FLAG FOOTBALL SEMIS: Catholic topples Brew Tech for third-straight trip to title game

Catholic’s Kallie Hampton grabs a pass for a touchdown in the Knights’ win over Brew Tech. (Ryan Gayle)

By TIM GAYLE

There’s only five minutes in a flag football halftime, but Catholic coach Whitney Toole used the majority of that time as a warning to her players.

Last week, Brewbaker Tech wiped out a two-touchdown deficit in quick fashion on the way to a quarterfinal win over Marbury.

“That was pretty much the gist of our halftime speech,” Toole said. “They were down 19 and they made a comeback. They weren’t going to quit, they weren’t going to give up, they were going to come back with more energy than they started with and we had to outmatch them.”

The Knights (21-4) won their 16th consecutive game by holding the Rams to a touchdown in each half, securing a 25-12 win in the 1A-5A semifinals to advance to the finals for the third consecutive year.

“It feels great to go back-to-back state again,” Catholic quarterback Hayden Fitts said. “Now the main goal is just to win.”

Catholic will play the winner of Wednesday’s Boaz-Moody game in the 1A-5A finals at Birmingham’s Protective Stadium on Dec. 3 at 11 a.m.

“It definitely never gets old,” Toole said. “That’s been our goal from the beginning, that we want to get back there to compete for a state championship. We’re going to enjoy (the semifinal win), then we’ll be back to work tomorrow. They executed the plan we tried to lay out for Brew Tech. They played well and I couldn’t be prouder of them.”

It was an impressive performance on both sides of the ball for Catholic, which held the Rams in check and controlled the tempo for much of the game. Just as they have in recent weeks, the Knights executed their first possession to perfection, driving 66 yards in seven plays for a 6-0 lead.

The drive appeared stalled after coming up four yards short on a third-down pass, but a personal foul penalty against the Rams kept alive the drive and Fitts connected with a wide-open Frances Rogers on the next play following the penalty for a 19-yard touchdown.

The Rams (14-4) would answer two possessions later with a beautiful 33-yard pass from Tessa Wilburn to Heleyna Pennic to tie the game, but Catholic responded with another 66-yard drive, using a 10-yard pass from Fitts to Haley Ishman to reclaim the lead. 

Three plays and a Brew Tech punt later, the Knights were on the move again, scoring on an 8-yard pass to Kallie Hampton for a 19-6 lead, the same lead Marbury had a week earlier before Brew Tech rallied.

“We played our normal game, but we knew we were going to have to stay up with our intensity throughout the whole game,” Fitts said. “We knew they were down by 19 in the third round and they came back. So we knew we just had to play our game and keep our energy up.”

The Rams would score on a 2-yard run by Apollonia Wesley to make it 19-12, but managed just two first downs the remainder of the second half.

“We just had to adjust,” Fitts said. “We kind of fell asleep so we had to adjust and get our energy back up.”

“I think they found a couple of gaps,” Toole said. “We tried to take away the long ball a little bit more and we left some stuff open in front of us. It wasn’t a bad thing on (the players), we just emphasized taking away the deep ball and they found the holes in the front.”

Two interceptions by Maggie McNeely kept the Rams from getting any closer. Another touchdown reception by Ishman with 2:08 remaining sealed the victory.

Fitts had one of her best days at quarterback, completing 13 of 21 passes for 140 yards and four touchdowns, while rushing for 112 yards on 19 carries. Hampton had four receptions for 34 yards and a touchdown, Ishman had three catches for 41 yards and a pair of touchdowns, Avery Sadler had three receptions for 34 yards and Rogers had two catches for 26 yards and a touchdown.

Brew Tech’s Wilburn completed 17 of 31 passes for 166 yards and a touchdown, but was intercepted twice. Wesley had seven receptions for 41 yards, Kaymarria Bandy had three receptions for 48 yards, Kyra Wallace had four catches for 25 yards and Melanie Williams had three catches for 14 yards.

Defensively, Mariana Green had seven tackles and a pass breakup and Williams had six tackles for the Rams. Fitts had seven tackles for the Knights, while Addi Little had five tackles, including two for loss and a pair of pass breakups and Rogers had four tackles.

While Catholic is making its third straight trip to the finals, none of the current players had a significant role in Catholic’s first trip in 2023, an overtime loss to Wenonah, but virtually all of them had a meaningful role in last year’s win over Moody.

“That’s been one of our go-tos all season long,” Toole said. “We have the experience, we’ve felt the pressure, we’ve been there, we’ve got to play like it. We know it’s going to be a battle.”