Spalding pulls away in second half
Offensive line, running game lead Cavaliers to victory
Archbishop Spalding scheduled Broadneck for a reason. Cavaliers coach Kyle Schmitt wouldn’t have entertained the idea and passed on the opportunity to play another private school, if he didn’t think the Bruins had what it took to compete.
For a half Friday night, Broadneck went toe-to-toe with the MIAA A Conference powerhouse program.
But Spalding is Spalding — and they showed why in the final two quarters on the way to a convincing 44-13 victory.
The Cavaliers erupted for four touchdowns
and a safety in the second half of a clash of public versus private schools to turn a 14-13 lead at the break into the 31-point win.
Spalding quarterback Nick Gutierrez felt the win personally. After all, Broadneck quarterback Josh Ehrlich and quite a few of the Bruins made up the Cape youth football team that rallied and swiped the Division I youth football crown away from him and
the Crofton Football Club when he was a kid. Revenge made for a nice little bonus.
“We remember those things. I remember that game like it was yesterday,” said Gutierrez, who rushed for 98 yards on 14 carries.
Spalding (2-0) controlled the line of scrimmage in the latter quarters, making it impossible for the Bruins to put together much of anything. With sets of legs such as Gutierrez and Jordan Harris careening through those open pockets, an exhausted Broadneck struggled to stop the torrent of Spalding offense.
“The O-line wants it. You can see it; our program is really build by the guys up front, on both sides,” Schmitt said. “…Our guys up front are the heart and soul of the program.”
Despite the end result, the Bruins thoroughly impressed Schmitt. The coach pulled Ehrlich, who had 138 passing yards under his belt by the second half, to tell him that he was “a baller.”
“These guys are going to be a force to be reckoned with in Anne Arundel County,” Schmitt said. “I think we have a good team and we wore them down in the second half. If they play us later in the season, it could’ve been different.”
Broadneck’s first-half performance encouraged Harris.
“We really like what we saw with our skill guys. We feel really good about our team; our team’s loaded,” Harris said. “But that’s Kyle’s team. He’s been building this moment for three years, and everybody knows it. … We’ve been looking forward to this year as well. They were just better than us.”
Spalding’s offense cut their teeth on Augustine Prep last Friday, and they looked plenty warm in the first quarter. Led by Guttierez and running back Jordan Harris, the Cavaliers quickly mounted a 14-0 lead.
Schmitt promised a Spalding defense better than any that had come before, at least in the last decade.
That unit came out as advertised, as the Cavaliers held Broadneck to three yards on the team’s first drive and forced a fumble on the second, recovered by junior Jourdin Brown.
But before that second drive ended in a turnover, Ehrlich and his receivers had begun falling in step with one another. Over and over again, Ehrlich carved swathes of air to receivers such as Davion White and sophomore Eli Harris, who became a breakout star in the short spring season by leading the county for receiving yards.
Ehrlich released a rare misfire two plays into Broadneck’s third drive — a good, clean pass down the middle to White that fell incomplete.
Undeterred, the senior quarterback tried it again. About 70 yards away stood White, waiting, and he caught the ball before high-tailing it the remaining 10 yards to put the Bruins on the board.
Broadneck rode that momentum to a second score before the half, as Harris hunted down another long rocket from Ehrlich and trotted in another touchdown, this one a 38-yard play.
“Our kryptonite right now is people beating us with the explosive play,” Schmitt said.
Frustration crackled on the Spalding sideline as the orange lettering on the scoreboard bore down on them, the once two-touchdown lead trimmed to a single point.
That would change in a big way when the Cavaliers emerged from halftime.
“We knew they had the momentum. We just had to bring it back and play our game,” Guttierez said.
“Our size rolled a little bit in the second half, and that’s what we wanted to do,” Schmitt said. “…Defense made the right adjustments and offense just had to finish.”
Right into the third quarter, the Spalding offensive line brutalized the Bruins, leaving plenty of room for their runners — Gutierrez, Jordan Harris, and even sophomore Hakim Simms (9 carries for 67 yards) — parade freely towards the end-zone.
Gutierrez scored two rushing touchdowns, Harris one and the defense grabbed a safety. When Malik Washington pushed his way through the maroon line to cross the plane, the freshman glowed with so much joy for his first high school touchdown that he asked the official if he could keep the ball.
“It’s awesome seeing the young kids — the unknown of the group right now are the juniors and sophomores,” Schmitt said, “that you just kind of want to see what they can do. We needed an atmosphere like tonight to see if they can play, and I thought they answered.”
On the other side, Broadneck’s offense ran out of gas and was held scoreless during the second half.
“I think we left a few plays on the field, but at the end of the day, they wore us down,” Rob Harris said. “You know what? They’ve got a big, long, strong team.”