Photo by Erin Nelson.
The John Carroll defense lines up for the snap in a game against Carver at Pat Sullivan Field on Friday, Sept. 22, 2023. Photo by Erin Nelson.
PLEASANT GROVE -- The John Carroll Catholic High School football team lost for the first time this season, falling 37-12 on the road at Pleasant Grove on Friday night.
The loss drops the Cavaliers to 5-1 overall and 3-1 in Class 5A, Region 5 play.
“[Pleasant Grove] is a very tough opponent,” said John Carroll head coach Will Mara, now in his fourth season as head coach of the Cavs. “They’re very good. They play fast, they play competitive, they play great football.”
It was an optimistic start to the game for the visitors, who coming in were winless in their previous five games against the Spartans. After the John Carroll defense forced Pleasant Grove to turn the ball over on downs, the Cavs landed the first blow with a 30-yard field goal by senior kicker Charles Farr with 3:02 to go in the first quarter.
It didn’t take long for Pleasant Grove to respond, however. On the Spartans’ next possession, they drove 80 yards on 13 plays, taking the lead on a 14-yard touchdown pass from quarterback Eric Handley to receiver Clarence Taylor. The hosts then forced a John Carroll three-and-out and, one play later, Handley and Taylor linked up again, this time for a 60-yard score. Following the missed extra point, Pleasant Grove led 13-3 with 9:32 to go in the half.
A couple possessions later, momentum seemed to swing back in John Carroll’s favor. The Cavaliers forced a fumble as the Spartans were driving and recovered to give the team one more chance to cut into the deficit before halftime. Starting from their own 27, the Cavs methodically moved the ball down the field, driving into Pleasant Grove territory. Unfortunately for John Carroll, its final play of the half saw the Cavs come up a few yards short of the goal line as the halftime buzzer sounded. John Carroll went into the break down 13-3.
“That was 100% on me,” said Mara. “We had a timeout and we took a timeout into the locker room with us. We should’ve taken the field goal. That one is going to eat at me, definitely. I thought we could get something off a little quick, and the clock ran a little faster than I thought it would. That’s 100% on me.”
“I think it deflated us a little bit. We could’ve built off that momentum and come out [of halftime] within one possession,” he added.
Coming out of the locker room for the second half, John Carroll started the third quarter almost exactly like the first. The Cavs punted on their first possession of the half, but the defense once again forced Pleasant Grove to turn it over on downs. Then, starting from midfield, John Carroll pushed the ball into Spartans territory, allowing Farr to nail another field goal, this one from 30 yards out. The kick made it 13-6, a one-possession game, with 1:04 left in the third quarter.
Unfortunately for John Carroll, just as it looked within reach, the wheels began to fall off from there.
“It got a little out of hand for us at the end,” Mara said.
The Spartans responded quickly to the field goal with a four-play, 80-yard drive, ending in a touchdown rush by Jordan Smith to make it 21-6. After that, three of John Carroll’s final five possessions ended in turnovers. The hosts, celebrating their homecoming, would make the Cavs pay dearly for two of those, taking advantage with a pair of touchdowns, one of which was a scoop-and-score by Ethan Everson that effectively ended the game. It was 37-6 with 2:30 left to play.
John Carroll did add a score in the final minute, a 16-yard touchdown rush by junior running back Sequoah Hicks to make it 37-12.
“I don’t think the scoreboard necessarily tells the whole story.” Mara said. “We’ve got some things we’ve got to fix. We’ve got to play a full football game; we still haven’t done that yet.”
Despite the loss, Mara said there are positives to take away from the game.
“Part of the game plan was we wanted to slow it down, we wanted to change the pace, we wanted to throw formations at them, and we were able to do that,” he said.
“We’ll try to learn from this, grow from it, and see how we respond,” Mara added. “This group has responded great through the first half of this season. They didn’t hang on wins and it was that cliché one week at a time mentality, and I expect that they’ll respond like that again.”
John Carroll hosts Ramsay in another region game next week.
