CARMEL—Heading into Saturday’s contest Christopher coach Tim Pierleoni said Carmel would be one of the team’s toughest opponents all season—and he was right.
The Cougars and Padres engaged in a nail-biting battle, exchanging leads seven times before Carmel sealed the deal with a 34-31 victory. It was the first loss for the Cougars this year, but they aren’t hanging their heads.
“It just went back and forth, back and forth, back and forth,” Pierleoni said. “It was a great game, really well coached on both sides. The kids played really hard on both teams and it was a very, very good football game.”
Junior quarterback Matt Adamkiewicz was at the helm for three of the four Cougar touchdowns. He found Alex Pacheco in the endzone twice and Anthony Sammut for a 5-yard TD which put the Cougars ahead 24-14 in the third.
“He was under the gun the whole time; they were pressuring us,” Pierleoni said. “He was running and controlling our offense, operating everything that we’d asked him to do—which was a lot this week. We didn’t call the plays until they lined up, so he had to do that real quick. He didn’t get any delay of games; he just really, really, really played well.”
Adamkiewicz was 29 for 45 for 394 yards, three touchdowns and an interception. Max Sanford led in receptions with 8 for 134 yards, while PJ Reichert had seven for 117.
Pacheco showed off his vertical and pulled down a pass for an 18-yard score that gave Christopher its last lead of the game at 31-27 halfway through the fourth quarter.
The Cougars drove to midfield on their last possession, but that’s as far as they’d get following a questionable call and an incomplete pass.
Carmel running back Covassay Windham put the Christopher defense to work, scoring four times, including a 6-yard run up the middle for the final. Windham had 28 carries for 154 yards.
“They’re a very good football program and like I said, we were going to find out where we were and we did,” Pierleoni said.
“We played a real tough first half and then the second half they started pounding us a little bit,” he continued. “Their kids all go one way, our kids go both ways, so that might’ve had a little bit to do with it. They got into a set that we were having a hard time dealing with and they just kept handing it off to him.”
Jacob Moen led Christopher in tackles with 18—16 solo and two assists—while Joseph Lujan had nine solo and seven assists. Ray Tapia had a sack while Raul Tovar and Jacob Zimmerman each had half a sack.
The Cougars (2-1) will travel to Hillsdale (2-1) at 2 p.m. Sept. 27. The Knights are coming off a 21-7 win over Capuchino on Friday and will undoubtedly use a strong aerial attack from quarterback Brett Wetteland. Wetteland had 259 yards passing in the victory.
“We’re going to get back to work on Monday and get after it,” Pierleoni said. “Even though we lost, there were so many good things that happened for us, that we’re excited about getting to work on Monday—we really are.”
