Lake Catholic Grabs Four Interceptions In Victory Over NDCL

’s defense is clearly blessed with great hands, squeezing one interception after another and twisting the life out of its opponents.

The Cougars defense picked off Lions quarterback Robbie Nash four times and returned one for a touchdown as the Cougars downed Notre Dame Cathedral Latin, 24-10, Friday night at Jerome T. Osborne Sr. Stadium.

The Cougars, ranked sixth in the Division III Associated Press state poll this week, improved to 6-1 and 2-1 in the North Coast League, while NDCL dropped to 5-2 and 1-1 in the league.

Perhaps Nash’s multiple interceptions Friday night weren’t much of a surprise as he had thrown 11 picks entering the game. The Cougars demonstrated their ball-hawking prowess with five interceptions in a 30-6 victory over Benedictine last week.

Evan Gormley, the Cougars’ all-everything guy, picked off Nash and scampered 55 yards for the game’s first touchdown that gave Lake Catholic a 9-0 lead at 5:02 of the second quarter after the team converted a first quarter safety.

Richie Miller had two interceptions, while Zach Hawkins had the other one to give the Cougars 16 interceptions on the season.

“A lot of that had to do with the heat we were getting up front pressuring the quarterback. We had some guys who were able to make nice plays on the ball in the secondary. Obviously it had an impact on the game,” Lake Catholic Coach Mike Bell said.

Despite taking three passes from the Lions in the first half, Nash managed to find Tim Helton for a 6-yard TD pass to trim the Cougars lead to 9-7 with 20 seconds remaining in the second quarter.

Nash seemed to find his footing in the Lions’ opening drive of the second half as he led them to a Nick Matic 36-yard field goal that gave NDCL the lead at 11:55 of the third quarter.

But Hawkins stepped in front of a Nash pass to stop a Lions’ drive, and Mark Baniewicz eventually banged in from 1 yard out to give the Cougars the lead for good, 17-10, with 26 seconds left in the third quarter.

In the fourth quarter, Baniewicz hit Gormley for a 67-yard score for his second TD throw of the season at 8:07 to seal the game, 24-10.

“The way NDCL was playing us, we had to let Mark throw the ball more over the top. He’s good enough that way that he’s going to force defenses to be honest,” Bell said.

The Cougars junior quarterback struggled most of the game to find much on the ground or in the air. Baniewicz went 7-for-15 passing for 135 yards and one interception and had most of the Cougars’ rushing workload with 24 carries for 59 yards.

Gormley, who had a season-best 182 yards against Benedictine last week, had 21 yards on 11 carries and no rushing touchdowns.

Nash had a horrendous evening going 11-of-34 passing for 142 yards.

Lake Catholic goes on the road and faces Padua on Friday night at 7 p.m.

Notre Dame Cathedral Latin        0        7       3          0            10

Lake Catholic                                2        7       8          7            24

1^st Quarter

Lake Catholic – Justin Kravhuc safety

2^nd Quarter

Lake Catholic – Gormley 55 INT return (Korb kick)

NDCL – Helton 6 pass from Nash (Matic kick)

3^rd Quarter

NDCL – Matic 36 field goal

Lake Catholic – Baniewicz 1 run (Hawkins pass from Baniewicz)

4^th Quarter

Lake Catholic – Gormley 67 pass from Baniewicz (Korb kick)