Irish spoil Y-town home opener
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YOUNGSTOWN -- It was a battle of attrition on Friday night at Rayen Stadium -- whoever made the fewest mistakes emerged victorious.
That proved to be Ursuline, as the Fighting Irish came alive in the second half to hold off Youngstown 25-9 and spoil the Defenders' first home opener as a newly-consolidated school.
"We knew they were going to come out and play hard football," Ursuline head coach Tony Stephens said. "It was going to be a different type of energy, and that's what we tried to instill in our kids. This game is about history. I guarantee, they were talking about it being their first home game as a consolidated school. It's an important game, and you saw how they came out. That team was on fire, and they gave us fits.
"Their coaching staff put a really good gameplan together. They had their players ready to play. We finally got back in our rhythm, and we made our second-half adjustments. One thing about my team that I'm very proud of is that we never give up. We've played some very hard teams, and we've been down, but we always kept fighting."
MIstakes-wise, Youngstown finished with four turnovers and 11 penalties for 83 yards, while Ursuline had a safety, turned the ball over once, had two PATs blocked and had a failed onside kick.
"I'm not going to blame it on anything in particular, but penalties and turnovers became a factor," Youngstown head coach Seth Antram said. "We need to continue to minimize mistakes. We are capable of being a really good team when we're not putting ourselves behind the sticks and turning the ball over."
In the first quarter, the Defenders went three-and-out on their opening possession, but a roughing the kicker penalty by Ursuline gave Youngstown a new set of downs.
While the Defenders didn't capitalize on the penalty, they did pin the Irish near the goal line after a punt. In the shadow of its own end zone, Ursuline fumbled shortly thereafter, and Youngstown quarterback Asuante Mickel punched it in for the touchdown two plays later for the early 7-0 lead.
By the end of the opening period, the Irish had moved the ball into the red zone, and Vinnie Fecko put Ursuline on the board with a 7-yard touchdown run on the first play of the second quarter.
After a failed onside kick attempt by the Irish, Youngstown turned the ball over for the first time when Mickel's fumble was recovered by Ursuline's Brandon Brown. The Irish then turned it over on downs after the takeaway.
The Defenders had a chance to add to their lead after a 24-yard completion from Mickel to Mike Stanley put Youngstown on the goal line. But the team's second turnover gave the ball back to the Irish with a few minutes till halftime.
Ursuline struggled to move the ball all half, and after taking over at its own 2-yard line, a backwards pass in the end zone by quarterback Ethan Sandusky was ruled a safety for the Defenders.
"It could have went from bad to ugly real quick," Stephens said. "We have to clean up our mistakes. That's something we gotta get corrected if we want to continue to compete against these better teams."
Youngstown turned the ball over on downs again after getting the ball back, but took a 9-6 lead into the locker room at halftime.
"We had one [turnover] down at the goal line, we had a couple [penalties] on some third downs where we gave them first downs," Antram said. "We had a couple third downs with the ball in our hand that we weren't able to convert because a penalty or two pushed us back behind the sticks even further."
After tallying less than 25 yards of offense in the first half, the Irish outscored Youngstown 19-0 after halftime.
On its second possession of the second half, Ursuline finally got its offense going. The Irish drove the ball 80 yards down the field, scoring on a 10-yard keeper by Sandusky to take their first lead of the night.
A sloppy turnover on downs by Youngstown turned into another touchdown for the Irish, when Fecko punched in a 2-yard touchdown run midway through the final quarter.
Fecko finished with 24 carries for 116 yards and two touchdowns, with almost all of his yards coming in the second half after getting largely bottled up in the first half.
"Fecko's a great runner and it's a great offensive line," Antram said. "They just kind of got going a little bit. But we started not finishing our tackles. In the first half, we were able to complete [our tackles], get there and run our feet and finish. We didn't finish as well in the second half."
At the end of the fourth, Ursuline put the finishing touches on its victory after another turnover on downs by the Defenders when Sandusky ran in his second touchdown of the night from 7 yards out to make it 25-9.
"I told them in the locker room -- 'I love you guys. You're going to come out in the second half, and you're going to have a good game. Just keep doing what you're doing. Trust the process. Everything's going to work out fine.'" Stephens said of Ursuline's second half. "Their heads didn't go down. We made the adjustments, and they trusted it. We knew it was going to be a tough game. ... It was more than just a game for them. It was something big for the community, and so these kids were playing for the community. When you have that much support behind you, you have a way of rising up, and that's what they did. They played a heck of a game."