The Donahue Catholic Shamrocks will square off against the Shorecrest Prep Chargers at 7:00 p.m. on Friday. Both squads will be entering this one on the heels of a big victory.
With a playoff game on the line, Donahue Catholic rose to the challenge on Friday. They didn't even let Riverside Christian onto the board and left with a 28-0 victory. The score at the end of the third wound up being the final score as Donahue Catholic just coasted through the last quarter.
Leo Cantwell continued his habit of posting crazy stat lines, rushing for 302 yards and four touchdowns while picking up 11.6 yards per carry. Cantwell was no stranger to the big play, turning on the jets for a run that went for 66 yards. John McCabe and his 93 yards on the ground were also a key factor in Donahue Catholic's victory.
On the other side of the ball, a lot of the credit has to go to Donahue Catholic's defense and their six sacks. The heavy lifting was done by Athanasius Niewald and Isaiah Loboda who racked up four sacks between them.
Meanwhile, Shorecrest Prep put another one in the bag on Friday to keep their perfect season alive. They claimed a resounding 35-8 victory over Ocala Christian at home.
Nickolas Bearden was his usual excellent self, rushing for 99 yards and four touchdowns on only 11 carries, while also throwing for 95 yards and a touchdown. Bearden has been hot recently, having posted two or more rushing touchdowns the last six times he's played.
Donahue Catholic has yet to lose a game at home this season, leaving them with a 9-1 record. It's not like the team was facing easy opposition over that stretch either, as it included 10-1 Shorecrest Prep and 9-2 All Saints' Academy (their opponents had an average overall winning percentage of 63% over those games). As for Shorecrest Prep, their victory bumped their record up to 10-0.
Friday's contest might be decided on the ground as these two are both standouts in the run game. Donahue Catholic has been unstoppable on the ground this season, having averaged 403.8 rushing yards per game. However, it's not like Shorecrest Prep struggles in that department as they've been averaging 222.6 per game. It's looking like Friday's matchup might have some serious battles in the trenches. Come back here after the game to get analysis of the match and other football content.
Donahue Catholic took a serious blow against Shorecrest Prep in their previous matchup back in October, falling 43-0. A big factor in that loss was the dominant performance of Shorecrest Prep's Bearden, who rushed for 90 yards and two touchdowns on only 12 carries, and also threw for 154 yards and a touchdown. Now that Donahue Catholic knows the damage he can cause, will they be able to stop him this time? Check MaxPreps.com after the match to find out.
