New king of the Southern Carolina? Catholic’s making powerful statemant in league

Charlotte Catholic made a big statement in its first road game in its new conference Thursday night.

Playing at reigning Southern Carolina Conference and reigning N.C. 3AA state champion Weddington, the Cougars laid their claim as the new king of the league made up of predominately Union County teams.

Years ago, Catholic was similarly dominant as a 2A team in the Union-based Rocky River 2A. Thursday night, the Cougars served noticed that some time has passed since they were last playing the Monroe-area teams, but the results have not.

Catholic (6-0, 2-0) beat Monroe 49-6 at home last week in its first game in its new league and backed it up with Thursday’s 42-6 win against Weddington. As usual, Catholic’s offense came mostly from its punishing ground game. The Cougars had nearly 300 yards total and four scores running the ball.

And this is a fairly young Catholic team. As good as 2017 could be — and it could be state championship good — 2018 could be even better.

Observations

▪ Charlotte Catholic’s defense appears to be pretty good. In six games, no team has scored more than 14 points against the Cougars, and one of those 14-point games happened after Catholic cleared the bench.

▪  Marvin Ridge (6-0, 2-0) looks like a legitimate contender and challenger to Charlotte Catholic in the Southern Carolina. The Mavericks beat Monroe 51-7 Thursday and will play Charlotte Catholic to end the regular season. Circle that one on your calendar.

▪ Harding’s run game is turning into a real weapon. The Rams ran for 467 yards Thursday, and last week had 389 in a win over West Mecklenburg. In two weeks, junior Quavaris Crouch has rushed for 596 yards. On 32 carries.

▪  Earlier this week, Charlotte Latin coach Larry McNulty said he hadn’t seen a Providence Day team this good in years. McNulty’s reigning NCISAA Division I champions lost to the Chargers 24-14 Thursday.

Thursday’s Top Performers

Quavaris Crouch, Harding: Ran for 350 yards, four touchdowns in a 46-23 win over Providence. Crouch had scoring runs of 85, 76, 53 and 18 yards. He did it in 10 carries. Crouch set a school record for single-game rushing and turned in the ninth-best rushing performance in Mecklenburg County history.

Milan Howard, Charlotte Catholic: He ran for 101 yards and two touchdowns in win over Weddington.

Braeden McCarthy, Cannon School: He had two interceptions in a 20-0 win over SouthLake Christian.

Nigel Summerville, Vance: Completed 14-of-20 passes for 233 yards and two scores in a 47-0 win over Hopewell.

Thursday’s Roundup

Butler 26, Porter Ridge 17: Butler remained unbeaten in the Southwestern 4A, rushing for 333 yards while passing for just 19. Porter Ridge had two turnovers. Butler had none. After the teams were tied at 14 at half, Butler outscored Porter Ridge 12-3 in the third quarter.

Myers Park 21, Rocky River 0: Myers Park earned its fourth shutout this season. Elijah Bowick got a 10-yard pass from Brayden Hawkins and the Mustangs (6-0, 2-0) got two defense touchdowns — a 31-yard interception return from Trey Bly and a 15-yard interception return from Shane Collins.

Cuthbertson 24, Piedmont 7: Junior Davis Walker completed 11-of-23 passes for 138 yards and two touchdowns. Junior tailback Myles Wallace ran 11 times for 94 yards in the win.

Cannon 20, SouthLake Christian 0: Luke Binkley and Zach O’Bryan combined for 19 tackles and Braeden McCarthy had two interceptions on defense for Cannon, which bounced back from last week’s blowout loss to Providence Day. On offense, Bailey Jones threw for 102 yards and rushed for 35.

Charlotte Country Day 44, Rabun Gap 0: The Bucs led 34-0 at halftime and cruised. John Hosmer threw for 90 yards and two touchdowns. Tim Newman ran 18 times for 51 yards and a score.

This story was originally published September 29, 2017 at 3:17 PM with the headline "New king of the Southern Carolina? Catholic’s making powerful statemant in league."