By DOUG IRELAND, Journal Sports
With a trip to the state championship game in the Caesars Superdome at stake, Landon Sylvie was all eyes.
He saw the eyes of Newman tight end Will Loerzel and quarterback Eli Friend. His eyes tracked Friend’s pass toward Loerzel and the Calvary end zone on fourth down from the Cavs’ 12 in the final minute, with the Greenies needing a touchdown and two-point conversion to force overtime.
The senior free safety stepped in front of Friend’s throw, snagged it and set sail up the Calvary sideline, sending the unbeaten, second-seeded Cavs on to next Saturday’s Division III Select state finals with a 35-27 triumph Friday night at Jerry Barker Stadium.
“The tight end stared me down, trying to see which way he was going to go, and the whole game the quarterback was eying down the target,” said Sylvie. “So when I saw him stare down 88 (Loerzel), I knew to make a play on the ball.”
His thoughts as he dashed past midfield before Friend hauled him down with 31 seconds remaining?
“We’re in the ‘Dome. We’ve got one more week of football. We’re in the ‘Dome, man.”
It was the second interception in as many possessions by Calvary’s defense. Freshman cornerback Braylun Huglon made a leaping, twisting grab of a Friend bomb at the Cavs’ 31 with 6:30 remaining.
“To win games like this, you’ve gotta make a play,” said Calvary coach Rodney Guin. “We made one on the pick before, we made another one right there at the end. What a night.”
It sent Guin to the Superdome as a coach, not a spectator, for the first time in his 41-year career, and gave Calvary (13-0) a shot at a second state crown in four seasons. The Cavs won a 2020 Division IV title but it was just down I-49 at Northwestern’s Turpin Stadium when the COVID pandemic prevented New Orleans from hosting the Prep Classic.
Waiting next Saturday at 3:30 will be top-seeded, two-time defending state champion St. Charles (13-0), a 10-7 overtime survivor in a slugfest with University Lab on a stormy Friday night in south Louisiana.
Calvary got 297 passing yards and four touchdowns from junior quarterback Abram Wardell, who was flawless while going 20 of 29 with the TDs going to four different receivers.
“It’s surreal. We played outstanding tonight,” he said. “There’s things we can work on for next week, but hey – we’re going to the ‘Dome.”
Running back James Simon was the Greenies’ primary focus after his 324-yard rushing performance with four second-half scores in last week’s 49-28 quarterfinal victory over Parkview Baptist. Third-seeded Newman (10-2) didn’t shut him down (Simon had 151 rushing yards on 22 carries) but its emphasis on preventing breakaway runs allowed Wardell room to throw.
“Once the running back got going, it made it hard,” said Newman coach Nelson Stewart, whose team was gashed for 101 rushing yards from the Cavs’ junior by halftime. “You had to maximize possessions.”
“When you have James Simon and that O-line, it’s always open,” Wardell said. “Week by week, you’ve gotta pick your poison. You’re gonna lose by one of those.”
Said Guin: “We’ve got a bunch of receivers, and we’ve got the hoss at running back. Abram does such a great job of getting the ball around. We take what they give us, and it was just enough to win tonight.”
Calvary answered a quick, early Newman score – followed by a badly-hooked extra point kick – with a 7-play, 70-yard drive capped by Simon bulling 3 yards up the middle. Once Ty Knight’s conversion sailed through the uprights, the Cavs were on top to stay.
Wardell’s first touchdown was a swing pass to Kolby Thomas, who sprinted 33 yards down the Newman sideline for a 14-6 lead with a minute to go in the opening period. The Greenies answered eight plays later when Friend tossed a third-down corner route to the burly 6-4 Loerzel, who made a tough catch on a 3-yarder that helped the visitors within 14-13.
Calvary responded by covering 78 yards on 5 snaps, the last a 26-yard Wardell to Aubrey Hermes connection on a crossing route, with Hermes shaking off one defender and angling down the middle of the field on the last few steps to make it 21-13.
Newman missed a chance to tighten it early after halftime when punt returner DJ Thomas, who had burst about 15 yards down to the Calvary 41, coughed up the ball going to the turf and Cavs’ receiver Taylor Guerrero pounced on it.
“That was a really tight call,” said Stewart. “We thought he was down. That switch got us.”
Three snaps later, Simon was spectacular. Wardell looped a screen pass to him near the Cavs’ sideline and nobody touched Simon as he roared 53 yards for a 28-13 advantage.
“I’d been telling my coach we needed to do that,” Simon said. “I was signalling it. I knew he would call it at the right moment. I definitely sold it good, acting like I was going to get the edge guy. I stepped up and slipped underneath. The D-lineman tried to hold me a little bit. I was thinking should I sell it as PI or fight through it.”
He popped open, and as he exploded downfield, had a simple mission.
“Don’t get tackled,” was his sole thought, he said. With his older brother John screening off the only possible tackler inside the 15, Simon sailed in.
John Simon got his own score to provide the margin of victory, collecting the last of six catches, an 18-yard streak down the left hash with 11:14 remaining for a 35-20 lead. Newman replied four plays afterward on a 25-yard Friend flip to Thomas, but the Greenies’ last two chances ended with the ball in the hands of Cavaliers’ defensive backs.
The difference, said Wardell, was “our relentlessness. We didn’t stop. We weren’t going to lose this game. We weren’t going to be stopped.”
Instead, Huglon’s pick and Syvie’s door-slammer stopped Newman.
Contact Doug at sbjdoug@gmail.com