ST. LOUIS – Teams that employ a two-quarterback system often try to utilize the unique skill set of each.
The Miami Dolphins rode the combination of David Woodley and Don Strock to the Super Bowl in the early 1980’s. The Pittsburgh Steelers did the same with Neil O’Donnell and Kordell Stewart in the mid-90s.
Cardinal Ritter also employs a two-quarterback system, but not to add a different wrinkle to the offense.
“Both (quarterbacks) are so accurate, I can’t really tell a difference between the two,” junior wide receiver Elijah Abdullah said.
Senior Antwon McKay and junior Carson Boyd combined to go 18-of-28 for 321 yards, throw five touchdowns and run for two more in leading the Lions to a 60-24 victory over MICDS Friday in the Class 5 District 3 championship game at Cardinal Ritter High.
Cardinal Ritter (11-0), the defending Class 3 champion, will travel to Fort Zumwalt North (8-4) for a Class 5 quarterfinal at a time and date to be determined.
Both McKay and Boyd showed their versatility on Friday, throwing lasers into tight windows, connecting on deep touchdown passes and scrambling for first downs.
So far this season, the two have combined to throw 40 touchdown passes compared to just two interceptions.
“I don’t have separate play calling for them. The plays that are coming in, it doesn’t matter who is the quarterback. I let (McKay and Boyd) decide when they go in and how they rotate, and they do a tremendous job with that,” Cardinal Ritter coach Brennan Spain said.
The Lions, which averaged 43.6 points per game coming into the contest, scored a touchdown on their opening possession with McKay at quarterback, but after a fumbled punt, turnover on downs and three-and-out, Cardinal Ritter found itself trailing MICDS 14-8 early in the second quarter.
Then, Boyd orchestrated the drive that put the Lions ahead to stay.
First, he hit Abdullah on a quick screen for 12 yards. Then, he pump-faked short and lofted a perfect pass to junior DJ Miller down the right sideline that covered 38 yards and gave Cardinal Ritter a 16-14 lead.
“We were hitting them with outside screens, so we hit them with a fake outside screen and a go-route. We connected on it and that sparked us for the rest of the game,” said Boyd, who went 9-of-13 for 112 yards.
After a short MICDS punt, McKay re-entered the game and wasted no time, connecting with sophomore De’Shaun Stevenson down the left sideline for a 42-yard bomb on the Lions’ first play to build a 22-14 lead heading to halftime.
The two quarterbacks stood front and center on the sideline while the other performed and bounced ideas off each other throughout the game.
“When (McKay) comes off the field, I ask him what he sees and what can we do differently to be successful. He gives me great feedback, and we go out and execute,” Boyd said.
MICDS (9-3) emerged from halftime with a six-play, 52-yard drive. It resulted in a 45-yard field goal by junior Malik Orson that struck the crossbar and bounced through the uprights to slice the deficit to 22-17.
Again, Boyd engineered a momentum-shifting drive.
A quick screen to Abdullah went for 12 yards, a dart to Aiyon Carter covered 10 and a laser to Miller in traffic added nine more. His biggest play was recognizing a blitz on third-and-long, escaping the pocket and scooting 20 yards up the middle.
A nine-yard touchdown pass to Miller made the score 30-17. Miller caught five passes for 103 yards and three touchdowns.
On the next Lions’ drive, Boyd spotted Abdullah for 17 yards before taking a quarterback draw into the end zone from three yards away to increase the lead to 21 points.
After an MICDS punt, McKay kept the train rolling by dropping a 19-yard rainbow into the arms of Abdullah to put the game out of reach.
“That was a beautiful ball,” said Abdullah, who caught eight passes for 141 yards.
In all, Cardinal Ritter scored touchdowns on all five possessions in the second half and on seven of its final eight drives.
“I’m a big believer that your adrenaline pumps the first half, but at some point, everything settles, and when it settles, we have to execute and we have to make stops, and that’s what we did,” Spain said.
Two impactful plays by MICDS sophomore Graham Faust gave MICDS the early edge. First, he stripped the ball from a Cardinal Ritter punt returner and recovered the fumble, setting up a 27-yard touchdown run from senior Jeremiah Clay.
Then, Faust dove full-extension and made a phenomenal, one-handed snag just before his body hit the turf for a 30-yard touchdown reception that completed an eight-play, 82-yard drive and put MICDS ahead 14-8 early in the second quarter.
Part of the effectiveness of the MICDS offense in the first half came on misdirection runs, where the ball changed hands three times in a fraction of a second before an unidentified ball carrier escaped out the other side.
“We had a couple plays that broke loose and we capitalized, and I thought we finished drives pretty well when we got the ball down there, but hats off to Cardinal Ritter. They have a big-play, explosive offense and they’re very talented,” MICDS coach Dr. Fred Bouchard said.
Clay got loose on a slight-of-hand, 55-yard run on the second play of the third quarter, but the Cardinal Ritter defense clamped down after that and yielded only 53 total yards for the remainder of the second half.
“We practiced all week for that (misdirection). We knew it could hurt us because we had never seen it before, but we got together at halftime, talked about what we were seeing and we performed,” said strong safety Dominique Dixon Jr., a Tennessee State commit.
MICDS sliced the deficit to 38-24 with eight minutes remaining on a short touchdown run by junior quarterback Brian Gould, but the Cardinal Ritter offense, led by McKay and Boyd, was in too much of a rhythm to be stopped.
“We came out a little dry, but we kept focus. We listened to our coaches, stayed together as team, fought through adversity and executed,” Boyd said.