Back to basics
By
John Grupp
TRIBUNE-REVIEW
Saturday, October 8, 2005
Whenever Central Catholic plays its annual game at Carnegie Mellon University, the players make a quarter-mile post-game jaunt to their high school.
Clad in full shoulder pads and uniforms, they walk down Forbes Avenue before making a right to the school on nearby Fifth.
On Friday night against No. 1 Woodland Hills, the Vikings ran before they walked. Junior tailback Lamont Smith rushed for 162 yards and two touchdowns to lead defending PIAA Class AAAA champion Central Catholic past Woodland Hills, 23-13, in a showdown of two Quad East powers.
Smith gained 115 yards in the second half, as No. 4 Central Catholic blanked Woodland Hills for the second two quarters to overcome a 13-9 halftime deficit. The victory is Central Catholic's fifth in a row since a season-opening loss to St. Edward (Ohio) and affirms that the Vikings (6-1, 5-0) are still among the WPIAL elite despite widespread losses to graduation from last year's 16-0 nationally-ranked state champion.
Woodland Hills tailback Marcel Farish, who entered the game as the second-leading rusher in the WPIAL Class AAAA, was held to 20 yards on 15 carries. Woodland Hills could gain little offense after Vondre Griffin returned the opening kickoff 94 yards for a touchdown and a 7-0 lead.
Central Catholic's ball-control game-plan in the second half came after assistant coach John Vaughan's impassioned halftime talk to his team, which had mustered only 66 rushing yards on 22 carries against in the first half.
"Coach Vaughan pounded his fist on the board and said we are going back to what we do," head coach Terry Totten said. "Me being the lunkhead that I am, I had all those tricks ready in the first half that didn't work. We went back to what we do. Running the ball."
Central Catholic came out of the locker room and drove 50 yards on nine consecutive running plays. Smith scored on a 15-yard run with 7:05 to play in the third quarter, following a block by 6-foot-6, 305-pound Pat Illig, to give Central Catholic the lead for good, 16-13. Dorian Hazlip, who returned a punt 48 yards for a touchdown in the first quarter to tie the score at 7-all, scooted 40 yards to midfield set up the drive.
Smith carried the ball on 16 of Central Catholic's 21 second-half plays. Woodland Hills (4-1, 6-1), the last WPIAL team to beat Central Catholic, in 2003, drove to the Vikings 35 on its next possession, but Central recorded two of the team's five sacks to end the drive. Two plays later, Smith, who has rushed for 1,153 yards and 11 touchdowns this season, broke free for a 49-yard run to the Woodland Hills 14. He scored on an 11-yard run for a 23-13 Central Catholic lead with 6:58 to play.
Woodland Hills had a chance late in the game when Derron Smith recovered a Lamont Smith fumble at the Central Catholic 34 with 2:34 to play. But Central Catholic sealed its 24th consecutive victory over a WPIAL opponent when senior linebacker Nate Williams intercepted Keith Howell's pass in the end zone with 1:18 to play. Casey Dunn and Jon Petrigac also had interceptions for Central Catholic.
After the game, the Vikings players ran over to the student section and celebrated with their fans before making walk down Forbes.
"It was amazing," Smith said. "It was incredible. The quarter-mile walk down Forbes Avenue and over to the high school."
Both teams used special team returns to score touchdowns in the first nine minutes of the game.
Griffin returned the opening kickoff 94 yards for a touchdown. Griffin broke free and raced down the sideline in front of the Woodland Hills bench for a 7-0 lead.
Less than four minutes later, Central Catholic's special teams evened it out on junior Hazlip's 48-yard punt return for a touchdown with 3:26 to play in the first quarter. Hazlip fielded Derron Smith's punt, sidestepped a couple of tacklers and sprinted into the end zone for his second punt return for a touchdown in as many weeks.
Central Catholic used another special teams breakdown - this time by the Woodland Hills punting team - to grab a 9-7 lead with 9:48 to play in the second quarter. Smith bobbled a low snap and Andrew Taglienetti and Chad Restori of Central Catholic sacked Smith in the end zone for the safety. A 60-yard punt by Vaughan - moments after the Central Catholic coaching staff called a time-out with two seconds left in the first quarter to keep the wind at their punter's back - set up the safety.
The Woodland Hills offense, held without a first down in its opening four possessions, finally struck late in the first half. Howell, who won his job back last week after sitting out for violating team rules,
completed a 19-yard pass to a diving Wes Lyons on a third-and-3 to the Central Catholic 42. On the next play, junior Devan Johnson got opened in the middle of the field and caught a 42-yard touchdown pass for a 13-9 lead with 1:28 to play in the first half. The two-point conversion failed.
Prior to that late first-half scoring drive, Woodland Hills, the highest-scoring team in the Quad East at 37 points per game, had managed no first downs and minus-four total yards.
Today, most of the players on the Central Catholic team will take another test - the SAT.
"They do a tremendous amount of mental work. They know sets and they recognize plays," Totten said. "They are smarter than we are. They are going to those schools that we couldn't get into."
John Grupp can be reached at [email protected] or (412) 320-7930.
