The annual City League battle between Catholic school, cross-town rivals Bishop Carroll and Kapaun Mount Carmel had additional buzz this season as a national television crew showed up at Carroll’s stadium Friday night and witnessed a 36-34 thriller won by Carroll. ESPN-U broadcast the game to showcase Bishop Carroll starting quarterback, Blake Bell, ranked the No. 3 quarterback in the Class of 2010 according to ESPN recruiting.
Bell had solid numbers, passing for 238 yards and a touchdown and rushing for three touchdowns, but Kapaun didn’t make it easy. The Crusaders came out fired up and held a lead for most of the night before Bell and the Golden Eagles found a way to escape with the two-point win. Carroll wrapped up its third consecutive Greater Wichita Athletic League (City League) title and beat Kapaun for the 11th straight time.
“I’m just glad we got the win,” a relieved Bell said. “I couldn’t ask for a better game. You know, cross-town rivalry, playing a game like this on ESPN, it’s awesome.”
Out of the gate, Kapaun was determined to keep the word “awesome” the last adjective in Carrolls’ minds. On the first series of the game, Bell and the Golden Eagle offense took the field. After connecting on a nine yard pass play on the first snap of the night, Kapaun’s defense dug in.
Kapaun's defense gets to Blake Bell for the sack
Helped by a Bishop Carroll penalty, the Crusaders forced the Golden Eagles into a three-and-out, capitalized by a quarterback sack by junior linebacker Erick Peters. After each team exchanged turnovers on fumbles, Kapaun sustained the first real drive of the game, capped by the first points.
Kapaun quarterback Keaton Lewis connected with tight end Tyler Nulik to give the Crusaders a 6-0 lead with 4:30 left in the first quarter. One minute later, Kapaun’s defense would step up to give the Crusaders an improbable two touchdown lead.
Kapaun linebacker Jonathan Truman read a pass from Bell, tapped the ball in the air, caught it for an interception and found open space to the end zone for the pick-six. The Crusaders completed a two-point conversion to go ahead 14-0 with three-and-a-half minutes left in the first quarter.
“I don’t remember the last time we were down 14,” Bishop Carroll Head Coach Alan Schuckman said. “But we stepped up and made plays.”
The most successful plays of the first half for Carroll involved connections from Bell to wide receiver, Tyler Nance. Following the pick-six, Bell responded by connecting with a wide-open Nance for a 72-yard touchdown to trim the deficit in half.
Kapaun huddles before the game at Bishop Carroll
After each team exchanged punts on the next two possessions, Kapaun started its first possession of the second quarter deep in their own territory. The Golden Eagle defense had the advantage with the Crusaders pinned on their own 3-yard line when Lewis left the home crowd in a momentary state of shock.
Lewis found space around the left side of his offensive line and broke free of the defense on the way to a 97-yard touchdown run. Carroll faced their second two-touchdown deficit of the night with 8:27 left in the first half.
Kapaun had the 21-7 lead and possession with less than two minutes left in the first half when Carroll’s defense gave their team a huge boost heading into halftime.
Instead of running out the clock, the Crusaders decided to keep attacking in the last two minutes of the second quarter. A pass attempt by Lewis was intercepted by Golden Eagle defensive back Thomas Woodard and returned for a touchdown with 1:26 left in the first half.
Through the first half, Bell compiled 199 passing yards, including 187 to Nance. While those numbers were impressive, Carroll managed one offensive touchdown and trailed 21-14.
In the third quarter, Bell orchestrated a late touchdown drive to tie the game heading into the final 12 minutes. After Kapaun retook the lead on a touchdown drive to start the fourth quarter, Bell stayed poised to respond. The senior led the Golden Eagles on a 10-play, 75-yard scoring drive, which included an athletic fourth down catch by receiver Shane Brittain and a 32-yard run by Bell.
Arguably the play of the game occurred immediately after Bell’s lunge into the end zone from the 1-yard line. On the extra point attempt, a high snap forced the holder, Nance to take off running. Nance outran several defenders to the corner of the end zone to complete the two-point conversion and give Carroll a 29-28 lead.
Nance had a big game for Caroll with 187 receiving yards
“I knew we had to make the extra point to stay tied with them and in the back of my mind, I knew if it was a bad snap, I’d have to take it,” Nance said. "As soon as I saw the snap was high, I knew I had to take it. I was kind of scared for a second, but it turned out pretty good.”
The whole night turned our "pretty good" for Nance, who had his best receiving outing of the year, with 187 yards, all in the first half. After finally taking the lead, the Golden Eagles got some insurance when another scoring drive with 2:18 left in the game gave them a 36-28 lead.
When Carroll fans began to let out a collective sigh, Kapaun made a final big play to ensure the 2009 rivalry game would be an instant classic. With slightly more than one minute remaining, Kapaun tight end Michael Reynolds caught a screen pass over the middle. After the catch, Reynolds turned on the jets and outran the Golden Eagle defense for a 63-yard touchdown to bring the Crusaders within a two-point conversion of tying the game.
However, following the touchdown, Carroll’s defense showed mental toughness to forget the big play and stuff Lewis short of the end zone to deny the conversion. With 1:07 left in the game, Bell took the field and lined up in the victory formation.
With the win, the Golden Eagles moved to 6-0 on the season, while Kapaun dropped to 3-3.
“It was a great atmosphere and our fans did a great job,” Schuckman said. “Our kids did a good job of hanging in there and hanging around and made plays when it counted.”
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