Cavaliers falter in 2nd half
BIRMINGHAM -- The John Carroll High School football team (1-1) fell at home to Moody (2-0) 34-14 on Friday night at Pat Sullivan Field.
After a tight, evenly-matched first half between the two teams, the Blue Devils turned it on in the final 24 minutes, capitalizing on a kickoff fumble recovery and two John Carroll turnovers to score 27 unanswered points.
"That was not John Carroll football and that's on me," said second-year John Carroll head coach Will Mara. "It was disappointing. But we have the 24-hour rule. We're going to take 24 hours to learn from this game and move on."
John Carroll's night got off to a promising start. After forcing a Moody three-and-out, the Cavaliers scored on their opening possession of the game, a six-play, 75-yard drive that ended in a 30-yard touchdown pass from sophomore quarterback Carson McFadden to receiver Christian Harper with 8:06 to go in the first quarter.
Then, after going into the half tied 7-7, the Cavaliers scored again on their first possession of the second half when McFadden, who finished the game with 292 yards passing, hit senior Aaron Mason on a 32-yard touchdown pass to go up 14-7.
“We’ve got athletes all over the field,” Mara said. “We’ve got tall, fast, explosive receivers, and we’re three deep at running back. We’ve got exciting players.”
Unfortunately for John Carroll, up a score with over nine minutes left in the third quarter, that’s when the wheels began to fall off. Moody answered the Cavaliers' go-ahead touchdown with a two-play, 41-yard scoring drive and followed it up with a go-ahead touchdown of their own after recovering the ensuing kickoff. Moody would go on to score two more touchdowns after taking the lead. John Carroll, despite moving the ball well at times, would be forced into an interception, turnover on downs, and a punt in their final three possessions of the game.
"I don't know (what went wrong), and that’s what’s tough," Mara said. "We had a couple of good opportunities and just shot ourselves in the foot."
"We didn't respond to adversity," he added. "We've got to find a way to answer when we're down by six in the second half, and we didn't. But that's on me."
Mara says he expects his team to learn from Friday's loss and take those lessons into next week's game against Carver-Birmingham.
"We like to say adaptability and accountability, and we will adapt and hold ourselves accountable for tonight," he said. "I can promise you that these guys will be back on Monday ready to work hard, learn, and get ready for the next game."
John Carroll will be back at home at Pat Sullivan Field on Sept. 3 for its first Class 5A, Region 5 game against the Carver.