In its first foray into the Michigan-based Catholic High School League, Central Catholic got a 42-21 Central Division victory over Detroit Catholic Central on Friday night at Gallagher Stadium.
Scoring on their first four possessions, the Fighting Irish (3-0, 1-0) set the tone early in winning their 18th straight game.
“I like the way we competed against a big, strong team with a lot of kids,” Irish coach Greg Dempsey said. “That's a very disciplined and very good squad, and we saw our first glimpse of the new league.”
The Irish grabbed an early 20-0 lead, withstood a strong challenge from the Shamrocks (1-1, 0-1), then capitalized on a crucial DCC turnover to retake the game's momentum.
The 2022 Ohio Division II state champions got a balanced effort offensively, topping the visiting Shamrocks in total yardage, 447-279. It was Central's fifth straight win over DCC dating back to 2005, and the Irish hold an 11-7-1 edge in the all-time series against the 10-time Michigan state champions.
At the forefront of the Central attack was senior quarterback Terry Collins, who was 9 of 9 for 156 yards passing, and carried 10 times for 31 yards and a score.
“I'm not going to say it's easy, but I just got to do it,” Collins said of his third varsity start. “The run game was good. We hit a couple passes but, if the run game's there, we've got to take it. We just had to come out and play.
On the ground, Central senior Marquan Braswell topped the Irish with 156 yards on 22 carries, including a 6-yard touchdown run to begin the scoring 1:11 into the game.
His backfield mate, junior Tyler Morgan, had 95 yards on 18 attempts, scoring on runs of 1, 5, and 18 yards.
Central's other TD came from senior wideout Jaylen Watson, a 1-yard carry out of a wildcat formation that capped the game's most pivotal stretch with 2:42 left in the third quarter.
After falling behind 20-0 on Morgan's first TD 5:44 before halftime, the Shamrocks regrouped to get within 39 yards of scoring the go-ahead points midway in the third.
DCC got second-quarter scores on a 59-yard pass from Beau Jackson to Lee Krueger, and on Kameron Lloyd's 15-yard TD run 16.3 seconds before halftime to pull within 27-14 at the break.
The Shamrocks cut the deficit to 27-21 on the opening possession of the third quarter, marching 73 yards and scoring on Jackson's 12-yard pass to Cael Rogowski with 6:44 left in that quarter.
The DCC defense forced the first Central punt of the game, a 39-yard kick that was returned 46 yards to the Irish 39 by Samson Gash.
But, on the next play, Lloyd fumbled and Central's Davontae Wright-Ward recovered at the 41.
Rejuvenated by the momentum-swinging turnover, Collins found sophomore receiver Sharard Vaughn on a 53-yard completion down the left sideline.
“We were opportunistic at that point,” Dempsey said. “That was the swing play of the game – the turnover after the big punt return. We had them pinned back and didn't make the tackle, and their kid made a great play.
“Something simple goes our way after they hadn't made a mistake all night. We took advantage of it. Coach [assistant Rob] Garber called that [pass] play, and Collins and Vaughn did a great job executing it.”
The long completion set up Watson's TD. A successful conversion pass from Collins to Vaughn put the Irish up 35-21 with 2:42 left in the third, and DCC never again threatened.
“I knew I just had to step up for my defense.” Collins said.
Jackson was 10 of 20 passing for 153 yards with two touchdowns.
“Against a team like that, you've got to come out and not hurt yourself,” DCC head coach Justin Cessante said. “We made some early mistakes, and the second quarter was more of the game we wanted to play.
“We had the momentum [in third quarter] and, unfortunately, we coughed up the football, and that really changed things. That's a very good football team and you've got to tackle better. But, you win or learn. We're not going to take that as a loss. We're going to take that to get better.”
First Published September 2, 2023, 3:22 a.m.
