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10/5/2008-Football
Catholic Central scores late to down St. Mary's
By KEITH DUNLAP
Of The Oakland Press
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ORCHARD LAKE — First, there was a loss to Birmingham Brother Rice where his team blew a 14-point lead with over six minutes remaining and ultimately lost on a last-second 50-yard field goal.
Then, there was a tough five-point loss last Sunday on homecoming to unbeaten Warren De La Salle.
Given all that, you can only imagine what type of mood Novi Detroit Catholic Central head coach Tom Mach and his team had been in the last couple of weeks.
“Just ask my wife,” Mach said. “It was very difficult. We've been banging our heads.”
The Shamrocks were once again banging their heads after their game at Orchard Lake St. Mary's on Saturday, although this time they were banging helmets with each other in celebration.
This time, Catholic Central made the winning plays down the stretch, as junior fullback Niko Palazeti scored on a 2-yard touchdown run with 43.1 seconds left in the game to give the Shamrocks a 14-7 win over St. Mary's in what could've been dubbed a “Margin of Error” bowl between the two Catholic League Central division powers.
Each team entered with two losses, so the margin of error in terms of a state playoff berth went to Catholic Central (3-2, 1-2), which can clinch a spot in the playoffs with wins over Pontiac Notre Dame Prep and Dearborn Divine Child in the next couple of weeks.
Meanwhile, St. Mary's (3-3, 2-2) has no margin of error if it wants to make the playoffs. The Eaglets must win out against Divine Child, Davison and in the CHSL Prep Bowl against a to-be-determined opponent in order to qualify for the postseason. “The playoffs start now,” St. Mary's head coach George Porritt said.
As is the case with the Shamrocks and Eaglets, it was a physical, grind-it-out affair where points were at a premium.
St. Mary's struck first with 8:33 left in the second quarter on a 22-yard touchdown pass from Robert Bolden to Taylor Peruski, and the Eaglets seemed to have even more momentum going into halftime when they stopped Catholic Central on downs at the St. Mary's 1-yard line with eight seconds left in the first half.
However, Catholic Central got even right away in the second half when quarterback Sam Landry hit wideout John Jakubik for a 61-yard touchdown pass on the first play from scrimmage of the third quarter that tied the game at 7-7 with 11:42 to go in the third.
The score remained that way until late in the fourth quarter.
After pinning the Eaglets deep in their own territory and forcing a punt, Catholic Central got the ball back at the St. Mary's 45-yard line with 3:06 remaining in the game.
The Shamrocks took advantage of the excellent field position, marching down the field in seven plays to take the lead on Palazeti's aforementioned scoring run.
“We said that we were moving this ball and we're scoring, ” Palazeti said of the drive. “We were just going to pound it down their throat. Everyone believed in each other and we did it.”
Still, Catholic Central had to withstand one last storm by St. Mary's. The Eaglets drove all the way down to Catholic Central's 23-yard line, where they had one last opportunity to score the tying touchdown with .4 seconds left.
However, the Shamrocks forced Bolden to scramble, and then tackled the St. Mary's quarterback at the 3-yard line to end the game.
Palazeti rushed for 91 yards on 14 carries to lead the Shamrocks.
Senior running back San Fioroni had 81 yards on 15 carries for St. Mary's, which is missing two of the state's top collegiate prospects in senior tight end/defensive lineman Dion Sims and senior fullback/linebacker Justin Semmes.
Sims is out with a sprained knee and Semmes is nursing an ankle injury. Porritt said he's unsure when both will return, if they do it all, which makes the Eaglets' road to the playoffs the next three weeks even harder.
“It was a hard-fought game,” Porritt said. “They got the field position there at the end and they moved the ball better than we did in the fourth quarter. They did a good job of executing their offense.”
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