Irish’s rivalry winning streak snapped
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YOUNGSTOWN -- After eight years, Cardinal Mooney's long, agonizing wait is finally over.
The Cardinals' defense made several timely stops, and Mooney snapped a six-game losing streak to their cross-town rival with a 28-21 victory over the Fighting Irish in the 71st edition of the Holy War on Friday night at Stambaugh Stadium.
"It's a great way to end the season and head into the playoffs. When you play your rival school from basically across the street and win that, you go into the playoffs on a high note," Mooney head coach Frank Colaprete said. "We just didn't focus on anything -- [treating] this week like every other week, didn't put any pressure on them other than we gotta go and win the game. So now we're reaping the rewards from that, which is a beautiful thing."
Ursuline received the opening kickoff, but Mooney ended up with the ball after Ursuline's Vinnie Fecko fumbled on the game's first offensive play.
It took the Cardinals just three plays to capitalize on the takeaway, scoring on a 5-yard touchdown run by Tyler Guerrieri.
"I said it from the beginning, it doesn't matter what the records are, it doesn't matter who you play, this is a rivalry game and everybody is gonna get up to play," Irish head coach Tony Stephens said. "They just played better football than what we did tonight. We had more mistakes, they didn't."
The Irish settled in after the turnover, however, leaning on the run game with Fecko and Zalin Strother to tie the game 6-6 on their next possession with an 8-yard touchdown run by Fecko.
The two teams exchanged punts and Mooney went back to work at the start of the second quarter. The Cardinals took advantage of an Ursuline penalty on fourth-and-long to keep the drive alive, retaking the lead on a 7-yard touchdown run by Brady Desmond.
Each team had a chance to score again, but Mooney ultimately took a 13-6 lead into halftime.
A scoreless third quarter ended with Ursuline’s Dale Peterman intercepting Mooney quarterback Vince Gentile in the red zone.
The Irish turned the takeaway into their first lead of the night, driving 82 yards in 13 plays and eating more than five minutes off the clock, as Fecko ran it in from 3 yards out. Ursuline then pulled ahead 14-13 on a broken two-point conversion pass from Ray Javey to Patrick Reardon.
Ursuline's lead was short-lived, however, as Mooney scored in one play on the ensuing possession when Gentile found Brayden Bryant wide open over the middle of the field on a post route for a 77-yard touchdown. The Cardinals then went for two, converting on a pass from Gentile to Dom Letlow to retake the lead 21-14.
"We can't give up big plays," Stephens said. "We get ahead like that, we gotta know how to close it out. They kept fighting, but we took a big blow with that long touchdown and we just couldn't recover from it. ... We had a miscommunication back there, were in the wrong coverage and just had eyes in the backfield. That can't happen."
After forcing Ursuline to turn the ball over on downs, Mooney put the exclamation point on its victory with a 13-yard touchdown run by Desmond with two minutes left.
While the Irish finished with 400 total yards, the Cardinals' defense came up with four key stops, including the early fumble recovery and three turnovers on downs.
"It's been great to see our defense be able to get turnovers and stop people on fourth downs all year," Colaprete said. "Then to come out here against a high-powered offensive machine, we were just in the bend but don't break, so we were able to capitalize on some of those turnovers and some of those things to stop them at times that we needed."
Ursuline added a late touchdown on Fecko’s third score of the game with nine seconds left for the final margin.
The Irish finish the regular season 6-4 and now set their sights on the start of the Division III, Region 9, playoffs next week. Ursuline is projected between a 7-to-9 seed, according to Joe Eitel.
"I know how bad they wanted this, but the message is that we are still in the playoffs," Stephens said. "We were picked to go 1-9 and we're not 1-9. We still got a lot of football to play. We were picked to not even be here, but they deserve to be here. They played hard. They think they let people down, but they didn't. We still got a lot of football left. We're young, and we're going to move forward."
Now 7-3, the win gives Mooney some momentum heading into the Division V, Region 17, playoffs on a four-game win streak. The Cardinals are likely slotted into the No. 6 seed, according to Joe Eitel.
"It helps as long as we stay focused on Week 11 and not look back on this win," Colaprete said. "We gotta be able to move forward and work on Week 11 and only concentrate on Week 11. The 24-hour rule and this one's over, we gotta move on."