Pirates walk the plank as Pios roll on

Image
Body

For all but seven minutes of the third quarter, the Notre Dame defense was all that Kaplan had hoped they wouldn’t be. By then, though, it was a little too late.
The Pios took advantage of field position with five scoring drives from mid field or closer to defeat Kaplan, 35-6, Thursday night at Gardner Stadium. Notre Dame head coach Lewis Cook has his team off to another fast start as the season moves into district play.
“We came through three pretty tough weeks and I am pleased with the way we have been able to focus and just put good games on top of good games. They are not a bad team and we knew they were not going to back away, that they would fight hard and battle to the end. I’m proud of our guys because they did the same thing.”
Kaplan did come to play and gave the Pios a quarter of fits by mixing defensive looks to stall the Pios ground game. Notre Dame was equally effective against the Kaplan Wing T attack and the teams battled to a scoreless first period.
“They were getting after us pretty good and flying around to the football,” added Cook. “Defensively, we were able to kind of keep them at bay while we were trying to figure out where they were going to line up. We were holding them back and getting good field position.”
After a Kaplan punt, Pios QB Garrett Bergeron completed a nine-yard pass to Gentry Borill for a first down at the Pirates 46-yard line. On the first play of the second quarter, Bergeron lofted a deep pass to Zack Miller down the middle of the field for a 46-yard score. The point after by John William Lamm gave the Pios a 7-nothing lead.
“We had a chance to do that early in the game and couldn’t reel it in,” said Cook. “Garrett threw a nice pass and hit Zack in stride. The touchdown was a huge lift for us.”
Kaplan gained five yards on three runs and quickly punted back. On third down and 15 yards to go at the Pios 45, QB Bergeron dumped a screen pass to Waylon Bourgeois on the Pios sideline. The senior running back turned upfield between good blocking and outran defenders for a 55-yard TD. Lamm added the Pat for a 14-0 Pios lead.
“The second quarter we started to figure things out and the slip screed to Waylon put us up two scores and that was big. We had some good blocks, but Waylon set it up and bounced it back to get to the goal line and did a lot of it on his own.”
Linebacker John Hoffpauir led the PIos with 15 tackles on the night and two of those were on second and third down tackles of Kaplan halfback Mac Thibeaux to force another punt. Again, taking over at midfield, ND had a short field, but took ten plays and four minutes to score.
C.J. Thibodeaux got things going with back-to-back runs of-eight yards. QB Garrett Bergeron followed his line for a two-yard run on fourth and one at the Pirates 30 and Collin Kirsch gained twelve yards and another first down. Two plays later, Kirsch slashed off right tackle and one cut straight to the end zone running over a tackler at the goal line for a 21-nothing halftime lead.
“We figured we would see multiple looks and they were doing what we call stemming, giving us a lot of looks before the snap and jumping around not to show it. When that happens, one guy steps the wrong way and all of a sudden somebody is in your backfield. We were able to solve it a bit on that drive before the half.”
Kaplan put itself in trouble on the first series of the second half picking up an unsportsmanlike conduct penalty after John Hoffpauir dropped Kaplan halfback Mac Thibeaux for a three-yard loss. Pios safety David Schmid intercepted a Trae Case pass at the Kaplan 25.
Waylon Bourgeois took the first snap straight up the field for a 25-yard TD run. Lamm added the PAT for a quick 28-0 Notre Dame lead.
Kaplan snapped a streak of nine scoreless quarters by the Pios defense with a seven-minute scoring drive. The Pirates loaded up one side to the other with more blockers than tacklers and were able to muscle a 13-play, 70-yard drive, with only two plays longer than nine yards. QB Trae Case covered the final four yards and a failed two-point conversion made it 28-6, Pios.
“We got a little sloppy after their score,” added Cook. “We make a good run and get the ball knocked out. We get a good punt return and get the ball pulled out. You lose that cohesiveness with that kind of play, but we bounced back for a score.”
Tasking over at the Kaplan 39, Bergeron tossed a 13-yard pass on the edge to Waylon Bourgeois. On fourth and 4 at the Kaplan33, Notre Dame sealed the win with a 33-yard TD pass to Gentry Borill.
“It was a mesh route where the tight end runs a cross and I rub shoulders with him going underneath,” explained Borill. “He takes the linebacker with him and it leaves me an open hole. Garrett put it out in front of me going toward our sideline, I turned it up and got a couple of good blocks down field to take it in.”
QB Bergeron had another big night with 213 yards and three scores on 11-of-18 passing. Borill had four catches for 73 yards, Zack Miller caught three passes for 65 yards and Waylon Bourgeois had 68 yards on two catches. Each had a touchdown in Coach Cook’s passing attack.
“You have to have the ability to throw the ball. If they are going to do one thing they are going to give up something. “They lined up a little wider in some cases and were determined to make us throw the football. They used multiple formations with different coverages and a couple of times guys were turned loose. We threw different screens at them, short stuff and went down the field.”
Notre Dame outgained the Pirates, 338 to 173 yards and held Kaplan to 161 yards on the ground, most coming on the one scoring drive. Kaplan was forced to the air ten times and completed just one pass. The Pios sacked the QB three times and logged nine tackles for a loss.
“Our guys played really well,” summed up coach Cook. “We did a lot of really good things in the game. I tell them we want to stay on an even keel. You get too high sometimes and that drop is a lot longer. Now we start district and it’s a new season with new teams. It will be fun playing somebody new and we have to kick it in, keep improving and see where it gets us.”
Notre Dame travels to Kinder next week for the opening of District play.