Charlotte Catholic football opens with a statement, shuts down South Meck to start season
Charlotte Catholic head coach Keith Emery wasn’t worried so much about the mistakes his team made in its season opener, but the final score.
That wound up putting a smile on Emery’s face, as the Cougars pulled away early, then held off South Mecklenburg’s second-half turnaround to win 26-10 Friday night.
Despite a spate of mistakes — four personal foul penalties, for starters — Catholic wound up beating the Sabres in a season opener for the fifth straight year and extending its winning streak over its rivals to 15 consecutive games.
“A win is a win is a win is a win,” Emery said. “It’s a good opponent — a rivalry team from just down the street — so we’ll take it.
“We’ve got things to fix, sure … but every team does. Every team’s getting better from Week 1 to Week 2. We’ll watch the film and evaluate, take a look and improve on the things we didn’t do well.”
However, the Cougars also had plenty of things go right Friday night — they got rushing touchdowns from Garrett Nowlan and Jake Anderson, quarterback Charlie Smith had a touchdown pass to Drew Dinkin, and Jon Fijalkowski added a pick-six interception return in the third quarter.
Charlotte Catholic (1-0) finished with 274 yards total offense and 14 first downs, and could have had more points on the scoreboard save for its mistakes. For example, Roman Hyland missed a 40-yard field goal on the Cougars’ opening drive, and Nowlan fumbled a potential TD run in the fourth quarter.
That gave South Mecklenburg (0-1) openings to get back in the game, and for the most part, the Sabres took advantage of them.
After getting shut down offensively in the first quarter, South Meck went on to pile up 332 yards of total offense and 22 first downs. However, the Sabres had their own mistakes — two interceptions by Carter Gillis, for example — which kept them off the scoreboard in the first half.
But South did break out of the shutout in the second half on Austin Metcalf’s 30-yard field goal in the third quarter, and Gillis’ 5-yard TD pass to Kaleb Vines in the fourth.
“We’ve got a tough, gritty bunch,” South Meck head coach Joe Evans said. “Obviously, we’re upset about losing … but I love the way they fought for four quarters. They didn’t lay down when they got down; they fought all the way back.
“We had some beautiful mistakes that kinda hurt us, and some things that kinda hurt us. But we’ve got to create our own destiny.”
Players who made a difference
Jake Anderson, Charlotte Catholic: The Cougars’ leading rusher last season (707 yards, 13 TDs) got off to a good start to the 2024 season. He finished with a game-high 120 yards rushing, including a 37-yard touchdown in the third quarter.
Carter Gillis, South Mecklenburg: Finished with 208 passing yards and one touchdown for the Sabes, completing 22 of 35 attempts.
Notes
▪ Catholic had problems with its kicking game Friday, with senior Roman Hyland missing two easy extra-point attempts in the first half.
Emery opted to make a change at halftime, going with sophomore Aiden Flynn. Flynn would make both of his extra-point attempts. Hyland remained handling kickoffs and punts.
Up next
South Mecklenburg plays its home opener Friday, Aug. 25, hosting Providence. That same evening, Charlotte Catholic hits the road to play Northern Durham in Durham. Game time for both is 7 p.m.
GAME SUMMARY
SOUTH MECKLENBURG 0 0 3 7 –- 10
CHARLOTTE CATHOLIC 6 6 14 0 – 26
First Quarter
CC—Garrett Nowlan 19 run (kick failed), 42.8.
Second Quarter
CC—Charlie Smith 7 pass to Drew Dinkin (kick failed), 53.0.
Third Quarter
CC-Jon Fijalkowski 54 interception return (Aidan Flynn kick), 8:14.
SM—Austin Metcalf 30 FG, 3:59.
CC—Jake Anderson 37 run (Flynn kick), 1:52.
Fourth Quarter
SM—Carter Gillis 5 pass to Kaleb Vines (Metcalf kick), 9:29.
