Roncalli’s James Guthrie holds onto the ball while trying to break a tackle Friday night at Mooresville.
Rob Baker | For the Daily Journal
MOORESVILLE
A frustrating season for the Roncalli football team came to an end Friday night.
“We have to coach better,” Roncalli coach Eric Quintana said. “We’ve got to do hit the weight room better. We have to do everything better. The expectation of this program is to be deep in the playoffs and we didn’t execute this year. I take that personal.”
The Royals saw their string of four consecutive sectional titles end with a 17-9 loss to Mooresville in a Class 4A semifinal. Roncalli finishes with 4-7 record, while Mooresville advances with a 6-5 record.
Pioneers quarterback Hogan Denny ran for 144 yards on 16 carries, including a crushing 90-yard TD run in the fourth quarter.
“He’s a great athlete and good football player, Quintana said. “Kudos to (Mooresville coach) Mike Gillin.”
Denny completed 12 of 22 passes for 168 yards. Landon Clements added 78 yards on 20 rushing attempts.
The Pioneers took a 3-0 lead in the first quarter on Tyler Church’s 23-yard field goal. The Royals then stopped the Pioneers two other times in the red zone, once on downs and once when Church missed 36-yard field goal attempt.
“Defense executed well; the offense has had its struggles all year,” Quintana said. “We’ve got to regroup. We have to figure some things out.”
The Pioneers scored on the first play of the fourth quarter on Denny’s 26-yard TD pass to Levi Dorn.
After Roncalli’s Christian Swiezy caught a 44-yard pass from junior Jayden Buchanan to put the ball on the Mooresville 1, Zach Dozier scored on a 1-yard run with 4:12 left.
However, Denny’s 90-yard run came next.
Trailing 17-6, Roncalli got its final points on a strange sequence. With time running out and no timeouts, Quintana opted to send Levi Wisler out to kick a field goal rather than throw to end zone on fourth down. Wisler had an equipment issue, so the referee sent him off and Gavin Louthain kicked a short field goal as time expired.
“We were just trying to get some points,” Quintana said. “The play before, kept the clock running. It was just a million things; at that point you are where you are.”
Buchanan competed 22 of 37 passes for 256 yards with an interception. He also had a team-high 38 rushing yards on 11 carries.
Quintana said he did saw some things he liked from Buchanan in his first start at quarterback.
“We have some young guys who played a lot of varsity football,” Quintana said. “The future of Roncalli is extremely bright. It’s hard to shine it right now in the loss we had. We have to prepare better in the offseason. We have to be all in athletically and all in admin-wise to focus to get this team better. We have good kids.”
Quintana said he wanted to thank the seniors for their contributions.
“They worked very hard,” he said. “They gave everything they had for a very long time. I appreciate them. I love them.”
