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KINGSTON — Another slow start to the night proved fatal for Holy Redeemer, putting the Royals in a hole that, despite a spirited effort, couldn’t climb out of.
Holy Cross picked off two passes and scored 21 points in the first quarter, putting themselves in position to ride out the rest of the game and pick up a 34-10 victory over Holy Redeemer on Saturday night at Spartan Stadium.
The Crusaders picked off Brady McDermott to end both of Holy Redeemer’s first two drives and turned both takeaways into touchdowns.
The first scoring drive, capped off by a rushing touchdown from Holy Cross quarterback Josh Lentowski began just inside Holy Redeemer territory.
The second started on the Royals 27, and Holy Cross needed just one play to score. Lentowski hit wideout Kevin Vincent for 27 yards, and Holy Redeemer found itself in a quick 14-0 hole.
“It’s a growing pain, we start out slow,” Holy Redeemer coach Tyson Kelley said. “For the time we put in, we just need to take care of the mental mistakes early.”
The turnovers would stop there for the Royals, but several penalties and miscues put a premature end to several more drives in the first half, allowing Holy Cross to continue to add to their lead.
Holy Cross took a 28-0 lead into halftime, and led 34-0 at the end of the third quarter. Leland Wudarski scored right before the half and right at the end of the third quarter for the Crusaders, adding two touchdowns to his 145-yard night on the ground.
The lights never quite went out on Holy Redeemer, though. After allowing 21 points in the first quarter, the Royals defense gave up just 13 the rest of the way.
On offense, McDermott began to settle in and connect on his short passes, which eventually opened up a home-run ball: a 58-yard completion to Josh Grochowski in the fourth quarter.
The Royals got on the board early in the fourth thanks to the leg of Zach Schultz, the kicker drilling a 31-yarder to make it a 34-3 game.
After a stop, McDermott led the Royals back downfield, and Tommy Dugan scored on a 2-yard run up the gut to cap off Holy Redeemer’s only touchdown drive of the night with two minutes remaining, giving the Redeemer fans a reason to cheer even with a loss looming.
“I think it says a lot about the character of our guys,” Kelley said. “We have a lot of high-character kids in the program…they care, it’s certainly not an issue of kids caring.”
Holy Redeemer drops to 0-6 on the year, and the Royals will take the trip up to fellow District 2 independent Montrose next Friday night.
Holy Cross improves to 3-3, with Riverside next up on the Crusaders’ schedule.
Holy Cross 34, Holy Redeemer 10
Holy Cross`21`7`6`0 — 34
Holy Redeemer`0`0`0`10 — 10
First Quarter
HC — Josh Lentowski 1 run (Connor Farrell kick), 7:46
HC — Kevin Vincent 27 pass from Lentowski (Farrell kick), 5:49
HC — Henry Chilewski 4 run (Farrell kick), 0:25
Second quarter
HC — Leland Wudarski 5 run (Farrell kick), 0:18
Third quarter
HC — Wudarski 18 run (kick failed), 0:47
Fourth quarter
HR — Zach Schultz 31 kick, 8:58
HR — Thomas Dugan 2 run (Schultz kick), 2:14
Team statistics`HC`HR
First downs`14`6
Rushes-yards`30-185`23-(minus-7)
Passing yards`65`142
Total yards`250`135
Passing`3-6-0`15-25-2
Sacked-yards lost`1-11`6-46
Punts-avg.`3-40.6`4-29
Fumbles-lost`1-0`0-0
Penalties-yards`6-74`10-69
INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS
RUSHING — HC, Lentowski 3-6, Wudarski 11-145, Chilewski 7-33, Austin Bicking 6-4, Noah Davis 1-(minus-3), Tyler Kohut 1-1, Rockne O’Connor 1-0. HR, Nathan Orlando 11-14, Brady Mcdermott 9-(minus-31), Dugan 3-10.
PASSING — HC, Lentowski 3-6-0-65. HR, McDermott 15-25-2-142.
RECEIVING — HC, Vincent 1-27, Bicking 1-23, Wudarski 1-15. HR, Kyaire McClain 2-12, Mike Zbierski 5-27, Dugan 3-32, Josh Grochowski 4-78, Kevin Arroyo 1-3.
INTERCEPTIONS — HC, Freddy Ceccaci 1-0, Lentowski 1-17. HR, none.
MISSED FGs — HC, Farrell 1-45. HR, none.