After what was a rocky first quarter, Nolan Catholic showed some fight early in the second quarter.
The Vikings got a touchdown on the first play of the quarter, but that turned out to be one of only two scores in a 62-13 loss to Dallas Parish Episcopal on Friday night at Doskocil Stadium.
The loss was the fourth in a row for the Vikings, now 2-4 and 0-2 in TAPPS Class 6A District 1 play.
However, the two wins are marked progress after a 0-11 season last fall.
“We just try to get better, we are outmatched” Nolan Catholic coach Aaron Mattox said of playing a TAPPS program that has won 5 titles in a row. “You know they got a bunch of transfers, and we don’t have it. We want to be good at technique, and try to get better and be in the right position. I think we are a good football team; we are in the wrong district and the wrong classification. Right now, we don’t recruit like these people do and get transfers like these people do.”
The Vikings gave up 28 points in the first quarter but had a 74-yard drive that started with 3:38 left. Nolan Catholic got an 18-yard run by Carter Devero and a 20-yard pass by Aaron Morales on the final play of the first quarter.
Devero hit Morales for an 11-yard score on the first play of the second quarter, which broke the shutout the Panthers had in the opening 12 minutes.
The Vikings then tried an onside kick and looked to have recovered.
A celebration ensued but a flag on Nolan Catholic meant it had to kickoff again. This time, the ball was booted long and the Panthers (4-2, 1-0) needed eight plays to score.
“I like our energy; I like we are still going hard and not giving up,” Mattox said.
Parish Episcopal had 49 points in the first half, leading to a running clock and a game that ended in about 2 1/2 hours.
Purdue pledge Sawyer Anderson was nearly flawless in his one half of play for the Dallas school, completing 15 of 19 passes for 238 yards and 4 touchdowns.
Nick Wheeler had a 3-yard run for the first Panther score on the game’s opening drive. Anderson hit Jaylen Pile for a 15-yard score on the next drive. A long punt return and then a facemask on Nolan Catholic set up a 1-play, 6-yard drive — capped by Marcus Hanish’s run. Hanish had a 1-yard drive on the next drive to make it 28-0.
In the second quarter, Anderson had touchdown passes to Pile (19 yards), Carson Darby (30) and Declan Wilson (2) to boost the lead to 42 points at the break.
Kyle Hamburger had a pair of touchdown runs for the Panthers in the second half of 24 and 71 yards.
Between those two scores, Devero connected with Nick Koelzer with a touchdown with 2:18 left in the third quarter. However, with the running clock, there was only a handful of more plays in the quarter.
Nolan Catholic is off next week before hosting Dallas Bishop Lynch on Oct. 18, looking to break the losing streak. The two private schools have played 25 times since 2004 and Nolan Catholic has won 16 of the meetings.
“It is a longtime rival and it is our homecoming, they will have big dudes as well, but we will give them hell,” Mattox said.
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