St. Mary’s Catholic School head coach Rick Cobia said turnovers and penalties hurt the Rams in their homecoming game loss.
St. Mary’s football lost 44-28 to Arlington St. Paul’s Prep in a back-and-forth contest Friday night. Multiple second half fumbles and unforced penalties by the Rams ultimately prompted the Lions to a victory.
“We just have got to look at the film and recover from our mistakes,” Cobia said. “Mistakes hurt us tonight. We’re a good football team. Let’s look at those turnovers and let’s go on the road and get us a big win next week.”
The Rams looked poised to shut down the opposition on the opening drive of the game, backing the Lions up to an early 4th and 8. However, a defensive holding call gave St. Paul’s the first down and ultimately led to the score.
Similarly, a costly St. Mary’s penalty in the red zone helped the visitors grab a 16-8 lead after the Rams had previously tied it.
St. Mary’s was able to bring a 22-16 lead into halftime, largely due to the efforts of juniors Tyler Zimmerhanzel and Ethan Lively. Nevertheless, more miscues by the Rams caused the team to be outscored 28-6 in the second half.
Offensive holding calls routinely set St. Mary’s back behind the chains. Cobia said when a team gets caught up with holding calls against a good opponent, it’s not something that is easy to recover from.
“We got called for holding several times, which hasn’t been something that has ever plagued us,” Cobia said. “It got us tonight. The kids played really hard against a very good team. In six-man football, it doesn’t balance out. The spacing makes it hard to catch up.”
Perhaps the biggest blow of the night for the Rams came from a fourth quarter passing touchdown that brought the score 38-22 in the Lions’ favor. The St. Paul’s receiver was able to get open for the pass after Zimmerhanzel went down with a leg injury while in coverage.
Zimmerhanzel hauled in two interceptions and scored a touchdown on offense in the second quarter alone, which made it especially impactful when he was not able to return.
After the game, players from both teams gathered around the injured player for a moment of prayer.
“We had a key injury late,” Cobia said. “Other kids stepped up, which is something we can learn from.”
The loss drops St. Mary’s to a 2-2 record. Next week, the Rams will play their first road game against Community Christian at Mineral Wells.
