Blade
Central rips St. Francis
Irish?s Jacoby runs for 4 TDs; Bouyer gains 179 yards in rout
By STEVE JUNGA
BLADE SPORTS WRITER
Unbeaten Central Catholic looked every bit like its No. 1 state ranking last night, spotting St. Francis de Sales an early touchdown before romping to a 38-7 City League football victory at the Glass Bowl.
The defending Division II state champion Fighting Irish (7-0, 4-0 CL) carved up the Knights on the ground in capturing the Irish Knight rivalry trophy for a third straight year and extending their current overall win streak to 20 games.
Leading the 286-yard ground attack was junior back Cedric Bouyer, who carried the mail, and senior Paul Jacoby, who put it in the box.
Bouyer churned out 179 yards on 19 carries, and Jacoby added 41 on eight rushes, including TD runs of 3, 18, 3 and 7 yards.
St. Francis (2-5, 2-2) came up with the game?s first turnover and wasted no time capitalizing.
Chris Weiland intercepted a Tyler Kleeberger pass and returned it 28 yards to the Irish 19.
After two penalties on the Knights, fullback Nick Wawrzyniak ran 28 yards to the 1, and Weiland took it in a play later for a 7-0 St. Francis lead 2:04 into the game.
But that only seemed to wake up Central, as the Irish responded with 38 unanswered points, 24 before halftime.
?That scared us,? Irish coach Greg Dempsey said. ?They came out and made a big play and did a couple things coverage-wise that we weren?t expecting.
?But I?ve got to give our guys credit for bouncing right back on the next drive. Kleeberger made the big first-down play and the offense drove the football.?
First, Central drove 67 yards in eight plays, the biggest Kleeberger?s 22-yard third-down scramble.
Two plays after Bouyer?s 15-yard burst to the St. Francis 5, Jacoby went the final three yards and Central tied it 7-7.
The following Irish drive closed on Ryan Kaminski?s 28-yard field goal.
Next, Central covered 53 yards in eight plays with four Bouyer runs and three Kleeberger completions setting up Jacoby?s 18-yarder 6:31 before halftime.
Central again used eight plays to move 67 yards and get Jacoby in on a three-yard TD run, this one a minute before halftime. The key play was Bouyer?s 41-yard sprint around right end to the Knight 26.
?As long as we get in there, that?s all that matters,? Bouyer said of Jacoby finishing the drives. ?And, as long as we get the ?W.? We wanted to step it up and prove that we?re the No. 1 team in the state.
?I really have to give thanks to my offensive line. They did most of the work for me.?
The 31-point margin was Central?s biggest in the Irish Knight series, topping a 39-13 win in 1972. St. Francis has a 28-19-1 lead in the series.
?It was just an old-fashioned butt-kicking they put on us,? veteran Knights coach Dick Cromwell said. ?It?s a 48-minute game and we were only ahead a few seconds. They didn?t do anything we didn?t expect, we just weren?t good enough to play with them.?
Central added two second-half TDs, with Kleeberger (9-of-13, 124 yards) hitting Dane Sanzenbacher on a 55-yard strike with six seconds left in the third quarter, and Jacoby adding his last score 3:31 into the fourth.
?I just ran straight, put my shoulder down, and did my job,? Jacoby said of his TD effort. ?When I saw how hyped up we were at school [yesterday], and how focused we were, I knew something big was going to happen.?
Central held a 410-149 edge in total offense over St. Francis, which was 1-for-15 passing for seven of those yards.
Great Dane has Great Hands