Correspondent photo / Michael G. Taylor Cardinal Mooney running back Ike Lake (5) runs away from Garfield’s Ryder Cain for a 52-yard touchdown during a Division V regional semifinal on Friday at Stambaugh Stadium.

YOUNGSTOWN — It was the Ike Lake show on Friday night at Stambaugh Stadium.

The Cardinals’ senior tailback ran all over Garfield’s defense, racking up 131 yards and three touchdowns in just the first half, as Mooney cruised to a 56-14 victory over the G-Men in a Division V, Region 17, semifinal at Stambaugh Stadium in downtown Youngstown.

With the program coming off a 3-8 season last year, Cardinals head coach Frank Colaprete has guided Mooney back to the regional final in his first season with the team. The Cardinals will face the winner of Friday’s Poland vs. Girard game next week in the regional final.

“Personally to me, it means everything,” Colaprete said. “This is why I came back home to be with this school, this family, these men. I couldn’t be more excited for us as a community. You can feel the spirit from the Mooney family, and to be in the position we’re in, it’s just like no other. I got no words for where we’re at right now. I couldn’t be happier.”

Lake quickly got things started for Mooney on its opening possession, as the Cardinals only needed four plays before Lake’s 28-yard touchdown run. It looked like Lake had initially been brought down near the 10-yard line, but the officials ruled that his knee or arm never touched the ground.

“It was great to see him get moving, get rolling, get his feet underneath him and get his wind back after sitting out for so long,” Colaprete said. “That meant the world to us to see him run and carry himself the way he did.”

The G-Men were patient offensively, as they moved down the field on their opening possession. Faced with a fourth down, Garfield quarterback Jack Neikirk found a wide open Colton Miller down the middle of the field for a 35-yard touchdown.

From there, it was all Cardinals in the first half.

Luke Kollar came into the game and threw a 36-yard touchdown pass to Tony Jackson at the end of the first quarter. Kollar and his family won a recent lawsuit on Nov. 4, in which the court filed an injunction against the OHSAA’s decision to make him ineligible after transferring to Mooney from Ursuline.

“The field position was really rough in the first half,” Garfield head coach Mike Moser said. “We’re getting it on the 2-yard line, on the 15-yard line. You’re going to set yourself up for a long night against that defense (when) you gotta go the full length of the field. We knew we needed some breaks. We needed some things to go our way. But ultimately, they got some special kids, and we couldn’t catch them or tackle them.”

Lake also had additional touchdown runs of 43 and 52 yards in the first half, while Rocco Zabel plowed into the end zone from 2 yards out after Garfield gave Mooney a short field after getting pinned inside their own 5-yard line. At halftime, the Cardinals led 35-6.

“It was extremely important to get a jump early on them and gain some confidence,” Colaprete said. “That rolls over to the defense and special teams as well when you get that kind of confidence. We needed to get on them early, so it was great to do that.”

After giving up a touchdown on Garfield’s first offensive possession, Mooney’s defense stood up to the challenge against the G-Men’s single-wing offense. Garfield racked up 216 total yards, but most of that came in the second half.

“I thought they were able to get locked in, see it, get caught up with what they were seeing and get their eyes in the right place,” Colaprete said. “Really got disciplined and sound football out of them after that.”

In the second half, Mooney added three touchdown passes from quarterback Vince Gentile in the third quarter, as the Cardinals took advantage of some short fields that resulted from two turnovers and a poor punt by the G-Men.

“We were scrambling. We were dropping guys left and right,” Moser said. “We had guys playing in spots they weren’t really familiar with. We lose our punt snapper early on in the first quarter, we lose two of our running backs. We were up against it a little bit. But no excuses. We practice them, but we just didn’t get in there and execute when we got in there.”

With the running clock ticking down at the end of the fourth quarter, the G-Men finally got back on the board with a 4-yard touchdown run from Neikirk.

Garfield graduates 12 seniors from this year’s team. That group has helped guide the program to new heights during their careers and reached the playoffs all four years they’ve been in school.

“Nobody likes to go out like this. But unfortunately sometimes it happens. It wasn’t a lack of effort, it wasn’t anything like that. These guys have raised the bar around here, and as bad as it hurts today, we’ll bounce back,” Moser said. “They won two league titles during their time here. They accomplished a lot. We appreciate everything they did for us, and we’ll see if we can’t pick it up and go from there.”