Story on this game from the Record ... CLICK
HERE
Indeed, St. Mary's kept shooting themselves in the foot with the TERRIBLE snaps in the shotgun position. Why they did not turn to just receiving the snap under center after just a few snafu's is beyond me. The worst snap, and maybe not the one causing the longest loss of yardage came in the 4th quarter when the Rams completed a long pass to get within Central Catholic's 15 yard line, knocking on the door to tie the game. Instead, the snap over SM QB Alegre sailed over his head and now the Rams were backed up on the Raiders' 40 yard line. Give credit to Central Catholic. They made the necessary adjustments at halftime to stop the Rams' aerial attack, which was working wonders in the first half after SM struggled to run the ball. The call on 3rd and 14 by Central Catholic to seal the game with Petlansky going to the air for an 80 yard TD was the nail in the coffin. It appeared the Rams were still expecting run, but with two receivers sprinting downfield the safety was caught in the middle with no help and played eenie-meanie-minie-moe in deciding who to cover. The pass was delivered nicely and the game was virtually over. The CC coaches and entire team was celebrating heavily on the sidelines and on the field. They even received an excessive celebration penalty that was assessed on the kickoff. St. Mary's indeed looked worned down in the 2nd half and completely discouraged as Central Catholic gained a 1st down on 4th and 2 deep in their territory with under a couple minutes to play. CC followed with the victory formation, and the rest is history.
This game really was a night where the Raiders from Central Catholic were more blessed than the Rams from St. Mary's. It appeared Central Catholic had a priest or deacon working as the water boy and you would swear the Raiders had the edge, possibly drinking some of that holy water. LOL! They fumbled a few times, but each time recovered their own fumble. The last fumble from the Raiders fullback fell into the hands of their RB who rumbled in for a 25 yard TD to take the lead in the second half. As reported, Petlansky picked his own number and scored the next TD on an end around keeper, and then later threw the nice 80 yard TD pass to seal the victory, putting the Raiders on top by 2 TD's.
Early on CC had the momentum as SM could not stop CC's run game. CC would stop SM on back-to-back series on downs. SM appeared to have negative yardage. Again, much due to the bad snaps that haunted them early. I thought it was going to be a long night for SM. But, they bounced back turning to the aerial attack and stole the momentum. But, with QB issues, more bad snaps, the 2nd half just wasn't theirs. Hopefully, starting QB junior Jake Dunniway returns next week when SM hosts SI in a revenge match.
To all the Pick'em participants, I tried to help and hint that CC was going to win this game. In all honesty, it appeared I might have been wrong after SM's performance late 1st half. But, the game is 4 quarters, and in the 2nd half, CC wore out SM's defense, SM's offense was a no show, and another Pick'em game hits a lot of pickers hard. Oh well.
Congrats to Central Catholic with the victory. The Holy Bowl trophy is yours for this year. Please keep it shiny for it to return to St. Mary's next year. Thanks!
Good game to both teams!
