SPRING FOOTBALL: Catholic, Tallassee battle in Jamboree
Tallassee quarterback Tyler Ellis fights off the tackle of Catholic’s Jaevon Augustus during the Spring Jamboree at J.E. “Hot” O’Brien Stadium on Friday. (Tim Gayle)
By TIM GAYLE
TALLASSEE -- The things first-year Catholic coach Kirk Johnson wanted to see out of his team Friday didn’t necessarily translate to the scoreboard.
He wanted to see his offense develop under the leadership of its quarterback, he was looking for some team chemistry out of his defense and he was hoping for a big-play receiver to replace graduated seniors DJ Carter and Miles Butler.
Whether the Knights have all those intangibles will be determined in games this fall, but fans had to be impressed with what they witnessed on Friday night as Catholic went out and put on an impressive display in a 34-0 shutout of Tallassee at J.E. “Hot” O’Brien Stadium in a spring game that wrapped up practice for both teams.
For fans, the spring game is a hopeful sign of continuation or departure from the previous season. Catholic, which reached the 3A championship game last season, picked up where it left off with 387 offensive yards on offense and a defense that pitched a shutout and held the Tigers to five first downs and 56 total yards.
Class 5A Tallassee, which struggled through a COVID season that included a stoppage of play and two forfeits in a 3-7 season because of it, didn’t make a first down until late in the first half, finishing the first half with minus three rushing yards.
Tallassee’s big-play threat, Jalyn Daniels, was held to 22 yards on 11 carries. Catholic’s big-play threat, Jeremiah Cobb, ran for 101 yards on 13 carries, including an impressive 50-yard sprint to the end zone on Catholic’s second possession for the first points of the game.
“We wanted to see leadership out of our quarterback,” Johnson said. “Last year he was a freshman and he relied heavily on two older seniors who had been in our program for a long time, so that gave him a year to grow up.
“We also wanted to see if we could find a big-play receiver, if we could find a vertical threat. We knew we had Jeremiah Cobb and we feel good about our offensive line but we’ve got to have somebody who can help us stretch the field and make plays in space and he showed us something there.”
Kyon Griffin, a defensive back-turned-receiver, showed some flashes of being that guy when Caleb McCreary threw him a 50-50 ball down the left sideline and Griffin snatched the ball away from Tallassee defender James Bender and jogged the remaining 10 yards to complete a 53-yard touchdown play.
Jalen Rose added another touchdown on a 10-yard slant-in from McCreary with 3:39 remaining and the Knights added a field goal for a 24-0 halftime lead.
“Rose was hurt most of the spring, too,” Johnson said. “We limited him tonight. He’s grown up a lot. He’s a product of staying the course. He played DB last year and we moved him to running back and we moved him to receiver.”
Reserve tailback E.J. Babies opened the second half with five carries for 40 yards, McCreary added a 30-yard run and Cobb ran 4 and 6 yards to the end zone to give Catholic a 31-0 lead that finished the day for the starters.
The defensive reserves continued their job in preserving the shutout, allowing the Tigers just three first downs and 38 total yards in their four second-half possessions.
“Defensively, we just wanted to see the comraderie,” Johnson said. “We have to find the best 11. We’re linebacker-heavy so we need some D-linemen and played ‘Bull’ (TJ Dudley) at safety.”
Dudley and fellow linebacker Pat Ryan had three tackles each, while Jaevon Augustus led the defensive effort with six tackles and a pair of sacks and Jamarion Augustus had two tackles for loss.
“Coach ‘Mac’ (Heath McCray) has done a good job of grooming them into D-linemen,” Johnson said. “They were receivers turned into D-linemen. They have fast-twitch muscles, are long and can play well in space.”
Javontae Carvin led Tallassee with five tackles, followed by Zavion Carr and Bender with four tackles each.