Cathedral Catholic rolls in championship rematch

For the first five minutes when Point Loma took on Cathedral Catholic, it looked like the Pointers would reverse the result of last year’s Division III championship. After that, Saturday night’s game looked similar, as the Dons cruised to a 42-10 win and remained the team to beat in their division.

“Their main thing was that they thought it was a fluke, they thought we got lucky one time. But you beat them again by a big score you can say there’s no fluke there, we beat them and we’re the best out of the two teams,” said Cathedral Catholic quarterback Parker Hipp.

Point Loma put together a solid drive in the opening minutes but it came to an end with a Leslie Rogers fumble. On the ensuing drive, Dons running back Tyler Gaffney rushed for a four-yard touchdown and it had to seem all too familiar for the Pointers.

The Dons jumped out to a 14-0 lead in the opening quarter and led 21-10 at halftime. They opened the second half with a drive ending in a Gaffney touchdown and never looked back en route to a 32-point win.

If there was any doubt whether Point Loma and Cathedral Catholic were friendly before the game, the first half settled that. Both teams did a fair amount of talking and played after the whistle, resulting in numerous personal foul penalties. Following a skirmish in the second quarter, both teams’ head coaches had a conference with the officials out on the field.

“We chirped too much. We beat them pretty convincingly in the stadium last year so it’s just one of those things – it’s going to happen,” said Dons’ head coach Sean Doyle.

Hipp said some of the violence stemmed from Point Loma’s defense chop blocking Cathedral Catholic’s offensive linemen. The Pointers were called for a defensive chop block in the second quarter.

“They did a thing last year where they chop blocked our linemen and they just decided they should keep doing it. Our linemen don’t take anything, and even if it’s just words they’re still going to fight back,” Hipp said.

In a battle between two of the county’s best running backs, it was Gaffney who came out on top. Gaffney carried the ball 20 times for 179 yards and four touchdowns. He also caught four passes for 88 yards and a score. On the other side of the ball, Rogers had one touchdown but only had flashes of his brilliance from a week ago.

Through the air Hipp was efficient, completing 13 of 19 passes for 259 yards, one touchdown and one interception. And for the second straight week, Cathedral Catholic scored more than 40 points.

“We can do a lot of different things, so we try to throw a lot of different formations, try to have fun with the kids. I think they get fired up about that and we’re just being really fortunate right now,” Doyle said.

After a bye, Cathedral Catholic (2-0) faces their biggest challenge of the season when they host Carlsbad (1-1) on Sept. 26. Point Loma (1-1) will look to rebound Friday when they head east to take on El Capitan (1-1).

Cathedral Catholic running back Tyler Gaffney scored five touchdowns in the Dons' 42-10 win over Point Loma.