by Zachary Harmuth
Father Ryan ran, for five touchdowns, over Hillwood 52-0 Friday night.
The Fightin’ Irish (3-1, 1-0 in II-AA) scored 31 points by halftime, and 21 in the second half, as the visiting Toppers (0-4) couldn’t stop Father Ryan’s starters, then couldn’t stop its reserves.
Quarterback Cameron Townes threw for 117 yards and two touchdowns in only 10 attempts. Completing four, half the passes he completed were touchdowns.
Father Ryan was very democratic in its scoring, with seven different players reaching the end zone on offense. Joe Holzmer led the way, with 8 carries for 91 yards. Also rushing for touchdowns were: Jay Alexander, JoeJuan Williams, Andrew Rector and Stephen Steijkal.
Tyler Shoop and Cuong Nguyen each caught a TD pass, with Nguyen leading the Irish in receiving with 59 yards.
Landon Knoll led the way on defense, with seven tackles, 4 for a loss; Sam Gould returned an interception 32 yards to set up an Irish score.
In fact, Father Ryan only did not score on two of its possessions: one ended in a punt and another in a fumble by Towns.
The only negative from the game for Father Ryan, and surely coach Bruce Lussier will address this, was penalties (11 for 117 yards).
They will have to do better than that to win their huge Division II-AA matchup coming next week at Ensworth (3-0, 1-0 in II-AA; also ranked as 1st in state, 11th in country, by Maxpreps.com ranking system). If the Fightin’ Irish win that game, they will take first place in II-AA.
