Chaminade football team shuts out Central 40-0

The Central Tigers suffered their first football shutout Friday since last year's Class 4 state semifinal loss to Webb City.

The seventh-ranked Tigers struggled on both sides of the ball in a 40-0 loss to the Class 5 host Chaminade Red Devils on a rainy and muddy night in St. Louis.

"They're very physical. They're a big football team, and they gave us some problems with their matchups," Central coach Nathan Norman said. "For the most part, I felt like we played hard. We didn't give up. To sum it up best, I'd just say they lined up and whooped us."

The two teams traded possessions throughout the first quarter before Chaminade put up its first score early in the second quarter on a 26-yard touchdown pass from sophomore quarterback Michael McGovern to senior tight end Mark Gorman. Mark McDonough added the extra point to give the Red Devils a 7-0 advantage.

Norman said Chaminade's success started on defense in shutting down the Tigers' ground attack.

"Tonight on the field that we played on, it was wet. It took a lot of our game away from us, and they were just better than us," he said. "It didn't work with what we're able to do."

Central went three-and-out on its next possession, and Chaminade marched down field to add to its lead on a 2-yard run by McGovern. McDonough's PAT pushed the Red Devils' lead to 14-0 with 1:39 remaining in the first half.

Chaminade carried the lead into halftime, and on the first possession of the second half, sophomore fullback Bryce Johnson scored on a 49-yard run to put the Red Devils ahead 20-0 at the 10:30 mark of the third quarter.

"We played well. Truthfully, I think they kind of wore us down on the defensive line," Norman said. "They're a big, physical team. They just ran the ball consistently."

Central was stalled on the ensuing possession and was forced to punt the ball. Darius Daies capped off the Red Devils' next drive with a 3-yard run, and McDonough's extra point gave Chaminade a 27-0 lead with 3:02 left in the third quarter.

The Tigers were forced to punt deep in their own territory on their next possession, but a botched snap set the Red Devils up with a short field inside the red zone. Damon Bonds scored on a 5-yard run as Chaminade led 33-0 with 35 seconds remaining in the third quarter.

Another Central punt gave the ball back to the Red Devils, who scored the final touchdown of the game on a 52-yard run by Daies midway through the fourth quarter.

After the game, Norman said he told the team to remain positive and continue to work hard.

"We tried to reinforce the fact that we played our best football game after a loss. We got beat by Ladue, and we really picked things up the next week and played well against Jackson," Norman said. "That's the same thing we've got to do this week. We've got to respond. We've got to move on. We've got to get better."

The Tigers return to action on Senior Night next Friday against visiting Riverview Gardens.