Roncalli had rode Luke Hansen pretty hard through the first four weeks of the season, leaning heavily on the workhorse running back to carry the load. On Friday, the Royals were able to share the burden a little bit.
“Burden,” of course, might be the wrong word for a 49-10 blowout win.
Quarterback Arik Moyers completed 11 of 14 passes for 117 yards and two touchdowns, providing some needed balance on the way to a home rout of Guerin Catholic.
“One thing we’ve been focusing on each week is just getting him more comfortable in the pocket,” Roncalli coach Eric Quintana said of Moyers. “He had a great game today.”
The Royals (5-0) got on the board early when Moyers connected with Christian Swiezy for a 19-yard touchdown pass, the first TD of Swiezy’s career. On their next offensive series, Moyers hit Dylan Koglin for a long gain and then scored on a 1-yard keeper to give Roncalli a 14-0 lead after one quarter.
Moyers scored again early in the second, hitting paydirt from 2 yards out after Hansen’s 45-yard run put the Royals in scoring position. The Golden Eagles answered with a long TD pass to make it 21-7, but Roncalli went right back to work, stretching the lead back to three scores when Hansen broke loose for a 57-yard touchdown on fourth and 1 with about five minutes to go in the half.
Hansen — who still gained 262 yards on 24 carries — added two more touchdowns before the break, reaching the end zone on a 1-yard run and then following up a Judson Lawrie interception with another 1-yarder in the final minute of the second period. Guerin managed a field goal on the final play of the half to go into the locker room down 42-10.
Roncalli, which scored the lone points of the second half on another 19-yard pass from Moyers to Swiezy, travels to face Brebeuf Jesuit next week.
To Quintana, the opponent doesn’t matter as much as his own team.
“I’m never going to allow Roncalli to beat Roncalli,” he said. “We’re going to progress each week, get better and just keep building off of what we do.”
