Irish Dominate from Beginning to End in 42-0 Win

By Bill Bray

TOLEDO – For the first time since 2019 Fremont Ross felt the sting of a zero on the scoreboard as they were completely outplayed by Toledo Central Catholic in a TRAC contest 42-0.

The Little Giant defense started the game in fine style causing the Irish to punt for the first time this season in a TRAC contest. But the Ross offense continued its first half doldrums for the fourth game in a row and gave the ball right back to Central Catholic as they were getting nowhere offensively. “We’ll get together tomorrow and see what we did wrong tonight when we watch the film,” coach Chad Long said. “I know we missed way too many tackles on defense. They are a great football team, and we can’t take anything away from them on that. A lot of lessons were learned and we’ll go over the details tomorrow. It won’t be a yelling thing it is going to be a learning curve. We can’t beat them down or anything like that. We can’t dwell on it we just have to continue to keep moving forward.”

At the 6:14 mark of the first quarter the Central Catholic Machine got fired up. Quarterback Ty’Waun Clark threw a perfect spiral to Dur’yea Hall for 21 yards and the score.

The Irish weren’t done scoring in the first quarter as with 1:44 remaining it was Clark again this time taking off on a 53-yard run right up the middle of the field to give Central a 14-0 lead.

The Irish crossed the Little Giant goal line three more times in the second half. Clark found Hall with a 60-yard pass. Then it was Chris Edmonds turning on the jets to scamper 62 yards for the fourth Irish score. Central’s final touchdown came with 1:03 left in the half when Clark found Mekhi Warren for an eight-yard scoring strike.

All the offensive action was one sided on this night. Ross had their starting quarterback Kaden Holmes back in the lineup, but the talented senior was stifled until toward the end of the first half when he took off on a few nice runs. Ross had chances as the first half ended to put some points on the board, but it was not meant to be.

Before wholesale changes were made to Central Catholic’s line up in the second half, Edmonds found running room again and sprinted 55 yards for the Irish’s final touchdown of the night at the 6:09 mark of the third quarter.

Toledo Central, rated #3 in the latest state poll in region 6 of Division II and Ross was rated #5 coming into the contest. It was clear from almost the opening seconds of the game that the Irish were clearly the better team and no wonder since the Ross win was their 31^st straight win in TRAC play.

The Little Giants are still struggling mentally with the game to be honest. They are a great group of young men with immense talent. It will be up to this group to find their stride once again against Toledo Whitmer who is #12 in region 2 of Division I.

It will be the final regular season game for a group of seniors who most have been playing and starting since their freshman year. It is never too late to fix errors and attitudes and hopefully the incentive to play like champions will return to the field and be dawned in Purple and White Friday night.

Statistically, Central outgained Ross 365 to 209. The Irish outrushed Ross 242 yards to 53. The Little Giants did have the upper hand in pass receiving gaining 156 yards to 123 for Central Catholic. Each team was penalized six times and neither team had a turnover.

Individually, Kaden Holmes finished 13-29 for 122 yards and Karson Kayden, who played in the second half, completed two of four passes for 34 yards.

Ty’Waun Clark hit on 8 of 11 passes for 123 yards and three touchdowns. Holmes led Ross on the ground as well gaining 35 yards on nine carries. Chris Edmonds led Central Catholic running the ball 13 times for 152 yards. Elijah Simms caught seven passes for 72 yards to lead Fremont and Dur’yea Hall caught 3 for 92 yards to lead the Irish.

Mason Villarreal once again led the Ross defensive unit as the senior linebacker had 6.5 tackles, three solo and seven assists. He assisted in helping Elijah Simms sack Clark.