No. 5 Charlotte Catholic comes up with big late drive and stops rival South Meck
South Mecklenburg High football coach Joe Evans said his team needed to avoid making mistakes if it wanted to beat reigning N.C. 3A state champion Charlotte Catholic.
That didn’t happen Thursday at Memorial Stadium.
Charlotte Catholic, No. 5 in the preseason Sweet 16, won 13-6 on a night when the Sabres had plenty of opportunities to get their first win against Catholic in 13 years.
South Mecklenburg’s defense played a wonderful game, getting stop after stop after Catholic QB Sean Boyle hit tight end Jack Larsen with a 65-yard scoring pass in the first quarter.
The Sabres, while looking much improved over recent seasons, just couldn’t take advantage of multiple opportunities to score.
Down 6-0, South Meck drove into Catholic territory often but didn’t come away with points.
South’s first drive ended on downs in Catholic territory. Its second ended with a 42-yard field-goal try that fell short.
Two more first-half drives went into Catholic territory but ended when Cougars senior Tommy Hoefling got two interceptions in the red zone.
On one of those drives, senior running back Jacob Newman (20 carries, 113 yards) broke off a 52-yard scoring run — a quick-flash play that could’ve given his team a lead — but it was called back because of holding.
And following a weather delay that lasted more than two hours, things didn’t change after halftime for the Sabres.
South Meck got back into the red zone to start the third quarter but was stopped on downs. After that, Charlotte Catholic put up one of the long, time-consuming drives that has marked its run of four straight championships in the 3A class.
The Cougars, who have moved up to 4A this year, took over the ball inside their own 20 and drove for a put-away touchdown — led by senior running back Jimmy Brewer, who busted a series of short crunching runs that kept the Sabres offense off the field.
Fittingly, Brewer caught the scoring pass from Boyle to finish off the drive that ended with less than five minutes to play.
The Sabres did come back with a quick drive of their own, and junior quarterback Cam Reese (130 yards passing, 77 yards rushing) scrambled 9 yards for the score with 94 seconds left.
Catholic recovered the onside kick attempt and allowed the Cougars’ offense to run out the clock.
Charlotte Catholic 6 0 0 7 — 13
South Meck 0 0 0 6 — 6
CC: Jack Larsen 65 pass from Sean Boyle (kick failed)
CC: Jimmy Brewer pass from Boyle (Jack Jones kick)
SM: Cam Reese 9 run (pass failed)
This story was originally published August 19, 2021 at 9:16 PM.
