dolphinmagic: Central 12, Shawnee 7

Central feeds on Shawnee mistakes

Shawnee dominates the box score, but the young Irish turn turnovers into points.

Saturday, August 23, 2008

SPRINGFIELD — It was just an off-handed comment at the end of one of 191 interviews Catholic Central veteran head coach Steve DeWitt has given after a victory, but it was right to the point.

"It's nice to be able to score on a short field," DeWitt said.

Indeed. After being dominated in the first half everywhere but on the scoreboard, the youthful Irish capitalized on numerous Shawnee mistakes and beat the Braves on their home field, 12-7, in their season opener on Friday night, Aug. 22.

Shawnee opened the game by shoving the ball down the Irish's throats with a punishing ground attack. The Braves went 75 yards in just a little over four minutes and jumped out to a 7-0 lead on a 2-yard run by Phil Ulery.

After a Central punt, it was more of the same for Shawnee with gains of 9, 10, 11 and 7 yards before they fumbled the ball away on their own 40-yard line.

It would be an omen of things to come for Shawnee.

"When you look at the second half, we were still getting 5 yards a pop every time, then would get a penalty or fumble the ball away," said Braves coach Rick Meeks. "I don't want to take any credit from them, but we beat up on them all night."

The stats bore that out. Shawnee had 116 rushing yards in the first quarter alone, 173 at the half and 244-92 for the game.

But Central, which started three freshmen and four sophomores, and had only two players overall playing the same positions they did for last year's Division VI state semifinalist team, moved the ball when it counted.

Thanks to the passing and running of senior quarterback Brendan Kelly, the Irish opened the second half with an 11-play, 77-yard scoring drive, capped by a 2-yard run from Pat Sheehan. But the kick failed, leaving the Braves up 7-6.

It took Shawnee two plays to fumble the ball back to Central on the Shawnee 28. Then it took the Irish just three plays to make the Braves pay, on a 21-yard TD pass from Kelly to Ryan Tumblinson.

The scoring would be done, but not the Shawnee mistakes. The Braves had two key holding penalties that stalled drives and fumbled the ball away one more time. And the young Irish? Just 29 strong, they hung in there.

"There's a lot to be said about the leadership we have," DeWitt said. "Kelly showed the way all night, and Sheehan played hard both ways trying to fill the shoes of Brian Wagner. We knew we had to force some fumbles, and we were able to do just that. We're just glad to get a victory, especially here."

Brendan #10