APA falls to John St. Paul in regular-season finale
Story by Keith Spence
GREENVILLE—Arendell Parrott Academy fell from the ranks of the unbeaten on Friday, and it was easy to see why.
“Everything that could’ve gone wrong, did go wrong,” Parrott coach Matt Beaman said following his team’s surprising 28-6 loss at John Paul II. “You can’t make the volume of mistakes we did and expect to beat a good team.”
The Patriots (7-1) turned the ball over four times, including thrice in the red zone. They had another drive stopped on downs at the JP II 3-yard line, had a first-quarter TD called back for holding, and committed a costly encroachment penalty on fourth and three to keep a Saints’ possession alive.
Defensively, APA struggled to contain JP II’s human bowling ball, 6-2, 298-pound junior running back Rion Roseborough, who carried 25 times for 213 yards and a pair of touchdowns.
“We did a poor job of tackling and we got pushed around too much at the line of scrimmage,” Beaman said. “It just wasn’t a good night in any phase of the game.”
When they weren’t giving the ball away or shooting themselves in the foot, the Patriot offense chugged up and down the field quite effectively.
Even after a holding penalty nullified a TD on the game’s opening possession, APA still moved to the JP II 3 before being stopped on downs.
On its next possession, Parrott was stymied by an interception deep in Saints’ territory.
And to cap a disastrous first half, the Patriots’ third drive ended with a fumble out of the Saints end zone for a touchback.
To John Paul II’s credit, it took advantage of the Patriot miscues.
The Saints put together scoring drives of 97 and 99 yards in the opening two quarters to build a 13-0 halftime advantage.
The second march was sustained when JP II quarterback Brody Mitchell drew the Patriot defense offsides with a hard count on 4 th and 3 from the APA 15-yard line.
“We haven’t made those types of mistakes all year, and tonight it cost us,” Beaman said. “If we could’ve put the ball in the end zone in the first half and gained a little momentum, the outcome might have been different.”
The Patriots had one more chance to regain the momentum when they stopped the Saints on downs to open the second half.
Predictably, another turnover at its own 35 sucked the life out of the Parrott comeback attempt.
John Paul II took advantage of the short field for a 21-0 lead and the Patriots never seemed to recover.
A furious fourth quarter rally fell short as Parrott again turned the ball in the red zone three minutes after Morgan McPhaul’s 3-yard TD run finally got the visitors on the scoreboard with 9:38 remaining in the contest.
McPhaul ran for 172 yards on 16 carries and caught 5 passes for 61 yards.
Parrott outgained the Saints offensively 348 yards to 331.
“I told the guys after the game to remember how much this loss hurts, but only until tomorrow,” Beaman said. “Then we’re going to forget about it, get back to work, and get ready for the playoffs.”
The Patriots open the playoffs next Friday at home against Cary Christian. A possible re-match with John Paul II would occur in the state championship game and would again be played in Greenville
“Of course, we want a re-match, but first things first,” Beaman said. “If we play like we did tonight, Cary Christian is fully capable of beating us. We have to put this loss out of your minds and take care of business next week.”
JOHN PAUL II 28, ARENDELL PARROTT 6
Parrott 0 0 0 6—6
John Paul II 7 6 15 0—28
First Quarter
JPII—Justin Biggs 40 run (Will McMinn kick), 3:24
Second Quarter
JPII—Rion Roseborough 3 run (run failed), 8:26
Third Quarter
JPII—Brody Mitchell 1 run (Roseborough run), 6:06
JPII—Roseborough 2 run (McMinn kick), :25.0
Fourth Quarter
APA—Morgan McPhaul 3 run (run failed), 9:38
APA JPII
First Downs 15 17
Rushes-yards 31-245 56-328
Passing 8-18-1 1-3-0
Passing yards 103 3
Total yards 348 331
Punts-avg. 0-0 1-44.0
Penalties 4-24 4-26
Fumbles-lost 4-3 0-0
Individual Statistics
RUSHING—Parrott: Morgan McPhaul 16-172, Cole Howard 4-38, Cole Dawson 8-22, Ashton Brinson 2-8,
Andrew Daniels 1-5. John Paul II: Rion Roseborough 25-213, Justin Biggs 17-58, Brody Mitchell 9-34,
Keiveon Moore 3-25, Max Mason 2-(minus 2).
PASSING—Parrott: Dawson 8-18-1 103. John Paul II: Mitchell 1-3-0 3.
RECEIVING—McPhaul 5-61, Paxton Riley 2-27, Howard 1-15. John Paul II: Quinn McCaffrey 1-3.
Story by Keith Spence
GREENVILLE—Arendell Parrott Academy fell from the ranks of the unbeaten on Friday, and it was easy to see why.
“Everything that could’ve gone wrong, did go wrong,” Parrott coach Matt Beaman said following his team’s surprising 28-6 loss at John Paul II. “You can’t make the volume of mistakes we did and expect to beat a good team.”
The Patriots (7-1) turned the ball over four times, including thrice in the red zone. They had another drive stopped on downs at the JP II 3-yard line, had a first-quarter TD called back for holding, and committed a costly encroachment penalty on fourth and three to keep a Saints’ possession alive.
Defensively, APA struggled to contain JP II’s human bowling ball, 6-2, 298-pound junior running back Rion Roseborough, who carried 25 times for 213 yards and a pair of touchdowns.
“We did a poor job of tackling and we got pushed around too much at the line of scrimmage,” Beaman said. “It just wasn’t a good night in any phase of the game.”
When they weren’t giving the ball away or shooting themselves in the foot, the Patriot offense chugged up and down the field quite effectively.
Even after a holding penalty nullified a TD on the game’s opening possession, APA still moved to the JP II 3 before being stopped on downs.
On its next possession, Parrott was stymied by an interception deep in Saints’ territory.
And to cap a disastrous first half, the Patriots’ third drive ended with a fumble out of the Saints end zone for a touchback.
To John Paul II’s credit, it took advantage of the Patriot miscues.
The Saints put together scoring drives of 97 and 99 yards in the opening two quarters to build a 13-0 halftime advantage.
The second march was sustained when JP II quarterback Brody Mitchell drew the Patriot defense offsides with a hard count on 4 th and 3 from the APA 15-yard line.
“We haven’t made those types of mistakes all year, and tonight it cost us,” Beaman said. “If we could’ve put the ball in the end zone in the first half and gained a little momentum, the outcome might have been different.”
The Patriots had one more chance to regain the momentum when they stopped the Saints on downs to open the second half.
Predictably, another turnover at its own 35 sucked the life out of the Parrott comeback attempt.
John Paul II took advantage of the short field for a 21-0 lead and the Patriots never seemed to recover.
A furious fourth quarter rally fell short as Parrott again turned the ball in the red zone three minutes after Morgan McPhaul’s 3-yard TD run finally got the visitors on the scoreboard with 9:38 remaining in the contest.
McPhaul ran for 172 yards on 16 carries and caught 5 passes for 61 yards.
Parrott outgained the Saints offensively 348 yards to 331.
“I told the guys after the game to remember how much this loss hurts, but only until tomorrow,” Beaman said. “Then we’re going to forget about it, get back to work, and get ready for the playoffs.”
The Patriots open the playoffs next Friday at home against Cary Christian. A possible re-match with John Paul II would occur in the state championship game and would again be played in Greenville
“Of course, we want a re-match, but first things first,” Beaman said. “If we play like we did tonight, Cary Christian is fully capable of beating us. We have to put this loss out of your minds and take care of business next week.”
JOHN PAUL II 28, ARENDELL PARROTT 6
Parrott 0 0 0 6—6
John Paul II 7 6 15 0—28
First Quarter
JPII—Justin Biggs 40 run (Will McMinn kick), 3:24
Second Quarter
JPII—Rion Roseborough 3 run (run failed), 8:26
Third Quarter
JPII—Brody Mitchell 1 run (Roseborough run), 6:06
JPII—Roseborough 2 run (McMinn kick), :25.0
Fourth Quarter
APA—Morgan McPhaul 3 run (run failed), 9:38
APA JPII
First Downs 15 17
Rushes-yards 31-245 56-328
Passing 8-18-1 1-3-0
Passing yards 103 3
Total yards 348 331
Punts-avg. 0-0 1-44.0
Penalties 4-24 4-26
Fumbles-lost 4-3 0-0
Individual Statistics
RUSHING—Parrott: Morgan McPhaul 16-172, Cole Howard 4-38, Cole Dawson 8-22, Ashton Brinson 2-8,
Andrew Daniels 1-5. John Paul II: Rion Roseborough 25-213, Justin Biggs 17-58, Brody Mitchell 9-34,
Keiveon Moore 3-25, Max Mason 2-(minus 2).
PASSING—Parrott: Dawson 8-18-1 103. John Paul II: Mitchell 1-3-0 3.
RECEIVING—McPhaul 5-61, Paxton Riley 2-27, Howard 1-15. John Paul II: Quinn McCaffrey 1-3.
