BRYANT - The Little Rock Catholic Rockets had an answer for everything the Bryant Hornets threw at them Friday night.
Zachary Pinter threw for 246 yards and three touchdowns, Joe Mariani ran for 160 yards and two touchdowns and Cole Moore intercepted two passes as Catholic beat Bryant 37-19.
“I’m just proud of these kids,” said Catholic Coach John Fogleman, whose team won for the first time in three games this season. “The last two games, we’ve had some of these opportunities, and they’ve gone the other way against us. We hadn’t made the catches, we fumbled or whatever, and been our worst enemies.
“But when they scored, we answered. When our offense didn’t punch it in, our defense answered.”
The Rockets trailed 19-17 at halftime, but ended the second quarter on a high note after a special teams error put them in a hole.
A high snap on a punt attempt sailed into the end zone, and Bryant’s Connor Chapdelaine recovered the ball in the end zone for a 19-10 lead with 1:37 to go in half.
It was all Catholic after intermission.
The Rockets scored on their first drive of the third quarter when Pinter threw an 8-yard touchdown pass to Aaron Hamaker. And they scored on their first two possessions of the fourth quarter as Pinter threw a 43-yard touchdown pass to Julian Hutchinson and a 6-yard touchdown pass to D.J. Brown.
Pinter finished 17 of 25 passing, including 7 of 8 for 112 yards and 3 touchdowns in the second half. Mariani was the workhorse, averaging 3.9 yards on his 41 carries. Hamaker had four catches for 76 yards and a touchdown, and Brown had four receptions for 34 yards and a touchdown and 12 carries for 31 yards.
“I feel like they came out here with a mission,” Bryant Coach Paul Calley said of the Rockets. “And they played almost perfect football. They did everything they had to do. They controlled the line of scrimmage on both sides. They had a great game plan.”
Bryant (1-2) had a tough time one week after running past Little Rock Central 28-14.
Hornets quarterback Brandan Warner returned to the field after missing last week’s game with a concussion. But he ended up 8 of 15 passing for 68 yards with a touchdown - on his first throw - and two interceptions.
Bryant tried alternating quarterbacks after Devonte Howard had a big game against Central, and Howard even started in place of Warner. But Howard finished the game with four carries for 11 yards.
Bryant struggled to find running room against Catholic’s five-man front, and Warner ended up throwing off his back foot much of the time because of the pressure he faced.
“They covered us up inside, where we couldn’t do a lot of pulling,” Calley said. “They took our zone away and put pressure on the quarterback. We couldn’t run it. We couldn’t throw it. When you can’t do that, you’re going to have a hard time scoring points.”
Sports, Pages 27 on 09/21/2013