Prep Football Roundup: Charlotte Catholic reaches record NCHSAA title game, poised for more

The beat goes on for Charlotte Catholic. The Cougars are going back to the N.C. High School Athletic Association state championship for a ninth time.

That’s a record for a Mecklenburg County team in the NCHSAA playoffs. Independence has made eight finals appearances.

“They buy into exactly what we teach and preach,” Cougars coach Mike Brodowicz said at Monday’s N.C. Football Championships Press Conference at N.C. State’s Vaughn Towers.

Catholic (15-0), which starts seven sophomores, will play in Saturday’s N.C. 3A state championship game against Havelock (14-1). The game will kick off at 3 p.m. at Duke’s Wallace Wade Stadium.

But these Cougars are a little different than the ones that came to the previous eight finals. Catholic has tweaked its run-heavy offense with an intent on becoming more explosive. Brodowicz praised the work of Cougars offensive coordinator Kevin Christmas and offensive line coach Frank Garcia for leading a four-year offense-tweaking process.

“When we got behind by two touchdowns,” Brodowicz said of previous occasions, “you almost had no chance of coming back. We started saying, ‘We just need to do this and this, and we can get the same look.’ Yet it makes us be able to throw the ball.”

Brodowicz said while diversified play design is vital, developing a feel for balancing play calling is even more important.

“When you have to throw the ball when you don’t want to throw the ball, then you don’t work on it as much as your running game as you need to,” he said. “If you can run the ball, and then, teams start stopping that run, then suddenly, those play-action passes make it very easy to throw to open receivers.”

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Harding’s ‘best-dressed’ coach forced to change plans

Harding coach Samuel Greiner wore a white suit with complementing accessories for what he called a John Travolta look at the press conference.

“I need my entrance song,” Greiner said. “That would be great.”

Making the state final, however, meant Greiner had to change his schedule. The coach and Rams quarterback Braheam Murphy (committed to Army) planned to visit Philadelphia this weekend for Saturday’s Army-Navy game.

Harding (13-1) will meet Scotland (12-1) in the 4A final Saturday at 4 p.m. at BB&T Field (Winston-Salem). Both finalists’ lone setbacks were to 4AA finalist Mallard Creek.

This Rams’ state final appearance comes on the 30th anniversary of Harding’s (1987) runner-up finish to Garner at Memorial Stadium.

Mallard Creek’s Palmieri: we’re not underdogs

Mallard Creek coach Mike Palmieri tipped his hat to reigning 4AA state champion Wake Forest. The Mavericks and Cougars will meet Saturday at 12 noon in Winston-Salem.

“The margin for error is really slim when it comes to playing with them,” Palmieri said. “We’ve been on the other side of that.”

It will be the third time the two teams have met in the championship round.

Mallard Creek (14-0) prevailed in the schools’ 2013 and 2014 title matchups. Wake Forest (14-0) is the top-ranked team in the state and has won 30 straight games. But Palmieri didn’t want to yield anything, least of all Wake Forest being a favorite.

“We’re not going to take an underdog role,” he said. “Right now, a lot of people feel Wake Forest, they’ve got a lot of good football players. We’ve got a lot of kids you probably wouldn’t have known before the season started. We’ve got to put our kids in a good position where they can succeed, and keep the game close, hopefully into the fourth quarter.”

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This story was originally published December 4, 2017 at 8:54 PM with the headline "Prep Football Roundup: Charlotte Catholic reaches record NCHSAA title game, poised for more."