9 months ago
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HOMEWOOD – It wasn’t always pretty, but in what turned out to be a game of contrasting styles, John Carroll Catholic High School ran away with a 43-26 win over Carver-Birmingham in a key Class 5A, Region 5 matchup Friday at Pat Sullivan Field.
The Cavaliers (5-0, 3-0 in region) rushed for 334 yards to remain undefeated, the best start since 1999. Carver’s passing attack kept it in the game in the second half, ultimately gaining 411 yards through the air.
“We’ll take it. These boys have fought,” said John Carroll head coach Will Mara. “They’ve worked hard. Every week you’ve got stuff you’ve got to work on. We’ll absolutely take it. I’m proud of them. They’ve worked hard. I’m glad that we can get into the off week, recover a little bit and then we know what we’ve got on the other side of that.”
It barely took a minute for the John Carroll defense to come up big. A snap over the head of the Carver punter was recovered by James Hallman for a touchdown, giving the Cavs an early 6-0 lead. John Carroll pushed the lead to 12-0 when quarterback Carson McFadden scored from a yard out late in the first quarter.
On the first play of the second quarter, Carver’s T’Marcus Threatt bolted 27 yards for a touchdown and ran in the two-point conversion to cut the deficit to 12-8. John Carroll running back Mitchell Nutter scored on a 15-yard run midway through the second quarter to give the Cavs a 19-8 advantage.
Carver (2-2, 1-2) answered on a 15-yard touchdown from quarterback D.J. Wade to Threatt. McFadden scored his second touchdown of the half on a 10-yard run late in the second quarter. He then intercepted a pass on defense in the end zone as the half closed.
In the second half, running back Koron Wright scored for John Carroll on runs of 13 and 7 yards, with a Carver touchdown pass from Steve Sigler to Wade sandwiched between them. Charles Farr gave John Carroll a 43-20 lead with a 36-yard field goal, and Carver answered one snap later with an 83-yard touchdown pass from Wade to Sigler.
“They’ve got a lot of speed,” Mara said. “They’ve got speed spread out. They were strong in the screen game and strong with the shots.”
Wright also came up with a fumble recovery for John Carroll in the second half. He and McFadden rushed for two touchdowns apiece and also forced a turnover each.
“They’re begging to play both ways,” Mara said. “They’re begging to get out there and try to make big plays.”
McFadden finished with a game-high 140 rushing yards and two touchdowns on 15 carries. He completed 5-of-15 passes for 102 yards. Nutter rushed 12 times for 80 yards and a score, while Wright gained all 40 of his yards and two scores in the second half. Zach Archer rushed three times for 59 yards.
For Carver, Wade finished 27-of-45 for 397 yards and two touchdowns with the one interception. He also caught a touchdown. Sigler led the receiving corps with five catches for 152 yards and a touchdown. Da’Marrius Story grabbed 11 passes for 128 yards, and Threatt finished with nine receptions for 108 yards and a touchdown. He also rushed for a 27-yard score.
John Carroll has its open week next Friday before the region schedule intensifies with a road game at Pleasant Grove on Oct. 6 and at home Oct. 13 against Ramsay. Recovery will be big next week, Mara said.
“We’ve got to get back to the basics,” he said. “We’re going to hit a lot of the fundamentals and work on things that we focused a ton on in the spring that kind of carried over. That’s what we’ve got to get back to and be ready to attack the second half of our season.”
The 43 points John Carroll scored Friday gives it 211 points for the season, the most in a season since 225 in 2017. It was done in front of the 1973 state championship team, which posted an undefeated record and allowed just 37 points en route to the program’s only state championship. Some of those 1973 teammates spoke to the current team Friday afternoon.
“They came in and one of the big things that one of them said was they are proud to be the first, but they are not proud to be the only,” Mara said. “They want to see it happen again. There’s a lot of support from that group, and we were excited to have them on campus and get a win as well.”
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