Leading in the second half, there was a chance the Bishop O’Connell Knights might have ended their nagging, three-season-long losing streak against conference football rivals.
But it didn’t happen. The host Knights (1-7, 0-2) lost to the Carroll Lions, 34-17, Oct. 26 in a Washington Catholic Athletic Conference Metro Division high-school game, its ninth straight league setback.
O’Connell took a 17-14 lead on a Doug O’Donnell one-yard touchdown run and a Josh Graham extra point with 6:05 left in the third period. The TD capped a seven-play, 30-yard scoring drive — all running plays.
The Knights, though, didn’t muster much offense after that, in part due to the loss of starting quarterback Graham Deaton owing to concussion concerns.
“Being one-dimensional like that limits what you can do and makes it difficult,” O’Connell coach Todd Sabatino said. “We could have stayed a lot closer and maybe won if we’d had our quarterback. It’s a tough loss because we knew we could compete.”
Carroll (3-5, 2-1) scored the game’s final three touchdowns, as the O’Connell defense struggled to stop the Lions.
O’Connell led three different times: 7-0, 10-8 and 17-14. O’Donnell had two one-yard scoring runs and Graham booted a 42-yard second-quarter field goal. All three scores resulted from long, mistake-free moves down the field.
The Knights took the opening kickoff and went on a 12-play, 80-yard touchdown scoring march. The field goal capped an 11-play, 65-yard drive.
Deaton completed O’Connell’s only two passes of the game, both to Scott Anderson for 29 and 23 yards, on the Knights’ opening drive.
O’Donnell was the Knights’ biggest offensive weapon. The busy senior rushed for 138 yards on 30 carries. Nick Morris had 62 yards rushing and Joe Williams 29.
The team ran for 226 yards behind the offensive line of center Reagan MacGregor and linemen Nolan Wible, Sam Casolini Dal Bo, Mateo Quiroz, Daniel Erickson and tight end Matt Dalton.
On defense, O’Connell’s Xavier Reid and Zander Schied had interceptions.
O’Connell needs to win one of its two remaining Metro Division games to earn a playoff berth. The Knights missed the playoffs last season.
