[9/13/03]MOUNT OLIVE Following the trek to Mount Olive, the St. Aloysius players must have woken up from their naps just before gametime.

The Flashes (1-2, 0-1 Region 4-1A) appeared sluggish and out-of-sync as the Pirates (1-2, 1-0) stormed for 324 rushing yards and a 46-18 win.

St. Al had no answer for Mount Olive’s Earl McLaurin as he slipped and juked his way to 279 yards on 35 carries, with four touchdowns.

“We got physically whipped all over the field, but I think our problems are mental,” St. Al coach Jim Taylor said. “We just make mistakes that were the type of mistakes you make where you’re not giving a good effort.”

In the first half, St. Al’s defensive front was overpowered by Mount Olive. The Pirates eased their way to 194 yards on the ground, led by McLaurin’s 168 yards on 19 carries. When the Flashes stacked the line, Mount Olive took to the air with a pair of play-action touchdown passes of 12 and 35 yards from Perie Feazell to Lechung Williams.

On offense, the Flashes could never seem to find any consistency. St. Al’s lone first-half highlight came on a 67-yard touchdown scamper by quarterback Drew Mazzanti that tied the score at 6-6. Excluding those yards, the Flashes ran for 35 yards on 18 carries and fumbled five times, recovering three.

Following Feazell’s second touchdown pass, McLaurin added his second TD with 49 seconds left in the second quarter.

As the horn sounded for halftime, St. Al found itself down 27-6.

“We didn’t come out with any intensity on the whole team’s part,” Mazzanti said. “We need to execute. We need to run the plays how they’re drawn up.”

The Flashes appeared to wake from their slumber in the second half, scoring on a 14-yard touchdown run by Rob Jones on their first drive of the half. Jones ran in for another score to begin the fourth quarter, and finished with 109 yards on 21 carries.

But it was too little, too late, and the Pirates answered each Jones score with a touchdown drive of their own.

“We’ve got to get fired up somehow, it doesn’t matter how, we’ve got to find a way to do it,” said Mazzanti, who ran for 98 yards and a touchdown.

After Jones’ first touchdown, McLuarin ran in from 7 yards out for a 33-12 Mount Olive lead. When Jones scored his second touchdown, Feazell led the Pirates on a 51-yard drive that sapped 6 minutes off the clock and ended with a Feazell goal line sneak for a 40-18 lead. Mount Olive recovered the onsides kick, and McLaurin ran for his fourth TD for the 46-18 final.