High School Football: Charlotte Catholic rolls South Meck in coach Matt Reilly’s debut
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There’s an evolutionary vibe about Charlotte Catholic football.
The Cougars opened the Matthew Reilly era with a convincing 49-16 win against South Mecklenburg on Friday, blending an opportunistic — and accurate — passing attack with a punishing ground assault. The result was Reilly’s first win as head coach.
“It was a long wait to find out about (getting hired) in December and waiting until August to play but I’m grateful for these guys,” he said. “This senior class is one of the best leadership classes I’ve ever seen here, and they really took the reins. They bought in and got the underclassmen to buy in. I’m just grateful to be in this spot with these guys and it went the way we wanted tonight.”
Although far from perfect — Catholic committed eight penalties for 65 yards — the Cougars were plenty sharp where it counted. The offense churned out 449 yards, split nearly evenly between ground (231 on 36 carries) and air (218) as Catholic imposed its will with balance. Defensively, they limited South to 68 yards rushing and 169 passing, most of it with the outcome tucked safely in the bag.
Catholic seized the initiative early, marching downfield on the game’s first possession to go ahead on Charlie Smith’s 20-yard pass to tight end Jack Larsen. After South closed to 7-2 on a safety, Catholic responded with a pair of scores — Jake Anderson’s 2-yard run and Nick Morris’ 1-yard plunge.
“That’s the idea,” Reilly said. “When you’ve got some of the guys that we have, you’ve got to use the players to the best of their ability. We have a couple of Division I tight ends (in Larsen and Nick Segarra); we’ve got a couple receivers who can play, a quarterback who can throw it to them, so seems like we should do that, right? But I will say learning the tradition the power of that ground attack once I got here and being a former QB I’ve learned to respect that run game and we’ll never get completely away from that.”
Catholic also took advantage of South mistakes to pad its advantage. Joey Hall’s interception late in the second quarter set up Morris’ score and a botched snap on a third-down punt resulted in a 12-yard scoring connection from Smith to Larsen for a 28-2 gap.
Three who made a difference
▪ Charlie Smith. Catholic’s quarterback hit 6-of-10 first-half passes for 153 yards and a score, including a 56-yarder to Nick Bierman in the final minute to set up Morris’ score. He finished 10-of-14 for 218 yards.
▪ Jack Larsen. Three of the Cougars tight end’s four receptions went for scores, primarily by posting up against South’s smaller defensive backs.
▪ Jake Anderson. Catholic’s tailback rolled up 139 yards and a pair of touchdowns on 12 carries. His 45-yard off-tackle scamper in the fourth gave the Cougars a 42-2 advantage.
Worth mentioning
▪ Charlotte Catholic rolled up 121 yards rushing on 20 first-half carries. Jake Anderson accounted for 76 yards on seven tries to lead the way.
▪ Both teams struggled with special teams miscues. Two South Mecklenburg punts were scuttled by snaps that sailed high; Catholic had one go awry, too.
▪ Cash Hunter turned in South’s longest play of the night, a 79-yard touchdown run to close the scoring. He finished with 99 yards rushing on five carries.
What’s next?
Charlotte Catholic hosts Northern Durham in a non-conference game while South Mecklenburg travels to Providence for a non-conference contest.
Scoring Summary
Charlotte Catholic: 7 14 14 14 – 49
South Mecklenburg: 2 0 0 14 – 16
CC-Jack Larsen 20-yard pass from Charlie Smith (Roman Hyland kick)
SM-Safety
CC-Jake Anderson 2-yard run (Hyland kick)
CC-Nick Morris 1-yard run (Hyland kick)
CC-Larsen 12-yard pass from Smith (Hyland kick)
CC-Larsen 14-yard pass from Smith (Hyland kick)
CC-Anderson 45-yard run (Hyland kick)
SM-Laderian Lynch 57-yard pass from Marques Johnson (Austin Metcalf kick)
CC-Ryan Hogg 3-yard run (Ryan Urti kick)
SM-Cash Hunter 79-yard run (Metcalf kick)
