Althoff offense piles it on Mater Dei

The numbers were staggering, mind-blowing and almost defied belief.

Althoff senior quarterback Jordan Augustine threw for 418 yards in the first half Friday and finished the night 24-of-30 for a career-high 532 yards and five touchdowns in a 68-46 victory over Mater Dei in the annual Holy Grail game.

It may look more like a basketball score, but this was a Madden Football video game stuck on overdrive and Augustine had the remote control in his hands on a magical night. He and junior receiver C.J. Coldon hooked up on 10 pass plays for 271 yards —and Coldon had 258 receiving yards at halftime.

It was one of those kind of nights as Althoff surpassed 700 yards of total offense for the second week in a row, finishing with 716 yards.

In the final 38 seconds of the first quarter, Althoff scored two touchdowns and Mater Dei scored one. There were defenders on the field, but neither side had much success.

“When Jordan’s clicking like he’s clicking, he’s got weapons everywhere,” Althoff coach Ken Turner said after his team, ranked fourth in the state in Class 4A, improved to 3-0. They’ve been like this all summer. It’s good receivers and good running backs and our line’s actually doing a pretty good job for as young as they are.

“He’s just doing what he’s supposed to do and he’s picking people apart.”

There was no real deciding moment in this defense-optional offensive buffet, but Althoff did strike for two TDs in the span of 3 minutes, 30 seconds in the third quarter after Mater Dei (1-2) had cut the lead to 41-34.

“You can’t practice that speed,” Mater Dei coach Jim Stiebel said. “They’ve got good speed. Hopefully down the road we pick it up and we get on a winning streak and get better throughout the year, get another chance at them. I’d love it.”

Along with Augustine and Coldon, Althoff got three touchdowns from Jaylon Bester and two by Malik Easley and Tarkus Ferguson.

Mater Dei quarterback Colin Schuetz completed 22-of-41 passes for 331 yards. Schuetz threw four TD passes and ran for two more while Knights receiver Butchie Timmermann had 11 catches for 166 yards and two TDs.

Turner and Stiebel disagreed on the way things played out in the fourth quarter.

Stiebel was upset when Turner, who had substituted earlier, brought his starting offense back in and Augustine threw a 30-yard TD pass to Ferguson with 2:03 remaining to make it 68-46.

“I thought it was a lack of class,” Stiebel said. “We weren’t giving up, we weren’t giving in, but we did pull our main guys out. Of course they go over the top (for the TD).”

Turner saw it differently.

“We pulled our starters out and they left their starters in on both sides of the ball,” Turner said. “They kept trying to score. I put my No. 2 offense in and he kept his No. 1 defense in. Then they did the onside kick, so we needed to try to win the football game.

“That’s why we put our starters back out there, because he continued to onside kick.”

This story was originally published September 11, 2015 at 11:11 PM with the headline "Althoff offense piles it on Mater Dei."