Gehlen Catholic football started district play off with a convincing 34-6 win at home over MMCRU on Friday night.
While the Jays came away with a lopsided win, it was MMCRU who got out of the gates well. The first drive for the Royals ended in a quick touchdown run by John Schmillen, and the Royal defense answered with a stop of Gehlen’s first drive. MMCRU head coach Kyle Oswald says the rest of the game came down to guys letting mistakes become too big of a deal.
The momentum flipped for Gehlen Catholic for good after the Royals had a play get them down to the red zone, but a fumble turned them over before getting to capitalize. Gehlen Catholic head coach Jeremy Schindler credits a couple of guys for not giving up on the play.
Gehlen Catholic had the bulk of its success offensively on the ground rushing to the tune of 329 yards and five touchdowns. Coach Schindler says the guys did a much better job of simply doing their job than their first game of the season.
Coach Oswald says his defense could not get to the ballcarrier early enough, and once the Jays got running downhill, they were hard to stop.
Four of five Gehlen Catholic touchdowns were plays that went longer than 20 yards with three going 45 yards or more. Coach Schindler says the guys running the ball will get the statistical credit, but the guys blocking for them are the ones that make the offense click.
MMCRU fell to 0-2 on the season and 0-1 to start district play. The Royals will be taking on Hartley-Melvin-Sanborn who has historically had MMCRU’s number in 11-man football. Coach Oswald hopes his guys will buy in to fixing things otherwise it will be a reversion to the mean.
Gehlen Catholic has the chance to take a big step towards playoff qualification with their matchup at Alta-Aurelia this week. Coach Schindler says it will not be easy as the Warriors have a few pieces that make them dangerous.
KLEM Radio will have coverage of the game from Alta on Friday night. Kickoff is at 7:00 PM with pregame starting at 6:15. You can also watch the game on the KLEM Radio YouTube channel.
