John Carroll runs out of gas in loss to Jackson-Olin

BIRMINGHAM – A few plays made the difference on Thursday night for the John Carroll Catholic High School football team.

The Cavaliers played as well, if not better than, Jackson-Olin in the first half on Thursday. But John Carroll wore down in the second half, as Jackson-Olin pulled away for a 42-7 victory at Mustang Stadium, in a Class 6A, Region 5 contest.

John Carroll (2-2, 1-2 region) trailed only 14-7 at the half, but felt like it should have been in a better position. Take away Jackson-Olin’s two touchdown plays and the Cavalier defense was stout.

“We just kind of run out of gas,” said John Carroll head coach Logan Colafrancesco.

Jackson-Olin (3-1, 1-1) scored on its fourth play from scrimmage, as J’Garrius Hunter turned on the jets and blazed 47 yards to the end zone to give the Mustangs a 7-0 lead four minutes into the contest.

The Cavaliers caught a break late in the first quarter, after being forced to punt the ball away following a three-and-out. The Mustang return man allowed the ball to drop in front of him and it ricocheted off his leg, leading to a John Carroll recovery by Jeremy Spencer.

Two plays later, on the first play of the second quarter, Bailey Mara floated a ball over the middle to Malcolm Russell, who waltzed into the end zone for a 33-yard touchdown to even the score at 7-7.

Jackson-Olin responded with a 29-yard scoring pass from freshman quarterback Brandon Ward to AJ Toney to make it 14-7.

Toney’s athleticism was on full display all evening. The electric junior needed only five total touches to accumulate over 100 yards of offense. He even had a punt return touchdown called back due to a block in the back penalty.

Other than those two plays, John Carroll’s defense gave up a little over 100 yards in the first half, forced two turnovers, a turnover on downs and picked up the muffed punt.

Mike Watts fell on a fumble in the first quarter after Ward coughed it up. Demetrius Battle also recovered a fumble shortly before halftime, on an otherwise scary play. Jackson-Olin’s Ward was hit and fumbled, but remained on the field for several minutes before being carted off. He was alert and responsive as he was taken off the field.

The second half is when John Carroll’s lack of depth reared its ugly head, as the Mustangs scored four touchdowns over the final 24 minutes of action to cruise to their first region win of the season.

Colafrancesco said that despite the numbers disadvantage his team faces against most teams it plays, his defense is “playing hard.”

He said, “We don’t give up. We don’t quit. We don’t allow it. There were times there we just get a little tired. You can’t dwell on it.”

On the offensive side of things, the short passing game had mixed results early on, and there were spurts, but the Cavaliers were unable to sustain much after the initial touchdown.

“Offensively, we’re just sloppy,” Colafrancesco said. “I run the offense and it’s my fault. We’re going to get it fixed, I can promise you.”

For the game, Battle finished with 80 yards on eight carries for John Carroll. Jeremiah Fuller added 91 total yards.

After a pair of wins to begin the season (Hayden and Hueytown), John Carroll has dropped its last two games. Last week, the Cavaliers lost to Parker after a late, potentially game-winning, field goal try was blocked and returned for a touchdown.

But Colafrancesco said he would give his team the weekend off to “get away from it.”

“We just need to regroup,” he said. “The sun’s going to come up in the morning. We’re going to watch the film and correct it, then we got to just forget about it.”

John Carroll returns to action with a trip to Moody next Friday.

“You can do one of two things: You can get better, or you can get worse,” Colafrancesco said.