Football
Senior quarterback throws pair of touchdown passes as host St. Rita stops Rich Central
It wasn’t the way St. Rita wanted to start Friday, allowing Rich Central to score on the first series of the game.
But Mustangs coach Todd Kuska certainly wasn’t complaining about the end result.
Senior quarterback Jake Zylman threw a pair of touchdown passes and rushed for another to lead host St. Rita to a 44-25 win.
Dave Gleaves added two TDs, including one rushing and one receiving for the Mustangs (2-0).
“We knew we weren’t going to shut them out,” Kuska said. “We knew they had some firepower. But we stayed patient and played our game.”
Zylman’s 3-yard TD run at 9:29 of the second quarter gave the Mustangs a 13-7 lead after Gavin Mottl’s kick.
St. Rita would never trail again.
Rich Central (1-1), however, did grab some momentum at the end of the first half when Sean Tyler returned a kickoff 95 yards for a touchdown.
Tyler finished with 63 yards on 12 carries.
That TD not only cut Rich Central’s deficit to 27-13 with 10.9 second left in the second quarter, but the Olympians Rich Central had the ball to start the second half.
“We told the kids at the half how important it was for us to score first in the second half,” Kuska said. “They had some momentum with that kickoff return. So we needed to stop them to start the third.”
That’s precisely what the Mustangs did.
A 1-yard TD by Chris Childers and 22-yard field goal by Mottl gave St. Rita a 37-13 advantage with 1:37 remaining in the third. Childers ended up with 79 yards on 18 carries.
Rich Central coach Terrell Alexander lamented the missed opportunity to start the third quarter.
“That was big,” he said. “If we could have scored there, it could have got interesting. But we had opportunities. We made some mistakes and had some costly fouls. We just didn’t take advantage.”
Rich Central quarterback Jyran Mitchell scored on runs of 3 and 1 yards, the former giving the Olympians a 7-0 lead.
Mitchell rushed 15 times for 78 yards and completed 15 of 26 passes for 137 yards.
Charlie Selke intercepted one of Mitchell’s passes.
“Their quarterback is special,” Kuska said. “They had Division I talent all over the field.”
Zylman hooked up with Gleaves on a nifty 48-yard TD strike that extended the Mustangs lead to 20-7. Zylman completed 6 of 10 passes for 114 yards and rushed for 46 yards on 11 carries.
“Our skill guys came to play tonight,” Kuska said. “Our offensive line did a nice job. I thought we played well. We have a big test next week.”
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