Bloomfield bursts past St. Pius for second consecutive 4A football crown

For approximately 90 seconds, the Class 4A championship game had the makings of a back-and-forth track meet.

From that point forward, however, it was little more than a Bloomfield coronation.

The top-seeded Bobcats and No. 2 St. Pius traded touchdowns on their first three possessions before Bloomfield scored the next 22 points en route to a 58-27 victory on Saturday afternoon at Nusenda Community Stadium. It’s the second consecutive blue trophy for Bloomfield, which defeated the Sartans 62-28 in last year’s title game.

“It’s surreal right now, and the thing that means the most is you saw the energy … all the seniors played their hearts out. This is it,” said Bloomfield coach Mike Kovacs.

Senior quarterback Manual “Peanut” Chavarria had a hand in all five of the Bobcats’ first-half touchdowns — four passing and one rushing — and finished with five passing touchdowns and two rushing on the day. It was an impressive punctuation to a memorable campaign for Chavarria, who entered Saturday with 48 passing TDs.

“I can’t even explain it to you. It just feels great, you know,” Chavarria said. “Being able to put it on for my town. I’m not doing this just for myself. I was doing this for my teammates, my town.

“It’s been back-to-back. I wanted to make history so bad. All the seniors did — and we did.”

The scoring began with an 85-yard scoring toss from Chavarria to senior running back Peyton Duncan on the Bobcats’ first play from scrimmage. St. Pius didn’t take long to respond, as sophomore running back Hershul Olloway Jr. scampered 67 yards on the Sartans’ first offensive play to tie the game. Shortly thereafter, Chavarria connected with Kaleb Hutchens for a 56-yard touchdown to give Bloomfield a 14-7 advantage.

All of that happened in just 93 seconds, with both teams running a combined total of four plays. While it appeared that a shootout would ensue, St. Pius was unable to find a rhythm for the rest of the first half, while the Bobcats surged. Chavarria’s 41-yard bomb to Deasyl Priddy with just five seconds remaining in the second quarter made it 36-7 and punctuated a demoralizing end to the half for the Sartans.

“Once we got them down, we’ve got to hold them down,” Chavarria said. “That’s the only way you can beat St. Pius is because they’re very explosive.”

The Sartans showcased that ability in the third quarter. Junior quarterback Isaiah Carpenter completed passes of 38, 45, 22 and 37 yards on St. Pius’ first two possessions of the second half before finishing both drives off with rushing touchdowns to cut the deficit to 36-21 with 5:39 remaining in the third quarter.

Things got even more interesting when the Sartans forced a Bloomfield punt and immediately got the ball in Bobcats territory. However, St. Pius turned the ball over on downs.

“We just had to tell them: Calm down,” Kovacs said of his defense.

As it turned out, that was the last bit of suspense in the game. Bloomfield ran the ball at will down the stretch, with Chavarria, Duncan and Cole Gosnell all reaping the benefits of a dominant performance by the Bobcats’ offensive line.

“The lineman said, ‘Coach, put it on us,’” Kovacs said. “Jose Santistevan, my O-line (coach), said, ‘We’re gonna run this down their throat,’ and that’s exactly what we did. Our O-line was just dynamite.”

Bloomfield will graduate 20 seniors from its two-time defending championship squad. Kovacs plans on savoring the moment, but not for too long.

“When we get home, we’re just gonna embrace this and just talk about it for days,” he said. “And then get ready — because Jan. 1 we start over.”

Bloomfield wins the 4A state title game: Photos