour delay.”
The first quarter was dominated by defense as Homewood managed eight yards on eight carries while Catholic had just three yards on nine offensive plays.
“Defense is a lot easier to go over in two weeks than offense,” Johnson pointed out. “You watch every all-star game and the offense struggles every time. Defensively, you’re kind of flying to the ball. Our D-line controlled the line of scrimmage the whole time and so did theirs. What I was most proud of, besides the D-line controlling the line of scrimmage, is our corners did really well.
“For the last couple of years, our DBs have been really good here. We’ve got some young guys (Ricky Williams and Jayden Phifer) and we’ve got to get them in the field.”
Catholic’s offense was already hampered by the loss of left tackle Ariyn Gilbert and right tackle Daniel Burns to injuries, in addition to having to face a larger group of Class 6A linemen. Sophomore tailback JJ Williams lost nine yards on two carries and McCreary ended up as the team’s leading rusher with seven yards on five carries as the Knights had the ball for just 15 plays before lightning robbed Johnson of at least another quarter to watch his offense perform.
“It’s a spring game,” he said. “You know they’re going to make mistakes. You want to see the kids flying around, having fun and you want to get everybody reps. And I hate we didn’t do that. But you’ve also got to protect the kids.”
Homewood tailback Evan Ausmer had just 10 yards on seven carries, while Myers was sacked four times, leaving him with minus one yard on nine carries.
The game concluded spring practice and while Johnson seemed satisfied in searching for replacements in the secondary, at linebacker and at running back, he said 10 days wasn’t nearly enough to find out what the 2023 edition of the Knights will look like this fall.
“When you dump the puzzle pieces out of the box, you’re trying to figure out what looks familiar, then you start plugging in pieces,” he said. “Some things will look familiar to you and you’ll feel good about, while others you’ll say, ‘I don’t know where that goes.’ That’s all we’re trying to do, in a 10-day practice, as quick as possible.”
Washington offered a positive assessment of spring practice.
“From the first day of spring practice, we all came out and had great competition and great hitting and I knew from that we were going to be pretty good in the spring,” Washington said. “We’ve got a lot of young guys but they’re stepping up and becoming better people.”
One piece of the puzzle Johnson doesn’t have to worry about is his star defensive end.
“He’s one of the better defensive linemen in the state of Alabama,” Johnson said of Washington. “He’s started every game since he was a freshman, he plays with a high motor, he’s very physical, he’s knowledgeable of the game, he can play end, he can play tackle, he can play nose, he can play ‘backer if we need him to. If he has a one-on-one, he has to win it. He’s that talented.”