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Friars tuck and run past Cardinals: John Paul II drops third straight game
By Bill Conrad, bconrad@starlocalnews.com, @Bill_PlanoStar on Twitter
John Paul II (1-4, 0-2) got a strong effort from senior quarterback Chase McCoy, but the Cardinals' defense had no answer for Bishop Lynch's rushing attack in Friday's 56-14 loss.
Bishop Lynch (5-0, 2-0) ran for 393 yards, including 197 from sophomore running back Rawleigh Williams III, who scored four touchdowns in the win.
"Bishop Lynch is always well coached and they always play hard," said David Gaffney, John Paul head coach. "Hats off to their running backs; they run hard and are very physical. Unless you match that physicality, it is going to look like it did tonight."
"There were some missed opportunities," Gaffney said. "We are getting better in some areas, but we are still very fundamentally unsound in some areas. In the past we may not have been capable of playing with [Bishop Lynch], but we are now and we are not figuring out ways to get it done."
After the interception, Williams and the Friars' offense wasted no time and embarked on an 83-yard drive that was capped by a 4-yard Williams run.
After a quick John Paul three-and-out, Williams found the end zone yet again, this time from 22 yards out to give the Friars a 14-0 lead. Down 14, McCoy led the Cardinals on their first scoring drive of the night, a 75-yard effort that took little more than two minutes. McCoy finished the drive with a 24-yard quarterback draw, but the extra point was no good and the score sat at 14-6.
Bishop Lynch quickly put two more scores on the board with a 6-yard run by Williams and 39-yard scamper by Ira Nunley IV.
The Cardinals showed life late in the first half, with McCoy scoring again on a weaving, 41-yard run down the right sideline that appeared at first as if it would be stopped for little or no gain.
However, the Cardinals gave the Friars 33 seconds to work with, which proved to be too much time.
With the ball on the Cardinals' 24, Friars quarterback Barrett Renner found Anthony Mullins wide open down the right end for a touchdown with 3 seconds remaining on the clock to give the Friars a 35-14 lead at the half.
The second half was dominated by the Friars' running game.
Nunley got the majority of the carries and finished the game with 22 rushes for 166 yards and two scores, with 17 of the carries coming after halftime.
The run-heavy offense kept the clock rolling, limiting the Cardinals to only four possessions in the second half. The first three ended with the Cardinals turning the ball over on downs, with the last possession ending the game after the Nunley scored from 7 yards out with 1:11 left to set the final at 56-14.
Renner had only 239 yards passing in the Friars' first four games, but completed 12-of-15 passes for 182 yards and two touchdowns against John Paul. Renner's favorite receivers were Kyle Jamieson, who had five catches for 73 yards, and Garrett Smith, who snagged four receptions for 73 yards and one touchdown.
John Paul played much of the game without leading receiver Ryan Cook, who was injured early and didn't return based on orders from the team's trainers, Gaffney said.
Without Cook and his team-leading six touchdowns, the Cardinals offense struggled to move the ball. McCoy finished with 100 yards rushing and both Cardinals touchdowns on 22 carries. While McCoy ran well, he struggled through the air, completing 9-of-18 passes for 54 yards and one interception. The team's second leading rusher was junior Austin Barnes, who finished the game with 63 yards on 12 carries.
Gaffney wouldn't use Cook's injury as an excuse, saying his team just didn't play the way it needed to in order to beat a team the caliber of Bishop Lynch.
"I think we showed some bright spots offensively, but not a whole lot," he said. "I don't think we played as well as we could have. ... I am not trying to be pessimistic, but we didn't play well."
John Paul returns to action at 7:30 p.m. Friday on the road against Prestonwood Christian Academy.
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