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A Christian Academy juggernaut met a DeSales defensive powerhouse Friday night. A CAL defensive Masada met a DeSales offensive blitzkrieg on the same night. The game between two undefeated teams hung on the efficiency of the machine with the best clutch.

The Colts tested the CAL resolve early with a 72-yard, methodical drive, capped by an Adam Nord three yard touchdown run. Nate Smith then kicked CAL into gear when the following Centurion possession stalled. With heavy pressure, Smith managed the beautiful punt downfield. More importantly, DeSales missed the block but tackled Smith for a penalty, giving CAL second life on the drive. Nathan Christmas then handled the clutch with a smooth shift on third and long three plays later when he connected with Smith on a 55 yard touchdown to bring the game to a tie.

“I told Nathan before the game that at some point, the game is going to be on his shoulders and he’d have to make a play,” Coach LeFors said. “He did tonight.”

This was only the first gear for Christmas with more horsepower in store for an estimated crowd of 3,000. The Lewellyn brothers stepped into the clutch next for the Centurions. With DeSales up 14-7, Chad Lewellyn intercepted Rousch’s first pass of the game and returned it 35 yards for excellent field position. With fourth down on his shoulders, Christmas connected with Cal Lewellyn on a 21 yard touchdown. Nathan Bader kicked the Centurions into a 14-14 tie with his second successful point after attempt.

The Centurion defense put the brakes on the Colts offense with a strong line push in the middle from Zach “Bonecrusher” Page, enabling Cody Davis, Zac Passafiume, Rider “JunkYardDog” Sparrow, Michael Lagastee and Jake Paulson clear shots on the DeSales running attack to force a punt. Christmas then shifted the CAL offense into maximum overdrive with 1:58 to go in the half, completing three consecutive passes, concluding with a 19 yard touchdown to Chad Lewellyn.

The Centurion D-line shifted second half gears with a Page, Paulson and Lagestee welcoming committee for running back Dylan Byrd, halting him for no gain. Linebacker Bill Jessee, along with Chad Lewellyn and Smith made second and third down stops to force a three-and-out. Christmas and Lewellyn came through in the clutch again on the ensuing Centurion drive. Lewellyn stretched more impressively than Mr. Fantastic to haul in a 27 yard catch on third down to extend the drive.

“They caught everything I threw to them,” Christmas said.

Nick Payne then found traction on the ground behind Blake Catron and Peyton Griffee, ripping off 12 and 24 yard runs. Christmas then dumped a short pass to Payne who ran over and through the Colts defense for a 13 yard touchdown.

DeSales did not give up, down 27-14 in the fourth quarter, but neither did the CAL defense. The Colts took the ball to the CAL five yard line, going for it on fourth and two. Lagestee, Sparrow and Davis made sure he only got one and a half. DeSales then caught Christmas in the end zone for a safety, putting the CAL defense to another test. Jed Clay and Matthew Arnold brought stamina and pressure to the defense that eliminated the big play, but DeSales again marched inside the ten yard line late in the fourth. Chad Lewellyn then met Byrd on the four and popped the ball loose. Chuck Williams recovered on the five, putting the Centurion offense back on the field in roughly the same spot as the previous drive.

Christmas proved cool within the clutch of a defense that had forced a safety on the previous series. He connected on a 23 yard reception to Sparrow despite the waving arms of the DeSales D-line. The chains continued to move, as did the clock.

DeSales did manage a late touchdown with 30 seconds left, but could not recover the ensuing pooch kick or the District Four championship. CAL finished the game and 2013 district play with the championship for the third year in a row. The Centurions stand at 9-0 for the season with the 27-24 win and is unbeaten in regular season district play for three years running–and passing.

“It was a great win for our program,” said LeFors. “I am extremely proud of the guys. All of their success this season is a direct result of hard work and their will to win. I would like to thank all of the fans that came out. The energy Friday night was awesome. We need more nights like that as we press on toward the goal in the playoffs.”

After this clash of unbeatens, CAL now heads to Male on November 1 to meet a currently unbeaten Bulldogs team that just defeated Trinity. Both teams have done their part and the matchup is sure to be another outstanding contest getting prepared for the playoffs.

The CAL girls’ varsity soccer team defeated KCD and Ballard last Monday and Tuesday, respectively, to capture their fourth consecutive District 28 championship! Kenzi Dannelly, Faith Shepherd and Megan Mintman were named to the District 28 All-Tournament team. Congratulations to the team, the coaches, and to the girls who made the All-Tournament team!

CAL dominated possession time and field position the entire district semi-final versus KCD and the final 9-0 score was proof of both. Kenzi Dannelly led off the goal-a-thon with a sharp strike into net off a Dana Joss assist just 4 minutes into the game. Megan Mintman hit a left-footed goal less than a minute later for a 2-0 lead. Megan scored her second goal at 29:02 after receiving a nice assist pass from Kenzi. Erin Scheiter played a perfect corner kick in front of goal where a patiently waiting Faith Shepherd crushed the ball into net, and Dana Joss scored with just 0:47 left in the first half for a CAL 5-0 lead. In the second half, Lindsey Dunn made a nifty dribble move and crossed the ball to Haleigh Fortuna who rattled it home. 6-0 CAL. Haleigh lofted a high arcing corner to Faith Shepherd who rose above the crowd to hammer a header home for her second goal. CAL 7-0. Kenzi netted her second goal of the evening off a Megan Mintman assist at 24:26 in the second half. CAL 8-0. Perhaps the craziest and most exciting goal of the night was tallied by Emily Meade (her first of the season). With just 9:00 to play, the ball bounced high off the ground in front of KCD’s goal. Dana hit a header that went straight up in the air. A streaking Emily Meade running all the way in from her left back position thundered a header from 15 yards out with such force the goalie never had a chance! The final score was CAL 9 KCD 0. It was the defense’s 8th shutout of the season. Special credit goes to Corinne Warlick who stepped into goal this night in replacement of injured Molly Andres, and recorded the shutout.

Tuesday night’s District 28 championship game was much more difficult. Ballard, after losing twice this season already to CAL, displayed gritty resolve not to go down a third time. Our girls fought hard but could not break through Ballard’s defense for almost thirty minutes. Then, at 10:20, Faith Shepherd collected the ball about 30 yards out, made a nice touch to her left foot, and blasted a smoking hot shot into the upper right V of the goal to make it CAL 1-0! Playing without injured senior stalwart defender Sophie Schulz, CAL’s defense rose to the challenge. Faith stepped into the back line from her normal mid-field position and Emily Meade performed admirably coming off the bench. Annie Beanblossom, Corinne Warlick and Laura English played strong as well. Despite great defensive play, Ballard managed to sneak a goal in mid-way through the second half to level the game at 1-1. But, the CAL girls went masterfully to the attack, wanting no part of overtime or PK’s. Forwards Haleigh Fortuna, Lindsey Dunn, Dana Joss, Cassidy Bennett and Olivia Ashby, along with mid-fielders Megan Mintman, Erin Scheiter and Sara Quinton put incredible pressure on Ballard’s defense for the next 15 minutes. Finally, with 4:34 left in the game, Dana crossed the ball into the box from the right side to Megan who marvelously headed the ball to an open Lindsey Dunn on her left. Lindsey crushed the ball into net for the winning goal! CAL 2 Ballard 1 was the final.

The CAL girls’ team will play at home on Monday, October 21 in the quarterfinals of the Region 7 tournament. Come out and support this aggressive and exciting team!

Congratulations to juniors, Sarah Son and Abby Stivers who will compete in the KHSAA Girls State Golf Tournament at the Bowling Green Country Club next week.  Click Here to view tee times.  Good luck Sarah and Abby!

Earlier this season Teddy Bridgewater passed Stefan LeFors (5,853 yards) to move into 5th place in career yardage at UofL. The speedster from Louisiana led the Cards to 20 wins from 2003 to 2004. In 2004, UofL went 11-1, capped off by a 44-40 win over Boise State in the Liberty Bowl. LeFors played in both the National Football League and the Canadian Football League. He is currently in his third season as the head football coach at Christian Academy of Louisville. His Centurions are off to a 5-0 start, the best in school history.

KENT TAYLOR: What is the mood around school, and how excited is the Christian Academy community with your team off to a 5-0 start?

STEFAN LeFors: A lot of excitement, a lot of people excited about when our next game is, and a lot of congratulations. The mood is very, very good on campus. The guys are excited and they look forward to each and every practice and game.

TAYLOR: Before the year, did you think that this could be a special season?

LeFors: I knew it could be a good year. Our guys have worked hard all offseason, and we tell the guys all the time, if they work hard, good things will happen. We had some good players, but you never know how the ball bounces, it bounces some funny way sometimes. So far for us, it’s been bouncing our way. I don’t know if I could have told you three months ago that we’d be sitting here undefeated, midway through the year, but I felt good about our team and I still do.

TAYLOR: Did you always know that you would go into coaching?

LeFORS: I love the game and knew I couldn’t play forever. It’s a funny business when you’re a player. When I got done, I didn’t know what I was going to do. Sports has been a part of my whole life. I knew that I wanted to be around the game in some way. What better way than to be a high school coach and work with young people and teach them the game that I was blessed to play for a long time. I learned from a lot of great people. I felt that it was my calling to pass that down to young men.

TAYLOR: Was there a moment that you knew that your playing career was over?

LEFORS: It got to a point where the game itself was still fun, it was the stuff off the field that became a hassle. Playing up in Canada was great, you know I met a lot of great people, but starting a young family, with two young kids at the time, and going back and forth from Canada to the States became hard. The things off the field became more and more of a business, with the contract. So I felt it was my time. I didn’t know I was going to get into coaching right off the bat. I wanted to stay close to the game in some way and luckily this opportunity opened up and I couldn’t be happier.

TAYLOR: Who would you say you model your coaching after, is there a coaching mentor you have?

LEFORS: I’ve grabbed bits and pieces from a lot of the coaches that I played for. I don’t really know if there’s one guy. You see how certain people take command of the room, and how some coaches treat their team and their players. I’ve had a lot of great coaches from high school all the way through the professional level. Just treat people well, the way I’d like to be treated, and just have fun with our guys.

TAYLOR: When you sent a tape to the University of Louisville, how many schools did you send a tape to?

LeFors: Probably 20 or 25.

TAYLOR: Do you ever look back at the way it all has worked out for you and say wow, that’s pretty phenomenal the way it came together for me?

LEFORS: Absolutely. We know we all have a purpose and a plan and God has a plan for all of us. Looking back, I could have easily ended up at SMU or Rice, I don’t want to knock those programs, but those are the types of schools that I sent film to. I didn’t know what the heck was going to happen. I’m very fortunate, looking back, very, very lucky to have an opportunity to go to Louisville. At the time I didn’t know a whole lot about Louisville. I knew their offense was fun to watch and that it would be a pretty cool system to be a part of. It’s been a great ride, I had a lot of success there at Louisville, the fans have been great. Everything about it, and that’s why we’re still here in Louisville, raising a family.

TAYLOR: That Miami game in 2004, even though it was a loss, to me it was one of the most important games in the building of this program. How often do you think about that and what could have been?

LEFORS: That game was tough. It was a fun atmosphere, guys were ready to play and we came out firing. We couldn’t have started any better, I don’t think. The things that I think back about the game are Devin Hester and a couple of bounces that didn’t go our way towards the end, that we could have sealed the game, but we didn’t. Plus the fact that I couldn’t finish that game, but knowing that I gave it all that I had up until that point. It definitely put us on the big landscape of college football, for sure.

TAYLOR: That 2004 team finished 11-1, that was your only loss, does that team not get as much credit as it deserves, when it comes to talking about the better teams in school history?

LEFORS: We were loaded. We don’t get in the big time discussion, you know greatest of all-time at Louisville because we were in Conference-USA. We couldn’t help who we were playing. We went out there and handled our business. Week in and week out, we were putting big numbers up on the board. When we had an opportunity to play Boise State in that Liberty Bowl, two top 10 teams, it was a fun game and we pulled that one out. I don’t know if we don’t get enough attention. I know we were loaded and we had a lot of fun moving the ball up and down the field and playing fast. It was a great team to be a part of and very fun.

TAYLOR: What are your impressions of Teddy Bridgewater?

LEFORS: He’s throwing the ball all over the field. What I love about him is he’s very poised. All the things that you hear about the good quarterbacks, he’s got all of it. He’s never too high, he’s never too low, and I know him a little bit. He’s a great quarterback, but he’s even a better person. You can’t help but root for someone like Teddy. He’s doing his thing, he’s getting a lot of guys involved, and he’s got command of the offense for that team and it’s fun to watch.

article posted 9/26/13  http://www.voice-tribune.com/sports/taylors-10/a-winning-play-for-stefan-lefors/

The CAL girls’ varsity soccer team won the Male Bulldog Cup this past week with resounding victories over Mercy, Central Hardin and Male! Kenzie Dannelly, Erin Scheiter and Molly Andres were named to the all-tournament team.

CAL 1 Mercy 0
Senior co-captain Annie Beanblossom, back in the lineup following an injury week off, led the CAL girls to another great team defensive effort along with Sophie Schulz, Corinne Warlick, Laura English and goalie Molly Andres to record their third shutout this season in Tuesday’s 1-0 victory over rival Mercy. Nifty and nimble Megan Mintman and Erin Scheiter deftly handled the ball through the middle to initiate numerous scoring opportunities and Megan capped her performance by stuffing in a rebound off Faith Shepherd’s shot at 29:10 in the second half for the game’s only goal. CAL dominated ball control for most of the game and outshot Mercy by a wide margin with great shots by Haleigh Fortuna, Kenzie Dannelly, Megan, Erin Scheiter and several other CAL players. The girls played very hard all night and their work rate and effort was fantastic.

CAL 2 Central Hardin 1
Senior co-captain Kenzie Dannelly sparked CAL to their second victory of the week in the Male Bulldog Cup, a 2-1 win over Central Hardin, and a berth in Saturday’s Cup Championship game. The first half was mostly back and forth with neither side gaining advantage until Dana Joss hit a hard strike off the left post at 9:30. Kenzie hit the same post at 2:30, but the half ended 0-0. CAL came out strong in the second half with numerous excellent shots on goal in the first five minutes, including a free kick by Annie Beanblossom, a chance by Haleigh Fortuna and a sharp strike by Kenzie. Finally, at 30:18 left in the game Kenzie collected a long pass, dribbled around a defender and then smoked a shot screaming past the CH goalie into the net for a 1-0 CAL lead. Central Hardin responded swiftly, knotting the score at 1-1 just one minute later off a corner. At 26:08, Kenzie lofted a long, beautiful diagonal ball to a streaking Dana Joss on the right side who broke free of the goalie, spun back and chipped the ball into goal. CAL 2-1!!! The next 26 minutes displayed an intense defensive struggle in which CAL’s back line turned away every CH attempt. On to Saturday’s championship game!

CAL 3 Male 1 ; A Tale of Two Half’s
Our CAL girls’ team started the first half on a high following the previous night’s homecoming football game victory. But, Male slipped through for a surprising goal at 25:15 to take a 1-0 lead. The team slumped a bit after falling behind, and the first half ended at Male 1 CAL 0.
Whatever Coach Zutt told them at half-time worked well! CAL came out with tremendous zip and energy to start the second 40 minutes. Just four minutes in, at 36:08, Haleigh Fortuna cruised down the right side and hammered a shot home to level the score at 1-1! Erin Scheiter dominated the middle with power and force and kept advancing ball after ball with strong kicks. Megan Mintman played tough in the middle and even a few minutes at forward. Then, at 17:40 Kenzie Dannelly broke free on the left side, dribbling more than half the field before unleashing a screaming shot past the goalie for a CAL 2-1 lead that was never relinquished. Everyone got in the act during this game. Abby Benge played solid in the back line in relief of Corinne Warlick who played her normal tough and error-free game. Seniors Annie Beanblossom and Sophie Schulz and Sophomore Laura English stood firm in the face of Male second-half counterattacks, turning away all runs. Outside midfielders Faith Shepherd, Dana Joss along with Olivia Ashby and Nicole Athanasakes maintained forward pressure on Male’s defense all day, while ably falling back to help defend with the back line. Cassidy Bennett and Sara Quinton provided plenty of quality plays to cheer in the second half. To top off the victory Liana Forwith flicked a perfect header forward to Haleigh who broke free with her second goal of the day to make it 3-1 CAL! 

Coach Zutt commented that he encouraged the girls at the half to keep playing hard, because there were “still 40 minutes to go” and that “things will break our way”. Boy, was he right. “I’m very proud of what the girls accomplished as a team this week” said Coach Zutt. With the win, CAL improved their record to 7-3-1 on the year.
There is little time to celebrate the Bulldog Cup victory. Monday night, CAL plays last year’s Regional Champion, Assumption, at CAL. Game time is 7:30 pm. It will be a fantastic game and evening of soccer so come out and cheer on the girls!!

The Centurions joined the caravan of UL and UK football fans on Friday night and Saturday morning to play in the Thoroughbred Smash Tournament in Lexington. Over two days, it was a clean sweep with CAL winning five matches in two sets each. Wins included Rowan County, Johnson Central, West Jessamine, and Hardin Central (coming from 7 behind in set 2). Finally, CAL was raring to go in the championship match against Lexington Catholic, winning set one, 25-8! CAL went on to win set two and the championship trophy, 25-21. A great end to a 7 and 0 match week!

We need fan support for Thursday night’s game against Eastern. This will be one of the most important and toughest matches of the season. Come Out & Support CAL Volleyball!!!