By james art In the most important stage of the season, Catholic High plays at its best.
The Bears won their fifth straight game and moved one step closer to another District 4-5A championship with a 42-0 rout of Woodlawn Friday night at Memorial Stadium.
The Bears (7-1, 4-0) can clinch the ultimate district championship when they travel to Zachary next week in the regular season finale. Zachary fell to Central 14-3 on Friday.
“For us, really before we start every year, the ultimate goal is to be the best team in the months of November and December and take an approach when that’s when we want to play our best football,” Catholic coach Hudson Fuller said. “This game next week gives us an opportunity to do that and really be at our best as we move forward into the most important part of the season.”
Sophomore running back Jayden Miles had two touchdowns and 113 yards rushing to lead a Catholic ground game that benefited from a short field most of the night. Seniors Rylan Parker and Jeremy Fisher also contributed rushing scores for the Bears.
“Just great work by our offensive line and execution by tight ends up front,” Fuller said. “It was a great job by our running backs, they took what they had, they were explosive and ready to play tonight.”
The Bears’ defense was also ready to play, contributing three touchdowns, including its first pick-six of the season.
“We had a hard time getting hits. We struggled to stop them,” said Woodlawn coach Scott Pellegrin, whose team fell to 3-6, 1-3. “Tonight was just their night. We didn’t do a lot of things right and that’s just the way it is.”
The Bears led 21-0 after the first quarter and 28-0 at halftime.
After moving the ball but coming up empty on their first drive of the game, the Bears used a quick offense and defense to pull away early.
Baylor quarterback Graves threw an 18-yard touchdown pass to Beau Thomas at 6:20. That’s when the Catholic defense went into action as senior Leighton Welch intercepted Woodlawn quarterback Ahmad Price and sprinted 26 yards to the end zone for a 14-0 lead.
On the Bears’ next possession, Miles broke through Panthers defenders on his way to a 22-yard touchdown and a 21-0 lead with 40 seconds left in the quarter.
Miles scored the Bears’ only score of the first half on a 2-yard touchdown run, making it 28-0 with 3:49 remaining.
On Woodlawn’s first possession of the second half, sophomore linebacker Jaden Wessel stripped Price and recovered the fumble at the Panthers’ 13.
Four plays later, Ryland Parker rushed for 6 yards to extend the lead to 35-0.
Early in the fourth quarter, Jeremy Fisher came up with a fourth-and-goal from the 1 to make it 42-0.
“I’ve got to do a better job of getting the kids ready,” Pellegrin said. That’s what it comes down to. We like our schemes. I like the things we do. I just have to do a better job of getting our guys ready to play.”