Football: Panthers Can't Keep Pace With Sacred Heart

Sacred Heart Cathedral 49, St. Mary's 27

The Star:  Sacred Heart Cathedral running back Valentino Miles piled up 182 yards on 23 carries and scored three rushing touchdowns while adding a receiving touchdown on a 23-yard reception.

The Turning Point:  After a wild first half that saw Sacred Heart Cathedral roll out to a 21-7 advantage, St. Mary's rallied back to get within two points at 21-19 with just less than six minutes left in the half. But a failed onside kick attempt on the ensuing kickoff gave the Irish ideal field position, which they cashed in for a score just two minutes later.

The Quote: "Give all of the credit to them, they took it to us," said St. Mary's head coach Keith Minor.

What's next?  St. Mary's travels to Salesian on Saturday, Sept. 25, at 1:30 p.m.

Bottom Line:  The Panthers were simply unable to stop the Irish's offense and lacked the firepower to keep pace. But St. Mary's also failed to capitalize on several turnovers that could have made the game a lot closer.

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Coming into Friday night's game against Sacred Heart Cathedral at Kezar Stadium in San Francisco, Keith Minor said he knew his young St. Mary's High football team was in for a fight. And after absorbing an early haymaker from the Irish's high-powered offense, the Panthers rallied back to get to within two points midway through the second quarter.

But the Irish landed the knockout blow with 28 unanswered points over the second and third quarters to seal a 49-27 victory and send St. Mary's to a 0-2 start on the season.

"Give all of the credit to them," said St. Mary's coach Keith Minor after the game. "They took it to us and we couldn't stop them."

Leading the charge was Irish running back Valentino Miles, who piled up 182 rushing yards on 23 carries. Miles scored three touchdowns on the ground and added a 23-yard reception from quarterback Sean Murphy for a fourth score in a dominating performance.

Murphy also picked apart the Panthers' defense on the ground, with 101 yards on nine carries, and also scored three times on the ground in addition to his pass to Miles.

By the time the game ended, Sacred Heart had piled up 502 yards of offense against St. Mary's, and did not have to punt the ball once during the entire game.

"That says it all right there," Minor said."We didn't tackle well and they kept moving the ball."

Still, Minor saw some good things from his team, starting with coming from behind early in the game to make a contest of it before halftime.  The Irish scored on its first three possessions of the game, two scoring runs by Murphy and one by Miles, to go up 21-7 just 10 minutes into the game.

But a two-yard run by quarterback Francisco Torres, who had earlier connected with Chris Carnegie on a 15-yard pass for a touchdown, and a 20-yard run for a score by Chance Moses, pulled the Panthers to 21-19 with 5:47 left in the half.

Minor had started playing aggressively, trying to keep Sacred Heart's offense off the field, and called a second onside kick attempt despite only being down by two.

The move backfired as the kick went out of bounds at the 45 and Miles plunged in from four yards out just more than two minutes later to give command of the game back to the Irish. The score also started a 28-point run that sealed the Panthers' fate as well.

"There were some good things we saw out there," Minor said. "We came back and we moved the ball on them. We just couldn't stop them."

The Panthers will move forward and look for their first win of the season next Saturday at rival Salesian at 1:30 p.m.

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Sacred Heart Cathedral 49, St. Mary's College 27

St. Mary's  7 12 0 8 — 27

Sacred Heart  21 14 7 7 — 49

Scoring summary

9:16, 1st: Sean Murphy 8 run (John Harrington kick)

7:16, 1st: Chris Carnegie 15 pass from Francisco Torres (Taylor Thompson kick)

5:36, 1st: Valentino Miles 7 run (Harrington kick)

1:32, 1st: Murphy 3 run (Harrington kick)

7:54, 2nd: Torres 2 run (kick failed)

5:47, 2nd: Chance Moses 20 run (pass failed)

3:17, 2nd: Miles 4 run (Harrington kick)

1:01, 2nd: Miles 23 pass from Murphy (Harrington kick)

3:43, 3rd: Miles 1 run (Harrington kick)

11:57, 4th: Murphy 1 run (Harrington kick)

8:32, 4th: Carnegie 10 pass from Torres (Isaac Richard run)

Individual stats

Rushing (car-yards): SM – Isaac Richard 20-61, Chance Moses 5-25, Francisco Torres 4-6; SHC — Valentino Miles 23-182, Sean Murphy 9-101, Zachary Tapel 7-27, Jordan Gomes 4-26.   

Passing (comp-att-yards-ints): SM –Torres 11-23-166-1, Kevin Flemer 0-1-0-0; SHC —Murphy 9=18-166-2. 

Receiving (rec-yards): SM – Chris Carnegie 5-68. Richard 2-47, Murad Williams 2-29, Moses 2-23,Blake Terrell 1-19; SHC — Rory O'Driscoll 2-45, Thomas McCarthy 1-35, Tapel 1-26, Miles 1-23, Jeivon Parker 2-21, James Na 1-14, Gomes 1-2.

Team offense (rush-pass-total)

St. Mary's — 78-166-244

Sacred Heart — 336-166-502

Fumbles/lost: SM –1/0; SHC —6/2.

Records: St. Mary's College 0-2, Sacred Heart Cathedral 3-0

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