by Lem Satterfield

It appears that Calvert Hall brings out the best in Loyola's Leon Kinnard, who dominated the Cardinals for the second straight season, in Thursday's annual Turkey Bowl clash between the two Towson arch-rivals.

The junior quarterback scored his eighth, ninth and 10th rushing touchdowns from 1, 2 and 3 yards out, and threw for 177 yards and his 13th scoring pass, a 60-yarder to Brandon Floyd, to lead Loyola to its fifth straight Turkey Bowl victory over Calvert Hall, 33-10, at M&T Bank Stadium.

The win clinched a tie for the Dons (9-1 overall, 5-1 league) with Mount St. Joseph (6-4, 5-1) for their second straight MIAA A Conference title in their 88th annual meeting with the Cardinals.

Kinnard, who, in last year's 26-0 rout of the Cardinals, rushed for three first-half touchdowns on nearly 80 yards, and passed for 141 yards, has 466 rushing yards and 1,491 passing yards this season.

Last year, Kinnard rushed for 11 scores and passed for 11 others, leading the Dons through a single-season school record victory total at 10-1.

Loyola leads the series, 47-33-8 against Calvert Hall (5-6, 1-4), having won 19 of the past 23 matchups with the Cardinals.

"The only goal I had at the beginning of the year was to win another championship and to be able to enjoy it with my team, and I think I was able to accomplish both of those goals today," said Kinnard, a 5-foot-10, 180-pounder who, like Floyd, Terence Garvin (112 rushing yards), Donovan Eaton (90 rushing yards, one touchdown), defensive back Charley Jones (one interception) and linebacker Matt Heacock, will return as a senior next season.

"Tomorrow, we'll start thinking about next year," Kinnard said. "But for right now, you can't do better than this."

Kinnard has visited Virginia, Rutgers, Penn State and Maryland, and drawn intrest from Alabama, Boston College, Duke, Georgia Tech, North Carolina, Notre Dame, Purdue, Stanford, Syracuse and UCONN.

The Dons led, 20-3, at halftime, scoring on their first two possessions for a 13-0 first quarter lead, starting with their first play from scrimmage, when Kinnard threw his 60-yarder to Floyd.

Later, Kinnard's 3-yard scoring run ended an eight-play, 90-yard drive, followed by Jeff Timmons' first of three extra point kicks, 2:22 before the second quarter.

The lead was stretched to 20-0 after Kinnard's 1-yard run capped a 12-play, 80-yard drive. That score was set up by sophomore Vince Snarki's 10-yard run, one play earlier, on fourth-and-4, off of a reverse handoff from Garvin.

The Cardinals got on the board with four seconds left in the first half, when Dan Zentz rifled in a 37-yard field goal, ending a seven play that started at their own 14-yard line. Evan Cain completed four passes for 50 yards, including three for 35 yards to Justin Strickland during the drive.

But any momentum gained by Zentz' field goal quickly evaporated at the start of the second half.

That's when Snarski's 67-yard kickoff return to the Calvert Hall 30 set up Garvin's runs of 14, and, seven yards, respectively, before Eaton scored from 10 yards for a lead of 26-3.

"That's the byproduct of playing a great team, and Loyola is a great team that took our momentum and used it against us," said Cardinals' coach Donald Davis, in his first season.

"We have great kids who work very, very hard, but we're just a decent football team that ran into a very good football team," Davis said. "And good football teams make you pay. And that's what they did to us today."

The Dons stretched their lead to 33-3 at 2:32 of the third period when Kinnard's 2-yard run finished off a 10-play, 53 yard drive.

Calvert Hall then left the starting quarterback role to future star Patrick Fitzgerald, 5-4, 140-pound sophomore up from Calvert Hall's 9-0 junior varsity football team.

Fitzpatrick said he earned his first varsity start because he so successfully mimmicked Kinnard as a member of the scout team last week in Calvert Hall's practices.

"For his first time being on varsity, he did a wonderful job," Kinnard said of Fitzpatrick, who finished with 40 passing yards and 110 rushing yards.

Fitzpatrick made an electrifying 31-yard, fourth-quarter scoring run that ended with him diving, and then, extending the ball outward and just inside the far pylon for the TD.

"It was initially a run play, but nothing was over there, so I just cut back in and took it. But I wasn't sure that I got in," said Fitzgerald, whose score was followed by Chris Karlenko's extra point kick for the game's final score with 11:25 to play.

"At the beginning of the week, coach [Davis] said, 'you're going to get some playing time this week.' My mindset was to do my job and to help this team in anyway I could," said Fitzpatrick.

As a high school athlete, Fitzpatrick had not experienced defeat in two previous sports seasons before yesterday, having been a second baseman as a freshman on the Cardinals' 26-0 junior varsity baseball team last spring.

"I thought [Fitzpatrick] played well. I thought he was a bright spot," said Davis, who improved the Cardinals over last year's 1-8 mark. "I thought he did a great job of taking advantage of the opportunities he had. He's got a bright future."

But the Cardinals fell behind too far in the early going, allowing Loyola to follow its stoppage of their game-opening drive with an offensive statement.

Kinnard faced first-and-10 at its his own 40 when he rolled left, and, while in mid-stride and without squaring up to the line of scrimmage, threw a right-handed pass to an all-alone Floyd at the Calvert Hall 23-yard line.

Floyd raced the remaining distance all by himself for a 6-0 lead at 9:32 of the first period.

"We had talked about it before that, if they were playing cover-two, that Leon would just lob the ball up, and, fortunately, it worked out the way we had planned," said Floyd.

"I was surprised that I was that wide open. I thought that the safety would move over," Floyd said. "But that set the tempo, along with our line and the defensive stands that they made, making Calvert Hall go three-and-out on their next series."

On Loyola's next possession, the Dons went 20 yards in four plays before Kinnard found Joe Cummings near the 50-yard line. From there, Cummings, a senior, raced down the Loyola sideline to the Calvert Hall 15.

Four plays later, Kinnard sprinted, untouched, for a 3-yard scoring run, ending the 90-yard drive for the 13-point lead.

Kinnard's path was cleared by Doug Shaw, Elliott Poehlman, Kyle Stupi, Will Sellmayer, Ben Cranston and Ivan Eames on the offensive line.

"It was textbook. We had a great game plan coming in, and we blocked real well," said Stupi, a senior. "We watched a video yesterday of the Michigan-Ohio State rivalry, and after that, we were done. We were ready to go for this game."

The Cardinals drove to Loyola's 21 on their next offensive series, but a diving Fitzgerald was stopped a yard shy of a first down by the Dons' Tim Bolte.

"We came out firing. That was huge, getting out to a big start," said Bolte, a senior third-year starter. "We wanted to go up by a lot of points real fast. This a game that I'll always remember."

Poehlman registered his fourth sack of the year, with one sack each from Shaw and CT Marsh. Jones had an interception.

"Our defense wasn't the greatest, but for the most part, we went out and we exectuted," said Loyola senior linebacker Bubba Harrris. "This is a great feeling to finish as the champions again."

The Cardinals' Chris Lightner had an interception.

"I think we took a step forward this season, but there's room for improvement," said Davis, whose Cardinals lost, 14-10, to MIAA A Conference rival Gilman, and, 15-9, to unbeaten Eastern Tech of Baltimore County during games in which Calvert Hall drives were stopped inside the 5-yard line.

"I think we left one or two games on the field there that we had opportunities to win that we didn't come away with," Davis said. "But for the total body of work, this season, I think we did some good things. I think we have something to build on for next season."

. Loyola 33, Calvert Hall 10
Calvert Hall 0 3 0 7 - 10
Loyola 13 7 13 0 - 33
L- Floyd 60 pass from Kinnard (kick failed) 6-0, 9:32, first Q
L- Kinnard 3 run (Timmons kick) 13-0, 2:22 first Q
L- Kinnard 1 run (Timmons kick) 20-0, 1:20 first half (12 plays, 80 yards)
CH- Zentz 37 FG
L- Eaton 10 run (kick failed)
L- Kinnard 2 run (Timmons kick) 33-3, 2:32, third Q
CH- Fitzgerald 31 run (Karolenko kick)