Serra Catholic beats Beaver Falls with dominating defensive performance @SerraCatholic @SerraCatholicFB @KAR120C6

Tagged under: District 7, Gameday Hub, News

Andrew Schaffer | November 27, 2021

To say that Serra Catholic dominated on defense in this game would be an understatement. Serra Catholic forced 9 total turnovers in their 35-12 win over Beaver Falls. “They’re committed, they put that effort in and it shows” said Coach Regus.

Beaver Falls did have a great start to the game returning the opening kickoff down to the Serra Catholic 20 yard line. It was looking like Serra Catholic was going to stop them but on third down Jaren Brickner connected with Richard Singleton for a 28 yard touchdown making it 6-0 Beaver Falls with 10:03 in the first quarter.

Serra Catholic started their first drive on their own 35 yard line. After a completed pass to Jayvon Holt they were in Beaver Falls territory, eventually Serra Catholic got on the board on an 11 yard run by Machai Brooks which made the score 7-6 Serra Catholic with 6:13 in the first quarter. The drive took 11 plays and took up about 4 minutes of the first quarter.

Beaver Falls started their second drive on their own 38 yard line. After they got past midfield Serra Catholic got their first turnover of the game by forcing a fumble and recovered it at their own 48 yard line. Once they got it though they couldn’t take advantage of the turnover and punted it away.

Beaver Falls got the ball yet again and after they got close to midfield they fumbled the ball a second time. The score at the end of the first quarter was 7-6 Serra Catholic.

The one thing Serra Catholic did struggle at was on offense they just couldn’t move the ball much. “Sometimes our offense just struggles, I made some mistakes today, but they definitely saved us tonight with a bunch of those plays” said Quaterback Max Rocco. After a couple of drives resulting in nothing a key turning point occurred late in the second quarter. Beaver Falls started a drive at their own 16 yard line. On the very first play the ball was intercepted by Elijah Ward and he returned it 30 yards for a touchdown making it 14-6 Serra Catholic with 1:28 left before half.

Beaver Falls got the ball back and they had a good drive going. The drive started at their own 48 yard line and they got all the way down to the 1 yard line and they went for it on fourth down and the ball was intercepted by Terrell Booth and that ended the first half with Serra Catholic leading 14-6. In the first half alone Serra Catholic forced and recovered 3 fumbles and had 2 interceptions.

Serra Catholic got the ball to start the second half. They started at their own 24 yard line and it was looking like a good drive they got out past midfield but after that they had to punt it away. The drive took up 5:27 of the third quarter. On the first Beaver Falls drive they decided to go for it on fourth down in their own territory and didn’t convert. That gave Serra Catholic the ball at the Beaver Falls 47 yard line. They couldn’t take advantage of the good field position and had several plays that resulted in lost yardage and had to punt it away.

At the end of the third quarter a momentum changer occurred for Beaver Falls the punt was returned down to the Serra Catholic 6 yard line. On the first play Isaiah Aeschacher ran it in for a 6 yard touchdown. The major two point conversion was missed and Serra Catholic still had a 14-12 lead.

After that Serra Catholic put on a defensive clinic. Beaver Falls had the ball 4 times in the fourth quarter and turned it over on all 4 drives. “They turned it out, they saw the light they knew what they had to do to be successful” said Coach Regus. Serra Catholic extended their lead with 5:04 left in the game on a second pick six this one by Terrell Booth which was returned 15 yards making the score 21-12 Serra Catholic. “We did what we were supposed to do on defense” said Terrell Booth. “ He’s a player I know I can count on him whenever we need something done” said Coach Regus

Beaver Falls started their next drive at their own 20 yard line. On the fourth play the ball was intercepted yet again this one was also by Terrell Booth and it was returned to the 1 yard line. Machai Brooks finished it off on a 1 yard run which made it 27-12 Serra Catholic with 2:02 remaining in the game.

Beaver Falls got it back yet again and on one play Serra Catholic got their ninth turnover of the game on a strip and score by DaiQuan Chatfield this one being 43 yard score. That made the score 35-12 Serra Catholic.

The win gave Serra Catholic their first championship since 2007 when they beat Springdale. “We’ve been rebuilding the program since I got here, we’re just gonna continue to build” said Coach Regus.

Next week Serra Catholic will play in PIAA 2A Semifinals against Farrell at a time and site to be determined.

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