Some belated weekend notes.
HS Football
Friday was M’s first football rivalry game, as Cathedral took on Bishop Chatard. St. P’s is usually evenly split between those high schools, so it is always an emotional matchup. CHS was ranked #4 in 5A, BCHS #1 in 3A.
CHS won by 10 thanks to a big fourth quarter. They were down 21-17 going into the fourth but got an 88-yard TD pass and a 76-yard TD run with consecutive interceptions on defense after each TD.
I’d love to tell you it was a great game. But we got to the stadium a little late and all the seats at the rather small stadium were completely filled, so we stood on the track the entire game.1 We could only see what was going on when the plays were inside the 10 yard line directly in front of us.
M was happy that she is 1-0 against her old classmates.
KU Football
I had pretty much put Friday’s game against Boston College out of my mind. I would be at the high school game and wouldn’t bother keeping tabs on what was sure to be another blow out. What genius scheduled Boston College anyway?
So I was shocked when I got texts at halftime telling me that KU was actually ahead. I was even more flabbergasted when I saw that Carter Stanley had thrown for three touchdowns. Our Carter Stanley? I was sure my boys were playing tricks on me until I confirmed the score on ESPN.
And then the Jayhawks went out and played even better in the second half to get an easy, 24-point win.
This makes no sense. Apparently KU looked tough on both lines, made smart calls that were converted on offense, and basically made BC give up in the second half. Amazing.
Appropriate that it came the same week nine years after Turner Gill’s first team beat a ranked Georgia Tech team the week after losing to an FCS team. So I’m not getting too excited about it. But it does show that maybe Les’ shit is working. There was a lot of good national run for KU over the weekend. That’s Les’ task for this year: generate some buzz and turn it into signing good kids in December and February.
Other Weekend Sports
I’ll save the kid sports for another post. Saturday night S, L, and I went to the Cathedral girls soccer senior night. It was also CYO night so L wore her summer camp shirt and got to do some stuff with the team. We have friends who have a daughter who is a senior. She’s always looked out for L at camp. She made sure that she grabbed L when they were lining up the starters with kids to walk onto the field with. L had a big grin on her face while she stood there with the team during the national anthem.
Unfortunately CHS lost in a really competitive 3-2 game. We also saw the end of the JV game, which was a win. L’s teacher is the JV coach so she was sure to check in with her as well.
We had people over on Sunday for the last pool party of the year. Most of the dads sat in front of the TV watching the Colts get a big win in Tennessee. That’s how you win road games: contain on defense and make just enough big plays on offense. The city is in a bit of a tough spot trying to figure out what to think about Adam Vinatieri’s second-straight terrible game. There was lots of speculation that he would announce his retirement on Monday, but that did not happen and Frank Reich pronounced in faith in Vinatieri.
It’s kind of crazy he has hung on and been this good, this long. It is equally crazy if he basically lost it overnight. Once again, Father Time is undefeated.
1. Strangely, CHS does not have its own football field. They traditionally play their “home” games at one of two public school fields. BCHS has a stadium, but because they are smack in the middle of a neighborhood, they went 20 years without a home game until last year. You would think the two schools that have won the most state titles in Indiana history would have better facilities.