Ouachita Christian routs Central Catholic, 38-0

No. 3 Central Catholic’s successful season came to an end Friday with a 38-0 shutout loss to Class 1A powerhouse and No. 6 seed in the quarterfinal round of the Division IV playoffs.
Ouachita Christian scored on four of its five first-half drives, jumping out to a 24-0 halftime lead. The Eagles added two more fourth-quarter scores for the final.
Central Catholic coach Tommy Minton said Ouachita Christian was a good football team.
“Our program’s not quite there yet,” Minton said. “We gotta get in the weight room. We gotta get bigger, we gotta get stronger. I thought we laid a good foundation this year, and I thought the seniors did a tremendous job of accepting the things that we were trying to do.”
Minton said the team had some successes, something the seniors will remember once the pain of the loss subsides.
“They laid the first bricks on the foundation for what hopefully’s going to be a very, very strong and solid program years to come,” he said.
In the first half, the lone drive the Eagles didn’t score on came when Central Catholic’s Jalen Johnson picked off a pass attempt by Ouachita Christian’s Chance Clowers on the Eagles’ second drive.
While Central Catholic was shutout, the squad did move the ball against Ouachita Christian via the running of Stefano Guarisco and the passing of Blake Byrne. However, the Eagles, like a week ago in a 12-8 win against Delhi Charter, could not finish drives.
“We didn’t get points,” Minton said. “The last two weeks we didn’t get points and that bothers me but we’ll be a year older, a year wiser next year and a year better.”
Ouachita Christian began the game with a six-play, 59-yard drive that concluded with a Josh Pennebacker 8-yard run with 9:17 remaining in the first quarter and a 7-0 lead after Whit Chatman’s extra point.
Pennebacker finished the game with 13 carries for 124 yards and three scores.
Later in the first quarter, the Eagles took possession after one play on Ouachita Christian’s second drive when Johnson intercepted Clowers’ pass and returned it to the Central Catholic 24.
From there, the Eagles went on a lengthy drive that drained the remainder of the first-quarter clock and more than two minutes into the second period.
The drive included a heavy dose of Guarisco runs, while Blake Byrne completed several third-down passes to keep the drive alive.
However, after Central Catholic had moved to the Ouachita Christian 23, Ouachita Christian’s defense stiffened, stopping Guarisco for no gain on second down and Randy Bently sacked Byrne on third down before Randy Dark knocked down a pass attempt by Byrne on fourth down.
Ouachita Christian took over and responded with a drive that ended in a touchdown when Clowers found Jake Slaughter on a pass that he turned into a 40-yard touchdown reception for a 14-0 reception with 7:58 remaining in the first-half.
Slaughter finished the game with four receptions for 72 yards and a score, while Clowers completed 6 of 13 passes for 152 yards with two touchdowns and one interception. Clowers also rushed eight times for 71 yards.
Ouachita Christian added two more first-half scores via a Chatman 41-yard field goal at the 4:19 mark and a 1-yard run by Pennebacker with 2:53 remaining in the second quarter.
While Pennebacker scored the touchdown, it was set up by an outstanding defensive play by Ouachita Christian’s Garryn Chowns.
Chowns, who recorded three interceptions, recorded his first when he picked off Byrne and returned the ball down the Central Catholic sideline.
With just Central Catholic’s Guarisco to beat near the goal line, Chowns took flight and flipped into the end zone over Guarisco for what he thought was a touchdown. However, he was ruled down at the 1 yard line.
Central Catholic moved the ball down to the Ouachita Christian 26 yard line on its final drive of the first half, but Chowns picked off Byrne on a third-down pass and returned it into Central Catholic territory where Guarisco knocked him out of bounds.
Central Catholic received the ball to begin the third quarter and again, moved the ball into Ouachita Christian territory down to the Ouachita Christian 35. However, Byrne’s fourth down pass attempt was incomplete to stall the drive.
Ouachita Christian added its final two touchdowns of the game in the fourth quarter as Clowers connected with Mavrick Wilhite for a 55-yard touchdown complete on a play in which Wilhite made a fingertip catch at the 10:44 mark.
Pennebacker closed the scoring with a 2-yard run at the 4:15 mark of the fourth quarter.
Ouachita Christian finished the game with 367 yards of offense (215 rushing and 152 passing).
Central Catholic had 189 yards of offense (112 rushing and 76 passing).
Guarisco led Central Catholic with 28 carries for 106 yards, while he also completed 1 of 4 passes for 7 yards and caught three passes for 23 yards.
Byrne completed 11 of 22 passes for 69 yards with three interceptions.
Johnson led Central Catholic’s receivers with five receptions for 37 yards.
Despite the loss, things look bright for the Eagles’ future.
“We’re a young team,” Minton said. “Shoot, we trot seven sophomores out there on offense. I got two freshmen that start on defense the majority of the time, so we’re a young team and we’ll be back.”
Additional information from KWBJ TV-22