Carroll remembers, gets a little payback on West Catholic

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RADNOR — Archbishop Carroll remembered. It remembered blowing a halftime lead and it remembered losing on a walk-off two-point conversion in overtime. A year passed.

Revenge was delivered.

The Patriots dominated West Catholic, 29-14, Saturday at Villanova Stadium in the Catholic League Blue opener. It was the program’s first victory over the Burrs since 2002. They are 2-2 overall. They vanquished last year’s defeat to this team. They deserved this one.

“It felt good because we haven’t beat them in a while,” Carroll quarterback Russell Minor-Shaw said. “It was big for us because last year we lost in overtime, it hurt pretty bad. So this year we felt good coming out (and winning).”

Carroll has not had a lot of success over the past decade-plus. This is known. This year, it started with an impressive victory over Haverford, then stumbled in defeats against Seton Hall Prep and Haverford School. But those three games against higher-level opponents served as sufficient preparation for the PCL.

Minor-Shaw tossed two touchdowns, threw for 176 yards and rushed for 59. The Patriots totaled 190 yards on the ground and 363 overall. They moved the football with ease. Defensively, just two scores and 283 yards were yielded to an athletic West (2-2, 0-1) team that generally does what it wants.

Archbishop Carroll’s Darryl Simpson celebrates his first quarter touchdown against West Catholic Saturday at Villanova Stadium. The Patriots avenged an overtime loss to the Burrs last season. (Pete Bannan/Digital First Media)

So the offense was there, the defense was there, and so was special teams. Carroll blocked a punt and converted a fake early that assisted in the first half’s field position battle. It played clean football.

“The brand of Carroll football is great defense, great special teams. We do those things, wins will come,” Carroll coach Kyle Detweiler said. “I can’t stress just how important those things are in the formula of our success.”

That block – Albert Marshall was credited with it – set up the first points late in the first quarter. Minor-Shaw found Darryl Simpson Jr. on play action up the seam from 10 yards out. That lead held for a while.

In the third quarter, Minor-Shaw scrambled around in the backfield and fired a downfield strike to Billy Coppock, who raced in for a 40-yard score. Tyler Alston finished the following drive with a one-yard touchdown. Jahlil Warren followed that with a one-yard run of his own.

All three drives started in Carroll territory. All lasted at least six plays. One year after losing the second half to West, the tide fully turned. The were a lot of reasons why. Perhaps the biggest – 13 different Patriots touched the ball.

“When a lot of people talk about balance, they talk about your run-pass ratio,” Detweiler explained. “When we talk about balance, it’s ‘Are we getting our playmakers enough touches?’ We like certain guys in certain situations, we’re going to get them the ball. For us, balance is spreading it around to a lot of guys we feel can make plays.”

Carroll knows it will need this next week against Cardinal O’Hara. The focus was on their rivals in Springfield pretty much the moment this game ended. Detweiler is well aware of the neighborhood and CYO battles his players have had with the guys from O’Hara. He is certainly well aware they lost twice to them last year.

It has stung. His team will be ready.

“That just smarts on you a little bit longer than some of the other ones,” Detweiler said.

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Todd Orodenker

toddorodenker

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