Shamrocks top St. Mary's to finish regular season with flawless record

By KEITH DUNLAP
Of The Oakland Press

DETROIT — Novi Detroit Catholic Central's football team has achieved much since 1998, but hadn't accomplished this.

It had been since 1998 since Catholic Central put together an unbeaten regular season, but the Shamrocks were able to celebrate that luxury following a 7-0 win over Orchard Lake St. Mary's in the A-B Final of the Catholic League's Prep Bowl on Saturday at Ford Field.

Not only did Catholic Central (9-0) win its first league title since 2003, but the Shamrocks will likely be playing home games for the first three games of the upcoming state playoffs.

“We've been scrapping here for the last couple of years,” Catholic Central head coach Tom Mach said. “Right now, I'm really happy for the kids. They're one of the greatest group we've ever had as far as work ethic goes, as far as camaraderie goes and as far as being fun to be around goes.”

Despite the loss, St. Mary's still left the stadium with things to feel good about.

The Eaglets managed to play Catholic Central a lot closer than the 27-0 drubbing Catholic Central laid on them during the regular season, but more importantly, it looks as if St. Mary's has enough points to qualify for the playoffs with a 4-4 record.

St. Mary's and everyone else around the state will find out who makes the playoffs when the pairings show airs at 7 p.m. tonight on Fox Sports Detroit.

“Our defense played outstanding,” St. Mary's head coach George Porritt said. “We think we're in, but you never know until you see your name there. We played a great team today.”

The game was the definition of a defensive struggle.

Yards and first downs were hard to come by and good field position was a precious commodity throughout.

After over 3 1/2 quarters of no points, Catholic Central finally broke through with 5:37 remaining in the game on a 2-yard touchdown run by senior running back Anthony Capatina that turned out to be the only points of the game.

The drive came after Catholic Central's defense forced a punt deep in St. Mary's territory, which allowed the Shamrocks to take over on the St. Mary's 39-yard line.

The big play was a 25-yard pass from senior quarterback Sam Landry to senior wide receiver Tom Voutsos on third-and-10 that put Catholic Central at the St. Mary's 14.

St. Mary's got some momentum back right away when senior Gary Hunter returned the ensuing kickoff all the way to the Catholic Central 13-yard line.

With one man to beat along the sideline, Hunter was just nudged out of bounds by Catholic Central senior Corey Smith.

However, as it has all season, the Catholic Central defense rose to the occasion. The Shamrocks pushed St. Mary's back two yards on three plays, and then stopped a fourth-and-12 from the St. Mary's 15.

A pass from senior quarterback Robert Bolden was intercepted by Catholic Central senior Butch Herzog and returned to the St. Mary's 31-yard line.

“To be able to stop them showed a lot of character on our kids part,” Mach said. “Butch has been a leader for us all season long. I was just happy to see him go up there and take that ball away.”

Catholic Central had another scoring opportunity earlier in the game when it drove down to the St. Mary's 8-yard line on a drive in the second quarter, but an Eaglets sack pushed the Shamrocks back to the 19-yard line.

After an incomplete pass into the end zone on third down, Catholic Central was forced into a 35-yard field goal attempt, which missed wide left.

But Catholic Central managed to cash in on its other big opportunity in the fourth quarter, which was all it needed.

“We haven't had a home game yet in our place,” said Capatina, referring to Catholic Central's campus that opened in 2005. “That and we hadn't had (an unbeaten regular season) since 1998. We're pumped.”

Prep Football

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