By JOHN JAMES MARSHALL, Journal Sports
It’s usually pretty easy to pinpoint what the difference ends up being in a high school football game because there are so many statistics to back it up.
In Calvary’s 52-24 win Friday night over Loyola at Jerry Barker Stadium, the Cavaliers certainly had lots of numbers on their side. But put those aside for a moment because there’s a better way to describe how No. 1-ranked Calvary improved to 5-0.
“They were just more physical than us,” Loyola coach John Sella said. “We had a hard time with how they dominated the line of scrimmage.”
You won’t get much an argument from Calvary coach Rodney Guin.
“I thought we were really dominant up there,” he said.
There wasn’t much doubt about it.
The game, played before an overflow crowd that included Speaker of the House Mike Johnson, started out as many expected: Calvary touchdown, Loyola touchdown, Calvary touchdown.
But that’s when the first signs of the Cavaliers’ dominance began to show up. On Loyola’s second possession, Calvary allowed only seven yards on six plays, which included two quarterback sacks.
The Flyers, who had punted only twice all year, had to give the ball up and when the Cavaliers turned the resulting possession into another touchdown, it felt as if the turning point in the game might have happened in the first quarter.
But even more telling than Calvary’s three touchdowns to start the game is how the Cavaliers did it. Their first three possessions were eight plays/60 yards, eight plays/59 yards and 12 plays/76 yards. Of those 28 plays, 17 were running plays – 16 were by senior Z’Ryan Miles.
“We could run the football, and the more we ran it, the less they (the Flyers) were on the field,” Guin said.
Neither team scored for the rest of the half, so the Cavaliers led 21-8 at the break, but the Flyers were set to receive the third quarter kickoff with a chance to give back within a touchdown.
Loyola connected for a 27-yard pass from Bryce Restovich to Ty Walsworth, but the other five plays resulted in minus-one yard and the Flyers couldn’t convert on fourth down.
The Cavs didn’t waste any time take advantage of that by getting runs of 21 and 43 yards by Miles and scoring in four plays for the fourth of five touchdowns he collected in the game.
The Flyers scored on a pair of Restovich touchdown passes to hang around, but Calvary still had full control of the game.
“The key was getting three scores up,” Guin said. “Once we got to three scores up, we were playing well enough on defense. You’re not going shut those guys out. They’re too good on offense, but to get up by three scores against a team like that, I’ll take it.”
Miles ran for 198 yards on 27 carries to go along with quarterback Hudson Price throwing for 171 yards, completing 13 of 18 passes.
The Calvary defense came up with four sacks and an interception.
Restovich threw for 261 yards, mostly to receivers Charlie McKenzie (six catches for 94 yards) and Walsworth (five catches for 105).
The Cavs will travel to Homer Friday night to open the District 1-2A season. Loyola starts play in District 1-3A in the road Thursday at No. 4-ranked Sterlington.
Contact JJ at johnjamesmarshall@yahoo.com