You know you’ll get a hard-hitting brawl when two Catholic League teams get together, but it’s even better when both teams are defending state champions. That’s exactly what we had when the Warren De La Salle Pilots met the Fighting Irish of Toledo Central Catholic. With Central Catholic taking this one 28-23.
Mirror Images
Both De La Salle and Central Catholic are mirror images of each other. Both teams have a strong defensive front that can get to the Quarterback, the secondaries are both fast and can hang with the receivers, and they center the offensive attack off of the run, which opens up the passing game. While Central Catholic was able to run it with more consistency, that could be due to the fact that De La Salle had to use new Running Backs following an injury to Rhett Roeser.
Toledo Central Catholic
Ground and Pound
Central Catholic had a plan to run the ball, and they did just that as they attacked De La Salle head-on. All four Central Catholic touchdowns were scored on the ground as both Marquan Braswell and Tyler Morgan each had two scores. However, Braswell was the lead back, as he had 28 carries for 163 yards and two scores. Morgan acted as a change of pace back, carrying the ball four times for 28 yards and two scores. That ground game also included receiver Jaylen Watson, who tallied 14 yards. However, the ground game opened Watson up in the slot to gain 102 yards on six catches.
De La Salle
Lethal Weapons
The Pilots of De La Salle have many weapons for Junior Quarterback Sante Gasperoni, from Damion King and Phoenix Glassnor on the outside to Mike Lopez running the ball or the emergence of Joey Montilla late in the game, scoring two touchdowns on four catches to go along with 60 yards. Gasperoni has the tools to do it with both his arm and his legs, and he showed it in the game versus Central Catholic as he passed for 307 yards and two touchdowns and ran for 24 yards. Mike Lopez was filling in for star Running Back Rhett Roeser, out due to injury, and he did a good job scoring a touchdown and running for 29 yards. Lopez also pulled in three catches for 58 yards.
Kicking Woes
This game could very well have had a different outcome, as the Pilots missed two field goals in this one. The first miss came after an early fumble that had the Pilots set up in the Central Catholic 30-yard line. The second missed field goal came as time expired in the first half to keep them down 14-7 going into the half. However, head coach Dan Rohn kept the faith in his kicker and sent him out in the first drive of the second half to knock through a field goal. If one or both of the earlier attempts had gone in, we could be talking about a different outcome.