Central Catholic cruises to D-11 football crown
Central Catholic’s size too much for Northwestern Lehigh in rout
Matt Rauscher, above, ran for touchdowns of 5 and 3 yards and threw a 50-yard score in the game’s first 14 minutes as Allentown Central Catholic cruised to a 28-0 halftime score and then won its first District 11 championship since 2012 with a 35-6 victory Thursday night over Northwestern at Whitehall’s Zephyr Stadium.
It came much easier the second time around.
Matt Rauscher ran for touchdowns of 5 and 3 yards and threw a 50-yard score in the game’s first 14 minutes and Central Catholic cruised to its first District 11 championship since 2012 with a 35-6 victory Thursday night over Northwestern at Whitehall’s Zephyr Stadium.
The Vikings needed a big second-half comeback and a last-second timeout waved off in last year’s district semifinal to beat the Tigers.
There was no such drama as coach Tim McGrorry’s club dominated from the start and didn’t punt on its way to its 12th district title.
Jayden Williams ran for 182 yards and two scores. His 33-yard burst on the first offensive play of the second half gave him 1,000 for the season. The senior’s 10-yard scoring run with 7:17 left in the third quarter put the game in the mercy rule.
Central Catholic scored on its first five possessions.
Once too many
Northwestern fell into a pattern this season of giving up the game’s first score. The Tigers recovered all but once (Week 2 loss to Berks Catholic) until Thursday.
Central Catholic scored on all four 1st-half possessions to build a 28-0 cushion at halftime.
Northwestern twice got into Central Catholic territory, including a firstand-goal at the 9 in the final minute of the second quarter, but came up empty.
Defensive presence
Senior Mason Maxsim made several stellar defensive plays in the first half for Central Catholic. Hehad two tackles for loss, including one on Northwestern’s Nick Henry on a bad punt snap.
That led to Rauscher’s 50-yard TD pass to McGrorry on the Vikings’ next offensive play.
He also had an interception called back because of a personal foul call.
Maxsim also batted down a fourth
down pass in the end zone on the last play of the second quarter to keep the Tigers off the scoreboard.
Injury updates
Nick Henry returned to Northwestern’s lineup after missing the second half of quarterfinal win over Lehighton two weeks ago with a pulled quad. Ryan McDonnell also returned from a injury suffered in practice leading up to the Lehighton contest.
Justin Rodda, the Tigers’ leading receiver, did not dress after suffering a broken clavicle in a regular-season win over Salisbury.
Juan Torres and Lavon Johnson suffered leg injuries on Central Catholic’s final defensive series of the first half. Both returned in the third quarter.
In the spirit
Senior Owen Coffield leads Northwestern onto the field each week with an American flag in his hands. It’s a special moment for him each week. It soon will be part of his future.
After graduation the 5-foot-9, 150-pound, two-way starter will join the Army.
Coffield led the Tigers with 71 tackles (entering Thursday’s game), tackles for loss (12) and sacks (5). He also has one of Northwestern’s four blocked kicks.
First-year quarterback Justin Holmes became the second Northwestern quarterback with at least 1,000 yards rushing and 1,000 passing in a season, joining his friend Deven Bollinger who had more than 1,000 rushing and more than 2,000 passing last season.
Holmes reached the mark with a 6-yard run for a first down early in the second quarter.
The junior finished Thursday with 118 rushing yards and 92 passing. He has 1,080 rushing yards for the season, 1,425 passing.