| No touchdowns - no win, JCA falls again |
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Lets get one thing straight right from the start. JCA has dropped two games in a row, but two games to two very good programs. Rockhurst scored touchdowns in the red zone JCA did not.
Trading field goals for touchdowns is never a good thing and JCA found out the hard way tonight.
After stopping Rockhurst on it's opening drive, Catholic opened the scoring with a field goal making it 3-0. They stopped Rockhurst on their second series, and after getting the ball back Ross Crampton broke a long TD run, only to have it called back for an illegal block penalty. That would have made the score 10-0 Catholic. Instead, Rockhurst stopped Catholic on the drive after the penalty, and scored on it's next possession, making it 7-3.
This season, Catholic has shown a tendency to commit drive killing penalties at the most inopportune times. Tonight was no different.
While a very good Rockhurst team won 28-9, the game was never decided until the fourth quarter with about 9 minutes left. Up only 14 to 9, and facing a 3 and 15, Rockhurst converted and went on to score. In fact Rockhurst converted two 3rd and long situations in the same drive. Rockhurst added a late TD after JCA turned the ball over on downs at their own 15 with less than a minute left.
It's very difficult to fault the defense for the conversions in the fourth quarter. They were on the field the majority of the game. Without a consistent offense, JCA will only go as far as it's defense will take them.
Rockhurst is clearly very well coached, very disciplined, easily the best team we've faced this year.
The QB is a very good runner, doesn't seem to have a lot of skill throwing the ball but, good enough to get the job done tonight. He floated a ball to a wide open receiver who went in for the score. But he ran the ball far better than he threw it.
Any "position match-up" with the two junior running backs Temple and Buchanan didn't turn into a match-up at all. Temple showed great speed to the outside, and strong running inside. Buchanan left the game in the 3rd quarter with an injury, but was largely a non-factor up to that point.
Although it's probably impossible, this would be a great series to continue with Rockhurst. While Rockhurst won the game, they certainly didn't dominate JCA. The two teams were pretty evenly matched. While JCA's offense continues to scuffle, we just didn't have the scoring threat necessary to win tonight.
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