Hanson Memorial drops District 7-1A loss to Central Catholic

By Steve Holley
Fresh off a thrilling upset over Vandebilt Catholic the previous week, Central Catholic made sure not to come out flat or make themselves vulnerable to a letdown Friday night against Hanson Memorial.
The Eagles did that by finding the end-zone four times in the first half of a 42-0 shutout victory.
They got three touchdown passes from quarterback DeDe Gant and two rushing scores from tailback Davidylone Bias on the night.
The Eagles’ offense revolved around both Gant and Bias. For his part, Gant opened the scoring with a 26-yard touchdown pass to receiver Brooks Thomas with 6:03 to play in the first quarter. A successful two-point conversion made it 8-0 after the Eagles’ score.
Central Catholic found the end-zone three times in the second period, the first two scores coming courtesy of Bias. The junior running back scored a touchdown from a yard out at the 9-minute mark of the second quarter to push the lead to 16-0 after another successful two-point attempt.
Bias later upped the score to 22-0 with a seven-yard run with 1:39 remaining in the opening quarter.
With so little time left in the half and its offense unable to move the ball for most of the night, Hanson decided to give it one last go to see if it could find positive yards or points.
Unfortunately for the Tigers, they found neither.
Thomas made an interception around midfield to give the Eagles the football with 1:20 still to play, and receiver Bryce Grizzaffi came up big with a 32-yard catch to give Central Catholic a first down at the 18-yard-line.
From there, Gant found Grizzaffi again on an 18-yard touchdown pass with 39 seconds to play in the half to make it 28-0.
Gant threw his third touchdown pass of the night – a 24-yarder to Thomas on the first drive of the second half – to push the lead to 35-0. In the fourth quarter, Hugh Hamer added a two-yard touchdown run to cap the scoring at 42-0.
“It was a productive game,” Central Catholic coach Tommy Minton said afterward. “We came out and did what we needed to do. Defensively, we got a shutout and offensively we only had two possessions where we didn’t get points. It was a sufficient night. We tried to wear them down and (control) the line of scrimmage.”
Gant finished 7-of-12 for 154 yards and three touchdowns while also carrying four times for 38 yards. Bias had 23 touches for 158 yards and two scores, and Hamer totaled 98 yards on 11 carries with one score.
Thomas caught three passes for 63 yards and Grizzaffi had three catches for 72.
All in all, Central Catholic (5-3 overall) racked up 455 yards of total offense in Friday’s win and held Hanson (2-6 overall) to a mere 56 yards total. The Eagles finished with 20 first downs to Hanson’s four.
Lopsided as those totals are, the Eagles weren’t perfect. They did commit two turnovers and were penalized a whopping 12 times for 115 yards.
“It’s a focus issue,” Minton said of the penalties. “This is a rivalry and we’ve been on the good side of it for a long time, but the thing that bothered me most was the talking. You don’t play football with your mouth and we’re going to address that this week in practice.”
Hanson quarterback Stephen Rosamond completed one of five passes for 11 yards and ran for 38 yards on 18 carries as the Tigers’ leader in total yards.