No. 5 Charlotte Catholic stops Palisades, will face N.C. state power Greensboro Grimsley

Charlotte Catholic, No. 5 in The Charlotte Observer’s Sweet 16 poll, is headed to the third round of the N.C. 4A playoffs after beating Palisades 31-7 Friday.

Palisades, a third-year school, won a share of the Queen City 3A/4A conference title and won a playoff game. In its first two seasons, the Pumas were 5-16.

Friday night, however, belonged to Catholic, which got solid play on both sides of the ball. The Cougars (9-2) scored touchdowns on offense, defense and special teams. Running back Jake Anderson scored twice as Catholic won its eighth straight.

After a three-and-out on Palisades’ first possession of the game, Charlotte Catholic used several runs to drive the ball downfield on an 8-minute drive that was capped off by a 1-yard touchdown by Anderson.

But first-year coach Keith Emery saw a lot of things his team could improve on before a “Black Friday” third round at No. 1 4A Western seed Greensboro Grimsley.

“We have some work to do. Obviously we have a chance to win in the third round and we want to do better than we did today.” Emery said after the win.

The Cougars put away their second-round game three minutes into the second quarter, when running back Nick Bierman ran back a 56-yard punt return to give Charlotte Catholic a 14-0 lead.

At the end of the second quarter, Charlotte Catholic had put together an 81-yard drive highlighted by a 27-yard run by Anderson and a 17-yard screen pass to running back Web Helms. Anderson finished the drive with another 1-yard touchdown to put the Cougars up 21-0 at halftime.

Palisades’ troubles would continue after the half as a punt return mishap caused the Pumas to start their drive at their own 10-yard line.

On the next play, Palisades running back Lincoln Wise fumbled the ball. Catholic defensive lineman Hunter Chromy scooped it up and returned it for a touchdown to stretch the lead to 28-0.

“I thought we played pretty well,” Anderson said. “We definitely have some things to address for next week against Grimsley. We have a lot of work to do and we have a lot of time to do it.”