Boardman’s Thomas Andujar (1) runs past Cardinal Mooney’s Kingston Powell (28) in Boardman’s 10-7 win Friday night. Correspondent photo / Michael G. Taylor

MINERAL RIDGE — Boardman did just enough to beat Cardinal Mooney for the fifth time in the last seven meetings, as the Spartans scored 10 points in the final 6:04 to edge the Cardinals 10-7 Friday night at Mineral Ridge.

Senior running back Fernando Ortiz was bottled up all game before busting off a 34-yard run on a tackle-breaking touchdown with 6:04 left and junior Austin Congson’s PAT tied the score at 7. That capped a nine-play, 91-yard march.

“I just told the line to give me just one (key) block and I’d bust it for them,” said Ortiz, who finished with 76 yards on 11 carries, but had only 16 yards on his first eight carries. “So they gave me that block and I was able to get it done.”

The Spartans’ defense, which played a strong overall game, then forced a three-and-out. A short punt gave Boardman possession at the Mooney 48 with 4:55 left. After a 22-yard run by Ortiz gave the Spartans a first down at the Cardinals’ 18, Mooney stopped the next three plays and Boardman faced a fourth-and-7 at the 15.

Congson, a junior soccer player competing in his first varsity football game, then split the uprights on a 32-yard field goal with 3:04 remaining.

“At first I was a little bit nervous, but my teammates always help me and support me,” Congson said. “They really adjust for me (to practice due to soccer) and the coaches have been amazing. … I may have been a bit more nervous if it wasn’t tied already.”

It impressed his first-year coach D.J. Dota.

“He’s only been with us for a month and a half and he only can come maybe once a week (to practice),” Dota said. “He had never kicked in a game before. So what a kick. He’s got to be on cloud nine right now. I know we all are.”

The Cardinals’ last possession began at their own 33. A pass for no yards, an incompletion and a sack by Boardman’s Andrew Swanson made it fourth-and-15. Ashton O’Brien’s last pass of the game fell incomplete and Boardman took three knees to end it.

“Mooney got way better (from last season) and it was a great game,” Ortiz said. “Plus, I think we may have under-estimated them a little. But we fought through and got the win.”

After a scoreless first half, the Cardinals drove 81 yards in 11 plays with Robert Hardy making a nifty snag of an O’Brien pass for a nine-yard touchdown with 5:39 left in the third quarter.

Boardman responded by driving 73 yards in 16 plays, but a fourth-down run by quarterback Tomas Andujar came up short at the Mooney 8.

The Cardinals then looked like they would put up a second score following a 62-yard pass from O’Brien to Carlos Gomez and a 17-yarder to Rocco Gentile, who fumbled it away at the 10.

“We prepared well enough to win and played hard enough to win, we just have to learn how to win,” Mooney coach Carl Pelini said. “It was a heck of a football game. It came down to a field-goal attempt, but we had a few special teams mistakes and two turnovers in the red zone and those are things that will hurt you in a close game.”

Andujar rushed for 103 yards on 25 carries to lead Boardman. He was 6-for-18 passing for 87 yards and two interceptions.

O’Brien threw for 201 yards on 15-for-29 passing with an interception. He had receptions from nine of his teammates, led by Gomez who had 112 yards on three catches.

But Mooney could not get its ground game going, as it was led by punter Aiden Markey, who had one rush for 14 yards.

“We played really well defensively all night. Hopefully we can continue that. We had guys step up when we needed them to. Our guys didn’t quit and kept fighting.”