North Catholic holds off Laurel
Laurel (21) vs. North Catholic (26)
Written: Sep 06, 2008
By STEVE TREU
ncsports@ncnewsonline.com
WEXFORD -— Laurel’s swarming defense dropped North Catholic’s starting running back for 9 yards in losses on 11 carries last night.
Julien Durden’s other four carries, however, killed the Spartans.
Despite rarely getting beyond the line of scrimmage throughout the game, Durden broke free on a few occasions and that was enough to lead the host Trojans to a 26-21 nonconference victory over Laurel.
Although Durden was bottled up for most of the game, the 140-pound freshman burst threw a few holes and scored three touchdowns on dazzling runs of 18, 80 and 31 yards.
“Unbelievable,” North Catholic coach Bob Ravenstahl Jr. said. “What a phenomenal freshman.”
What was most unbelieveable were these numbers: 3, -1, -4, 2, -1, 0, -1, 0, -4, -2, -1.
Those are the yards Durden gained — or lost — on 11 of his carries. Dan Poremski and Dillon Show were among the active Laurel defenders who popped Durden several times in the backfield.
But Durden bounced to the outside for a score on North Catholic’s first possession and dashed through a gaping hole in the line for his long breakaway touchdown on his very next carry. He added a 21-yard run and later snuck out of a pile on the 31-yarder for his third TD, finishing with 141 yards on 15 carries.
Of course, 150 of those yards came on just four totes.
“We missed some tackles out there,” Laurel coach Jerry Holzhauser said. “We work on it all week long, but it’s never like on Friday night. They have some real good athletes that we were chasing around.”
North Catholic’s other “real good athlete” was quarterback Martin Long, who had a pair of long scrambles on the Trojans’ final offensive series to effectively ice the game. On second-and-17 from his own 40, Long ran away from pressure and gained 25 yards, and then the 6-foot-1 sophomore rambled 20 yards on fourth-and-14 to move the sticks another time.
The Trojans (2-0) did not score on that drive, but took five minutes off the clock and left the Spartans with just 40 seconds to try and go 75 yards on their last possession. Four incomplete passes later, the game was over.
Long finished with 184 passing yards (8 for 19) and a 19-yard scoring strike to his older brother, Matt.
“Martin is a very talented young man,” Ravenstahl said. “He pretty much controls the game. He always has the option to take off or look for an open receiver.”
Trailing 13-0 in the second, Robert Jones (18 carries, 79 yards) put Laurel on the board with a 3-yard run. Two minutes later, following a fumble recovery by Show, Tyler Forbes dropped a beautiful fade into the arms of Jake Dando for a 33-yard touchdown at 14-13 lead.
The Spartans kept grinding way in the trenches, but the elusiveness of Durden and both Longs enabled the Trojans to go up 26-14 early in the fourth.
After Forbes engineered a 13-play, 78-yard drive and got into the end zone on a 10-yard slant to Kevin Zubasic with 6:02 remaining, the Trojans killed most of the clock with the help of Long’s two long runs.
“It was a very competetive, very physical game,” Ravenstahl said. “We made some big plays and that was the difference.”
Poremski, Show, Robert Young and Mike Flickner were all involved in quarterback sacks for the Spartans. Forbes completed 9 of 29 passes for 110 yards, while Torrey Price connected with Zubasic for 24 yards on a slick fake punt to key the final scoring drive.
“Our kids played hard,” Holzhauser said. “We have to correct our mistakes on both sides of the ball and then we’ll be OK going into conference play.”
LAUREL NORTH CATHOLIC
15 First downs 11
148 Yards Rushing 250
9 Yards Lost 33
139 Net Rushing 217
30 Passes Attempted 19
10 Passes Completed 8
0 Passes Intercepted 0
134 Yards Passing 184
273 Total Yards 401
0-0 Fumbles-Lost 1-1
2-30 Punts-Average 2-33
4-40 Penalties-Yards 5-40
LAUREL 0 14 0 7 — 21
NORTH CATHOLIC . 13 0 6 7 — 26
Scoring plays
NORTH CATHOLIC— Julian Durden, 18-yard run (kick failed).
NORTH CATHOLIC — Durden, 80-yard run (John Morgan kick).
LAUREL — Bob Jones, 3-yard run (Jonathan Johnson kick).
LAUREL — Jake Dando, 33-yard pass from Tyler Forbes (Johnson kick).
NORTH CATHOLIC — Durden, 31-yard run (run failed).
NORTH CATHOLIC — Matt Long, 19-yard pass from Martin Long (Morgan kick).
LAUREL — Kevin Zubasic, 10-yard pass from Forbes (Johnson kick).
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