PREP FLAG FOOTBALL: Catholic shuts out Trinity for 15th straight win
Haley Ishman intercepts a pass in Catholic’s win over Trinity on Tuesday. (Tim Gayle)
By TIM GAYLE
Catholic’s flag football team had three plays and a punt on its first possession, but there wasn’t any punts the remainder of the game for the Knights as they rolled past Trinity 47-0 on Tuesday afternoon at Catholic.
The Catholic defense pitched its eighth shutout of the season and fourth in a row, holding Trinity to three yards on its first possession, but the Knights’ offense failed to pick up a first down on its initial possession and had to punt the ball back to the Wildcats.
“We have a bad habit of playing two quarters here, two quarters there,” Catholic coach Whitney Toole said. “Once we play from start to finish, I believe we’ll be in good shape.”
The Knights were in good shape the remainder of the game as Hayden Fitts ran 13 yards for a touchdown on the next possession, then threw touchdown passes to Haley Ishman, Maggie McNeely and Francis Ann Rogers to give the Knights a 28-0 lead late in the first half.
Fitts then lined up at receiver and caught a 9-yard touchdown pass on the final play of the first half from reserve quarterback Charley Frank for a 34-0 halftime lead.
Frank threw a 5-yard touchdown pass late in the third quarter to Aubrey Sadler and Addi Little had a 20-yard interception return for a touchdown before officials halted the game at the end of the third quarter with the mercy rule.
“We did get off to a very rough start,” Ishman said. “We were held (to a punt) on the first possession. Coach Toole told us we needed to pick up our game and we picked up our game and put five touchdowns on them. That’s what we’re supposed to do, no matter what team we play.”
Ishman had her share of individual highlights, pulling a pass away from Trinity defender Marie Yelverton midway through the second quarter for a touchdown, while coming up with two flag pulls and three interceptions on defense.
“We’ve been stressing being aggressive and finishing the play,” Toole said. “We’re always in the area of where we’re supposed to be to bat down a pass, but we’ve stressed the last week to go get the ball and be aggressive with it. And she did that today.”
Ishman’s third interception followed a little deception by the senior defender, who baited freshman quarterback Alexis Kamburis into the pass to a wide-open receiver before quickly closing the gap, intercepting the ball and returning it 20 yards to set up another Catholic touchdown.
“We were in a 'cover three' and I waited back because my teammate was out there,” Ishman said, “but I wanted to go help my teammate and it worked, so I got the pick.”
Kamburis completed 6 of 14 passes for 46 yards, but was intercepted five times. She also was the Wildcats’ leading rusher with 9 yards on 10 carries. Rebi McLemore was the leading receiver with 37 yards on four receptions
Defensively, Sarah Avant had five tackles, followed by Yeltverton with three and an interception.
Fitts completed 10 of 17 passes for 155 yards and three touchdowns, while rushing for 13 yards and a touchdown on her only carry. Nine different Catholic receivers caught passes, including McNeely with four receptions for 49 yards and a touchdown, Rogers with four receptions for 53 yards and a touchdown, Sadler with four receptions for 23 yards and Ishman with two receptions for 53 yards and a touchdown.
Defensively, Fitts had four flag pulls and an interception, Little had three and an interception and Avery Sadler had three and a pass breakup.
Catholic (15-1) won its 15th consecutive game and will play at Northside (also 15-1) on Thursday.
“Our matchup on Thursday against Northside is going to be a completely different game from what we played today,” Ishman said. “Northside’s a good team. We’re definitely going to have to come out with our ‘A’ game. That’s not a team we can lay back around and not to do the little things. Hopefully, that game can get us set for playoffs and we can learn from that game.”
Trinity (1-8) will return to action on Tuesday at Hope Christian in the first round of the Class A Private playoffs. Catholic will draw a first-round bye and will play on Nov. 10 against the winner of Tuesday’s Mobile Christian-Northside Methodist game.