By DOUG IRELAND, Journal Sports
It didn’t take long for Calvary’s Cavaliers to reach some mind-boggling milestones Thursday night.
Their 56-20 thrashing of Green Oaks was the Cavs’ 74th consecutive district win going back 14 years. Since winning the district crown a season later, Calvary has defended it every year.
The victory assured that this senior class will be the winningest in program history, already with 45 wins and hoping to add to that, while having suffered only six losses in their four years of high school.
The triumph raised Calvary’s record to 9-1, with the only blemish coming two weeks ago, 24-7 at Class 4A power Archbishop Shaw in New Orleans. Each win has been so dominant that at least the second halves have used the LHSAA’s football mercy rule, played with running clocks because of the scoring margin.
That’s not a goal, said Calvary’s veteran coach Rodney Guin. But it does get everyone home earlier.
“No, our goal is to win,” he said, smiling. “We’re kind of thankful for it, though, ’cause, those games will last forever sometimes.”
Senior running back Z’Ryan Miles said the players have their own target in mind.
“The goal is to light up the scoreboard, to do what we do best,” he said.
It didn’t take them long to do it. Calvary scored on its second play. Its fifth play. Its 11th play, and its 13th play, taking command, 28-6 just 40 seconds into the second quarter.
This came against a Green Oaks team that has earned its own place in school history. The Giants came to Jerry Barker Stadium undaunted and nearly undefeated, rolling in at 7-1. It’s only the second time in two decades the Giants have enjoyed a winning season, and when they open the playoffs at home next week in Non-Select Division III, they can post the program’s most wins in a season since any of the players have been alive.
But no Green Oaks milestone was about to happen Thursday night.
The margin was 42-6 at halftime, when Calvary had snapped the ball just 23 times and scored on six of them, four by Miles on runs of 33, 21 and 9 yards along with a 6-yard swing pass from Hudson Price (216 yards on 10 of 14 aim). Miles added a fifth TD on the eighth play of the third quarter, a 13-yard run, the last of his 11 carries for 140 yards, upping the spread to 49-6 and triggering the running clock.
Following a first half that required over 90 minutes to finish, the rest of the game took just 23 more in elapsed time.
Through the short practice week, Guin and his staff emphasized pounding away at the Giants, and the message was received.
“We were running the ball down their throats,” Cavaliers offensive lineman Drake Moore said. “Down blocks were good. We pulled a lot. We just showed them who was more physical.”
“We were very dominant,” Miles said. “We just had a different mindset coming out today. I didn’t know I had five touchdowns, but I knew the run game was going to be something — especially behind this offensive line.”
“We played pretty good,” said Guin. “We still made some mistakes. We gave up a couple kickoff returns, big yardage, and we got let them get behind us on some pass plays. You can’t do that in the playoffs. So we’ve got to correct some stuff. Luckily for us, we’ve got two weeks to do it.”
The Cavaliers will earn a first-round Select Division III bye and a second-round home game, at least, when playoff pairings are officially set Sunday.
The Giants didn’t go down without a fight. Behind quarterback Javontaye Dean’s 290-yard passing night (20-34, three touchdowns, with one interception) and a monster game from Jamarcus Hooper (10 receptions, 189 yards, including a 57-yard TD), they tested Calvary’s defense, but its frenetic pass rush combined with 18 first-half penalties on Green Oaks to limit the damage.
Case in point: trailing 28-6 early in the second period, Dean’s 37-yard run got Green Oaks to first-and-goal at the 1. He was repelled on two plunges forward, then a 15-yard penalty stymied the drive, which ended when Dean scrambled on fourth down and seemed to connect with a diving Sheldrek Williams in the end zone on the visitors’ sideline, but it was ruled incomplete.
That produced an unsportsmanlike conduct flag on the Giants, and six plays later DeQuinton Thomas bolted six yards up the middle to carry Calvary up by four scores.
“We’re going to look at our mistakes. We’re going to get in our tool box and fix them,” said irrepressible Green Oaks coach Nick Peoples, who doesn’t anticipate running into anything like Calvary any time soon in the Giants’ playoff journey.
“They have a great coaching staff, a lot of talent and they do everything well,” he said.
They did again Thursday night.
Contact Doug at sbjdoug@gmail.com