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Tampa Catholic continues to struggle 53-14

© St. Petersburg Times,
published October 20, 2001

TAMPA -- Orlando First Academy went into Friday night's game against Tampa Catholic with something to prove. After all, the Crusaders had scheduled the Royals for their homecoming game.

Bad move.

Tailback Chris Green scored three times and First Academy rolled up more than 400 yards of total offense, trouncing Tampa Catholic 53-14.

"That's disrespectful for (Tampa Catholic) to call us for a homecoming game," Green said. "So we wanted to come out and prove a little something out here."

That's exactly what Green and the Royals did, dominating the Crusaders on both sides of the ball. First Academy controlled the ground game, amassing 392 yards, led by Green's 195.

"When I first came here, I swear, we must have been, at least eight times during the year, somebody's homecoming game," Royals coach Dale Salapa said. "This was a big win for us because they're a bigger school."

Green was magnificent, scoring on touchdown runs of 10, 27 and 10 yards, consistently making Crusader defenders miss.

"Chris is great in the open field and you just don't get a clean hit on him, unless you've got two or three guys making the tackle," Salapa said.

After a pair of Green touchdowns, a touchdown pass to Tampa Catholic's Denard Span made the score 12-7 early in the second quarter.

Then the Royals reeled off 41 unanswered points, capped by Kyle Barber's 20-yard, fourth-quarter score.

"We are physically not very good," Crusader coach Jim Guaderian said. "The little kids give you what they have, but they are physically not the match for what's across from them."

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