West Catholic holds off Lansdale Catholic for first victory of the season

LOWER GWYNEDD >> Victory was in the air for the West Catholic football team on Saturday night, and Zymeen Howell went up and grabbed it — twice.

First, he clutched a 30-yard touchdown reception from quarterback Kal-El Durham on a fourth-down play in the first quarter.

Said Howell: “I had all the confidence in the world that I was gonna catch it.”

Howell’s second big grab against rival Lansdale Catholic came in the form of a fourth-quarter interception, which helped put the game away for West Catholic.

“Something just clicked. I felt I needed to ice the game,” Howell said. “We brought energy. We knew who we were, what we could be, and we just left it all on the field.”

Howell played a pivotal role in the Burrs’ first victory of the season, a 22-14 thriller over the Crusaders on a warm evening on the turf at Wissahickon.

“It all came together,” said Howell, who added 24 yards rushing on six carries, to go with his four receptions for 49 yards and a score. “This builds our confidence a lot, so we have our heads high going into the next game.”

The Burrs raised their record to 1-2 and are off to a 1-0 start in the Philadelphia Catholic League Blue Division. The Crusaders, battling back several times Saturday night, dropped to 0-4 overall, 0-1 in the PCL Blue.

“We played well enough defensively,” Crusaders coach Dominic D’Addona said. “We just misfired offensively. We just couldn’t really put stuff together.”

Lansdale Catholic will be at Cardinal O’Hara Friday at 7 p.m. while West Catholic will be hosting Bonner-Prendie.

Howell’s touchdown reception got the Burrs going, and they would increase their lead to 14-0 when K’saan Green broke free for an 81 yard touchdown run. Green piled up 166 yards on his 24 carries.

But the Crusader defense kept coming up with stops and takeaways, and J.P. Bayne’s 20-yard return of a West Catholic fumble set up LC in prime scoring position late in the first half.

Quarterback Cole Meehan took it from there, hitting Tyler Van Osten and Efrain Quiles for key gains. On 4th-and-Goal from the two, Meehan battled his way in to the end zone for a touchdown as the first-half clock expired, cutting the margin in half at 14-7.

“That gave us a lot of momentum,” Meehan said. “We stayed in it the whole game. We kept battling. We wanted this game really bad. We were hungry for it.”

Both defenses took over in the third quarter.

The only points of the quarter were produced by the Burr defense, a 60-yard interception return by Naidir Hilliard that extended the West Catholic lead to 22-7 (Green ran in for two).

But again, back came LC.

The Crusaders turned another turnover into points, and when Meehan hit Efrain Quiles for a 25-yard score, LC came winging back into it, down just 22-14 with 5:36 to play.

But Howell’s interception stopped one LC drive and with time running out, another Crusader march was thwarted at the West Catholic 35.

“I’ve been telling the guys the last couple weeks, we’re closer than we are further away,” D’Addona said. “We just gotta keep working to improve.”

West Catholic 22, Lansdale Catholic 14
West Catholic 7 7 8 0 – 22
LC 0 7 0 7 – 14
First Quarter
WC-Zymeen Howell 30 pass from Kal-El Durham (K’saan Green run), 2:58.
Second Quarter
WC-Green 81 run (run failed), 8:39.
LC-Cole Meehan 2 run (Alex Guinan kick), :00.
Third Quarter
WC-Naidir Hilliard 60 interception return (Green run), 1:58.
Fourth Quarter
LC-Efrain Quiles 25 pass from Meehan (Guinan kick), 5:36.
WC LC
First Downs 10 3
Rushes-yards 48-158 19-(-25)
Passing (c-a-i) 7-14-1 11-33-2
Passing yards 53 80
Total yards 201 55
Punts 6 5
Penalties-yards 11-112 5-40
Fumbles-lost 4-2 3-3
Turnovers 3 5
Rushing
WC: Chris Forte 3-6; Howell 6-24; Zahir Birch 2-5; Green 24-166, TD; Marcel Jackson 1-(-9); Durham 12-(-34).
LC: Jake Lesher 4-8; Meehan 8-(-28); Jacahi Streeter 3-(-1); Quiles 2-(-1); Josh Brown 2-(-3).
Passing
WC: Durham 7-14-53-1-1.
LC: Meehan 11-33-80-1-2.
Receiving
WC: Howell 4-49, TD; Jackson 1-(-3); Laffeatte Bennett 1-7; Naidir Hilliard 1-0.
LC: Lesher 1-3; Tyler Van Osten 4-31; Streeter 1-3; Quiles 4-33; Chris Ulmer 1-10.
Interceptions
WC: Hilliard; Howell.
LC: Van Osten.