RECAP: Crusaders Roll over Milwaukee Riverside

The Catholic Memorial Crusaders have started their season quickly by dominating their first two opponents in much the same manner as they did a year ago. Following up a 72-6 drubbing of Milwaukee King, they physically dominated the overmatched Milwaukee Riverside Tigers and cruised to a 55-6 victory after leading 42-0 at halftime.

Andy Jaynes opened the scoring for the Crusaders with a 49 yard TD run on the CMH first play from scrimmage. The Crusaders never looked back as Jaynes ran for two more scores of 7 and 2 yards, and also had 80 yards receiving in the first half alone.

Jack Fleming, a third year starter at QB, ran for an 8 yard TD and also connected at the end of the half on a 16 yard TD pass to his favorite target WR Mike Janowski.

The Crusaders, already leading 35 – 0, got the ball back on their own 27 yard line with just 1:03 to play in the half, and drove the ball 73 yards on 5 plays capped by the Fleming to Janowski TD reception to finish a perfect two minute drill offense.

The Tigers showed last week that they have a quick offensive line and good talent at the running back position. Behind early against the Crusaders, they went away from the running game and threw the ball too inconsistently to get anything going.

Running backs Ryan Givens and Logan Wells continued to show bursts of talent with some big gainers both up the middle and around the end, but the Memorial defense was steady and used their size to dominate the line play and stuff the Riverside running attack for the entire game.

This was not the type of game the Tigers were looking for heading into next week as they open up their conference season in a game that could decide the overall Milwaukee City – Richardson champion against Bay View. Head coach Patrick Wagner and his staff must work to rebuild the confidence of the Tiger team, and prepare them to come into the Bay View game more aggressive than they did against the Crusaders.

Catholic Memorial again comes into their Classic Eight conference without a strong test. Their offense looks to be clicking on all cylinders, but they need to become more consistent on defense to compete with the top half of the Classic Eight.

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