Kpoto, O’Hara run past Carroll

RADNOR — After a disappointing offensive performance at home last week, Cardinal O’Hara did some soul searching.

In practice, coach BJ Hogan stressed execution on the offensive end.

“We challenged the kids all week: let’s run the football,” Hogan said. He wants his players to be all-business, all the time. He wanted to get that message across, loud and clear, and even told several players not to dress for Friday night’s Catholic League Blue Division showdown at Archbishop Carroll.

Instead of having 50-plus players in uniform, the Lions had about 35. And everyone who was on the sideline and saw playing time did more than enough to please Hogan and his coaching staff.

The Lions answered the call and thoroughly dominated one of the best offenses in Delco. Running back Keed Kpoto took the first play from scrimmage 73 yards to the end zone and O’Hara never looked back, winning 21-7.

Kpoto rushed for 160 yards and two touchdowns. Quasir Cottman had his best outing of the season, amassing 83 yards and a TD. The quick and exciting running back duo received great blocking from Louis Perri, Cole Gehert, Ryan Culp, John Sheffer and Joe Kelly.

“Our O-line makes everything possible,” Kpoto said. “Me and (Cottman) both, we have good potential. It’s the coaching staff, too. Everybody on this team is working hard and we can be a great football team overall.”

Hogan believes his offensive line and running backs can be very effective on a weekly basis.

“We have probably one of the biggest lines up front, we just haven’t been living up to our potential. We’re 6-2, 6-3 (in height) across the board and athletic,” Hogan said. “Those guys did a great job on the line, and they’re all going both ways, too.

“I am a tough coach and I am on them non-stop. I coach the kids hard, sometimes too hard, but that’s how I was coached when I played. I told the kids that wherever I’m at for the rest of my life, this is how I’m going to coach. I also told them, I appreciate their effort. We really had a great week of practice and it showed tonight.”

Cottman has had trouble getting positive yardage, but he ripped off 3.7 yards per tote against Carroll.

“We have (Kpoto and Cottman) and we also have Hunter Whitlock, who hasn’t gotten a lot of touches, but we feel good about those three guys,” Hogan said. “We said after the Sun Valley game two weeks ago (a 21-7 O’Hara victory), that whoever is running the ball the best will get the carries. With Cottman tonight, he was running with a purpose. He’s a buck-40 (140 pounds) and he was running the ball hard, gaining yards after contact. That’s what we need to continue to see.”

Rather than pat himself on the back, Cottman preferred to give credit to the big guys in the trenches.

“We’ve got a great O-line. They really stepped up tonight and did their thing,” he said. “I’m very thankful to have them guys as my O-line.”

O’Hara (3-1, 1-1 PCL Blue) relied heavily on stretch plays and abandoned its passing game in the second quarter. Senior quarterback Luke Sprague was 4-for-5 passing for 29 yards, but his job Friday was to manage the offense. Hogan lauded his coaching staff’s offensive game plan, which included a few new wrinkles.

“As you guys wrote in your articles (in the Daily Times), Carroll is averaging 43(.7) points a game. We know they’re good,” Hogan said. “Our best defense is our offense, controlling the clock and not giving them opportunities. We know we’re going to play solid every game on defense.”

The Lions entered the game allowing the fewest points in Delco at 8.3 points per contest.

“To hold them to seven points … the defensive staff did a great job planning for them,” Hogan said. “They’re a lot like Sun Valley. They’ve got a lot of athletic kids. We held Sun Valley to seven points and then the next week, they put 50 points up. I’m proud of our effort, I thought we did a good job against their running back. I don’t know if No. 1 (Koran Butler) had a catch all game, he’s one of the best players in the league.”

Butler, who has 259 receiving yards and four touchdowns this season, did not have a touch. Moreover, quarterback Russell Minor-Shaw, who was leading all county signal callers in passing efficiency rating (210.81) and touchdowns (nine), completed only four passes for 35 yards and threw two interceptions. Carroll mustered only 130 yards of total offense and four first downs.

“We have to dominate up front to win the game,” Perri said. “We got some momentum going with the touchdown to open the game. We just took off from there and it didn’t stop. We kept hustling, kept opening up holes. It was the trust in our coaching, the playcalling and each other. It all works out.

“I think we had the momentum. When we get up early it’s hard to come back, especially in high school with young kids. It’s hard to mentally come back from that. We did a good job of getting up early and closing it out.”

This was a particularly frustrating result for Carroll, which lost a heartbreaker in overtime to West Catholic a week ago and was looking for a better effort against O’Hara.

“We were expecting to win and let that get to us. We came out flat and stayed flat. We just couldn’t produce,” said Carroll senior linebacker Jaelen Parker, who had a punt return for a touchdown called back on a personal foul call in the second half.

“We’re usually a balanced team. They shut down the run. When we went to the pass, they shut down the pass. We just couldn’t bounce back,” Parker said. “It’s a game of momentum and they had the momentum pretty much the whole game. We had a couple of big plays, but they didn’t amount to anything. Mentally, (last week’s loss) was stuck in our head.”