Allentown Central Catholic advances to District XI Class 4A Championship with Victory over the Crimson Tide 35 to 21 ! @ACCHSVikings @Coach_McGorry @ACCHS_Athletics

Tagged under: District 11, Gameday Hub, News

Daniel Reed | November 8, 2021

Allentown Central Catholic advances to District XI Class 4A Championship with Victory over the Crimson Tide 35 to 21 at Veterans Memorial Stadium on Friday night !

Let’s start off by saying, the weather was much better this weekend than last Friday night for sure. The field looked good, the grass was damp but all was set up for a good match-up between two very good teams. Pottsville would kickoff to begin the game, and the Vikings would start at their own 34 yard line. But before we get into the game … Let’s hear what each HC would have to say during pre-game warm-ups… When I asked Coach McGorry of Central Catholic what it would take to beat Pottsville, he had this to say… ” we need to match up physically, stop the quarterback, stop the tailback, of which there are two them, so that’s not ever easy, on offense, we need to be able to run the football, mix in the pass, and be balanced “. When I asked Pottsville HC, Tom McGeoy the same question, he had this to say… ” We need to play a clean football game, we can’t turn the ball over, we got to do a good job winning the front, easier said than done, they’re a big team “.

Now, on to the game, shortly after the kickoff, Caiden Shaffer would break free and run for 17 yards and a first down at the Tide 31. Central Catholic would strike first a few minutes later, when QB-Tamlin Ferguson would connect with Jareel Calhoun, who if you didn’t notice, was wearing blue under his uniform in support of Type-1 Diabetes Month, as he suffers from the disease, for 17 yards and the score to put the Vikings in front 7 to 0 following the extra point made by kicker Luke Myers. I had the pleasure of watching Luke kick earlier in the year as well when I traveled down to BASD Stadium to view one of the Kick-It challenges during the summer. Pottsville would have their turn on offense now, and the Tide QB-Jazce Carabello-Snowell would eventually would connect with stud receiver Amari Dunn for a long pass to the Tide 49, 1st and 10 to go. The Vikings defense turned it up some shortly after with Colby Reyburn coming up big with a 7 yard sack with about 3 minutes to go in the first quarter. Time clicked off the clock and the score at the end of the first quarter would still be 7 to 0 Vikings.

In the second quarter, Vikings Ferguson would throw and get picked off by Tejay Allen, his first of 3 in the game, and Pottsville would have possession at their own 4 yard line. Once again, the Vikings defense would turn it up, and recover a Tide fumble, and now Central Catholic would have possession back at the Crimson Tide 12 yard line with nine minutes to go in the half. Couple plays later and we had our second score of the game, when beast RB-Caiden Shaffer would bust a move 6 yards for his first of 4 touchdowns on the night. Luke Myers would again drill the point after to make the score 14 to 0 with just over 8 minutes to go till halftime. With about 6 minutes to go, Tejay Allen would get his second interception, giving the Tide some energy on the sidelines with the ball on Viking territory at the 35. Tide would eventually turn the ball over on downs, and the Vikings would have it at their own 35 with just under 5 minutes to go in the half. With just under a minute to go in the half, Pottsville QB-Snowell would break loose for a long run to the Central Catholic 49, which would be followed by another turnover for the Tide, being intercepted by Nasir Mclean, and the Vikings would take over at their own 47. Nothing amounted out of that drive and the score at the half would be 14 to 0, Tide trailing.

Pottsville would receive the second half kickoff and BANG… Parrish McFarland would catch the ball and race down field 89 yards for the score to cut the lead in half, trailing by just 7, 14 to 7, with 11+ minutes left in the third quarter. On the ensuing kickoff, the Central Catholic would fumble on the return and Pottsville would recover, taking over at the Viking 48 yard line. A little over 1 minute later, the Tide would score again when QB-Snowell would call his own number and rumble 1 yard to the endzone, the point after was good, and we had a tie game at 14 a piece. About 3 minutes ticked off the clock until we had another score, coming from the Vikings with Caiden Shaffer recording his third touchdown on the evening from 13 yards out with about 7 minutes to go in the quarter. The Tide’s next possession would last a short time, following two long plays by QB-Snowell and RB-Travontai Davis, Central Catholic’s Armonie Torres would intercept the pass from Snowell, returning it to the Tide 19. Soon after, Tejay Allen, who was having a big night on defense, with his third pick of the night, would give Pottsville the ball at their own 24. Couple minutes later, Pottsville would have to punt, ending in a blocked punt by Peyton Elliot, and the Vikings would recover at the Tide 10. The Vikings would add to their lead when Caiden Shaffer would score his 3rd touchdown of the game from a yard out, giving the Vikes a 28 to 14 lead late in the quarter. The Tide would have possession at the end of the third quarter, with the score 28 to 14, Pottsville knew they had to start rolling.

In the final quarter of play, Pottsville would score once more with a little over 10 minutes to play when Amari Dunn would break one for 29 yards to close the gap once more, 28 to 21, Vikings still leading. The Vikings would give the Tide a chance when they would have to punt away with 7 minutes to go in the game, the ball would stop at the Pottsville 5 and the Tide had their work cut out for them. Couple plays and oh no, another fumble, and turnover by the Tide gave the Vikings the ball at the Tide 25 setting up Caiden Shaffer with a fourth and final touchdown of the game, this time from 6 yards out, putting the game almost out of reach with just 5 minutes to play in the game, leading 35 to 21. Another interception by Armonie Torres would seal the deal for Central Catholic and the final score of the game would be 35 to 21, Vikings over the Crimson Tide. After the game, Vikings head coach McGorry said at first, ” he wasn’t please with how the kids played, not like us to turn the ball over like we did, tackle so poorly, missed tackles, special teams we gave up some big plays, coach would also state, there are a lot of things we need to fix especially when we play Northwestern Lehigh, they’re a well coached team, as talented as they are, this was not our best effort tonight “. I spoke with RB-Caiden Shaffer after the game to see what he thought after running for 4 touchdowns in the District XI playoff game, he said, ” it means a lot, it feels good, now try to move on to next week “. When I spoke with Pottsville HC McGeoy afte the game, he expressed how things went down, and had this to say, ” we couldn’t get them off the field, their size was a little bit too much for us in the end and ah, ya know, they had a good game plan with that and ya know, it is what it is, when they average around 260 on the line and we average 220, the math isn’t hard to figure out “. When he talked about moving forward to next season, he let us know, ” we lose a lot talented guys, skill in the backfield but we got some good guys coming back, two of the guys that return kickoffs are back next year, three of our linemen are back, not to mention the guys on defense, we definitely got some guys back for next season “.

With the win, Allentown Central Catholic(8-3) advances to the District XI Class 4A Championship game on Friday, Nov. 12 2021, against (11-0)Northwestern Lehigh Tigers at Lehighton’s Multi-Purpose Stadium 7pm scheduled kickoff !

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