Marist 24, Lovett 16
Marist held off hard-charging Lovett 24-16 Friday in the first meeting between the schools and kept a unique streak alive for head coach Alan Chadwick.
Since Chadwick began coaching there in 1985, his teams had never lost consecutive regular-season games. That streak was in jeopardy as Lovett (2-1, No. 5 in AA) led 16-7 in the second quarter behind 179 first-half passing yards and two touchdowns from sophomore quarterback Willie Candler. The War Eagles (2-1, No. 2 in AAAA) struck twice early in the third quarter and held Lovett out of the end zone late in the second half to preserve the win.
“It was in doubt there for a while,” Chadwick said. “It looked pretty shaky.”
Down 21-16 with less than nine minutes to play, Lovett drove to the Marist 1 behind Candler’s arm. The War Eagles forced fourth down and Brendan McGowan missed a 30-yard field goal after his 20-yard make was negated by penalty. Marist took over at the 20 and went 74 yards before Fletcher Malloy kicked a 23-yard field goal with two minutes left.
Candler (18-of-25 passing, 282 yards, two touchdowns, two interceptions) took the ball and drove the Lions inside Marist territory before he was intercepted by with eight seconds left.
“We played harder in the second half than in the first half,” Chadwick said. “The coaching staff will need to go back and figure out why that is.”
Early in the third quarter, Marist quarterback Myles Willis (30 rushes, 139 yards; 4-of-5 passing, 133 yards) found Gray King across the middle of the field for a 72-yard touchdown to bring Marist within 16-14. Marist took the lead later in the quarter behind a 45-yard drive that ended with a 1-yard run from King.
“That really hurt us,” Lovett coach Mike Muschamp said. “I think we had all the momentum early. They hit the big play and the momentum flipped. Even though we were still ahead, I don’t think we handled that well.”
On Lovett’s first offensive play, junior Grant Haley took in a short pass from Candler and raced 86 yards for a score to put the Lions ahead. Haley cut from left to right across the field and outran Devin Kalil to the right corner of the end zone. Haley finished with 110 yards receiving.
Marist 0 – 7 – 14 – 3 – 24
Lovett 7 – 9 – 0 – 0 – 16
L – Willie Candler 86 pass to Grant Haley (Brendan McGowan kick)
M – Myles Willis 8 run (Fletcher Malloy kick)
L – Safety
L – Candler 51 pass to Craig Rollins (McGowan kick)
M – Willis 72 pass to Gray King (Malloy kick)
M – King 1 run (Malloy kick)
M – Malloy 23 FG
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12 comments Add your comment
JimmyJack
September 14th, 2012
10:47 pm
AAAA is that all you got? Marist is nothing special.
WarEagle
September 14th, 2012
11:38 pm
@JimmyJack — classy dude. Don’t forget, Marist is about the same size as Lovett and plays up 2 classes. Oh, and Marist won. Lovett is an excellent team, with great coaching, but Marist wore down the Lions. Impressed with Lovett’s QB and No. 10 (Haley). Good win on the road for Marist.
Duh
September 14th, 2012
11:45 pm
Yup, you showed 4A — by losing.
DeKalb D
September 15th, 2012
9:48 am
AAAA is easy pickins Lovett. You should play up 2 levels for your region like Marist does and see how that goes for ya.
rwdekalb
September 15th, 2012
2:27 pm
I guess Marist is just a team everyone loves to hate, for whatever reason. But why cant any of these haters beat Marist. If you think you are better, prove it on the field and not on this blog. Well done Marist. Former 6AAAA alum.
Steve Johnson
September 15th, 2012
5:01 pm
As a huge Lovett fan, it was a thrill to play MArist last night at Lovett. I wish more schools were like this Two. Classy Fans on both sides, Excellent coaches and talented kids. Really though Lovett could have won the game, but MArist pulled it out. Look forward to the next meeting.
Love the Catholic Teams
September 16th, 2012
12:04 am
Way to go Marist War Eagles! Lovett just doesn’t like their lot in life. Marist plays up in AAAA as a true AA (maybe AAA) school and does well in all sports. They do it mainly because they know they can dominate the Director’s Cup vs. having to compete with Westminster, Lovett, GAC at AA. Same reason they don’t play AAA, they would have to compete with St. Pius, Blessed Trinity, and Woodward Academy. Nobody in AAAA gives them a challenge and they like that, that is why they have their “string” of AAAA Director’s Cups. I think they would still win their fair share of Director’s Cups in AA or AAA but not like they dominate AAAA. But although it may have been a good game, I wouldn’t go so far as calling Lovett classy in the coaching arena. I’ve seen Lovett Coach (Muschamp) in person rant and rave and scream at refs and go on the field and get unsportsmanship calls that in no way are “classy.” And I have seen the fans get behind him on that and rant right with him. Obviously he thinks because his name is Muschamp he can do as he wishes, but am glad Marist won and hope they continue to win in this series.
Reality
September 16th, 2012
8:40 am
Love the Cat. . . Not sure if you are calling Lovett a Catholic school or not, but it was founded as an Episcopal school. The church and school severed ties in 1963.
jdate
September 16th, 2012
12:50 pm
Not sure why anyone would think it is less competitive for Marist or any other school in AAAA instead of AA. Marist competes against schools 2-3 times larger in the sports of wrestling, Volleyball, track, softball, Gymnastics, football, lacrosse, basketball, cross country, Baseball, and soccer. Think about it. Does Lovett and Westminster really have better teams in those sports than Tucker, Kell, Chattahoochee, Pope, Southwest DeKalb, McIntosh, Loganville, Miller Grove, Lovejoy, Sprayberry, Statesboro, Lambert, etc. just to name a few (all of these schools were AAAA last year). The public schools are able to field very strong teams in these sports. In swimming, classes A through 4A are combined so there is no difference. As far as Director’s Cup, that only leaves the country club sports of golf and tennis, which are probably a toss up between which school is best.
WarEagle
September 16th, 2012
2:55 pm
@jdate has it right. As to football, Lovett and Westminster are in a 5 team region for football this year in region 6-AA, meaning 80% of the region’s teams make the playoffs. Doesn’t sound tougher to me.
Observer
September 16th, 2012
4:38 pm
Are Lovett fans always so quiet for home games? Marist fans were into it, especially the student section. (I don’t follow either, just was there with family friends.)
WarEagleFever
September 22nd, 2012
11:03 am
As a Marist student, Marist has quality sports with quality fans but honestly people need to stop talkIng about how Lovett, Westminster, etc, can compete with 4A and up. Their fans were nothing compared to us at the Lovett game. We honestly made it into an away game for Lovett and that’s what happens on the big stage. Their fans do not seem prepared at all to step up and cause pressure especially to those schools that are about twice the size of 2A schools