Central Catholic wins Holy Bowl behind Aiden Taylor’s 4 touchdowns
The trophy comes back to Modesto.
Central Catholic trudged on the back of senior running back Aiden Taylor to beat St. Mary’s 41-27 in the Holy Bowl on Friday night.
“In my years, I haven’t beat them once,” Taylor said. “It feels good for us to come out and show out like that and just do what we do.”
St. Mary’s came into the game ranked 31st in the state, according to the most recent CalHi top 50 ranking, and fourth in the Sac Joaquin Section, according to Maxpreps.
The win didn’t come without consequences. The Raiders lost starting quarterback Doninic Perino and running back Julian Lopez in the first half, both to knee injuries.
After barely edging out a win against Merced in its first game, Central Catholic’s Week 2 game was canceled because of smoke.
The Rams’ first drive lasted two plays and ended on a 28-yard touchdown run. Central Catholic immediately answered with a 95-yard touchdown on a kickoff return by Nolan Croasdale.
Perino’s injury came on the Raiders’ first offensive possession. After reaching the Red Zone, Perino scrambled for 4 yards and dove for the touchdown that put the Raiders up, 14-7. However, a hit to the knee sidelined him for the remainder of the game. Lopez was hurt later in the half. His injury is believed to be less severe.
“Next guy up,” Canepa said of his team’s mentality. “We’ve got a bunch of good guys here ... they play hard ... that’s what we do here at Central.”
Sophomore quarterback Tyler Wentworth entered on the Raiders’ second possession and ran the offense well. At first, he was forced to scramble but as the game went on, he found his composure and kept the Raiders ahead going into halftime.
“He played last year,” Canepa said. “I think that helps him in big games.”
A run-heavy team, Central Catholic’s game plan didn’t change despite the loss of its leading rusher. Aiden Taylor scored two touchdowns in each half, and led the Raiders’ ground attack with 147 yards on 22 carries.
With Central Catholic ahead 27-14 and halftime approaching, St. Mary’s used a 10-play drive to get to Central Catholic’s 5-yard-line before the Raiders forced a fumble.
“They score, it’s a seven point game, we had to hold them.” Canepa said
The Raiders opened the second half with a 16-play scoring drive that took eight minutes off the clock and was capped by a Taylor touchdown. The drive included 13 running plays mixed between Taylor, Jaelen Nichols and Victor Rivera.
“We’re smart,” Canepa said. “We see the speed they’ve got but they can’t score if they don’t have the ball. I thought we did a good job.”
An 80-yard run on the ensuing possession from Jadyn Marshall cut into the Central Catholic lead to 34-21. After the Rams forced a Central Catholic punt on the Raiders’ next offensive possession, Central Catholic forced another fumble near midfield.
After the teams traded touchdowns, Nichols snagged an interception on fourth down, ending the Rams’ drive. Facing a fourth down of their own, Wentworth found Victor Rivera to seal the game.
In Week 1, the Raiders gave up a large halftime lead. Against St. Mary’s on Friday, that wasn’t the case.
“We talked about that and it was a good learning lesson,” Canepa said.
Central Catholic improves to 2-0 and instead of having a previously scheduled bye week, hosts San Ramon Valley next Thursday.
This story was originally published September 4, 2021 at 1:56 AM.
