Roanoke Catholic jumps out to a big lead in 21-6 win over Virginia Spartans
Vineyard Park, Vinton, VA – The Roanoke Catholic Celtics, under first year head coach Howard Tucker moved to 4-3 with a hard fought Homecoming win over the Virginia Spartans. In a physical contest, both defenses stood out early.
“We are a young team, so we have a lot to work on… it was our Homecoming for our Seniors. We wanted to get this win for them.” – Roanoke Celtic Howard Tucker
On the Spartans first play, Catholic DL 72 DL/K Kaleb Hustead recovered a fumble. The Spartan defense answered with a ‘there and out’ series.
Following that, the visitors moved the ball on a couple big plays by QB/WR 14 Sean Taylor, a 24-yard scamper and a 30-yard pass to Senior WR/DB 5 Arnaz Henderson, down to the Celtics goal line. However, Roanoke Catholic’s defense were having none of it. The Celts mustered up a goal line stand, culminating in a 4th down interception by Sophomore S/RB 4 Yajae Harrison.
Coach Tucker wanted to get the ground game going early, “We worked really hard on our running game this week. We wanted to establish the run.” Roanoke Catholic scored first with Harrison punching in a run from 8-yards out with 10:53 left in the first quarter to put the Celts up 7-0.
It didn’t take long after that for the Celtics and Harrison to make it 14-0, on a 7-yard run to push the score to 14-0 at the break. Harrison turned the hat trick with a third quarter 15-yard TD scamper extending the lead to 21-0. Credit the Spartans though, they never gave up. QB 14 Sean Taylor, seemingly on the run all night, scrambled into the end zone from 10-yards out to get the visitors on the board, 21-6. The 2-point try was no good. That’s how it would end. Coach Tucker was pleased to get another win especially for the Seniors. “We are a young team, so we have a lot to work on… it was our Homecoming for our Seniors. We wanted to get this win for them.” – Chase Dorman
