Correspondent photo / Michael G. Taylor Cardinal Mooney senior Alec Delsignore scores a touchdown against Ursuline during their regular season finale matchup. Delsignore has been big for the Cardinals this year, catching 42 passes for 702 yards and seven touchdowns.

YOUNGSTOWN — When Carl Pelini took over the Cardinal Mooney football team, the current senior class was sophomores and as the Cardinals went through somewhat of a rebuild, Pelini asked them one thing.

“I told them at that time, if you just stick with the program and stick to the process, we’ll have some success and they have,” Pelini said.

After going 3-15 over the past two years, the Cardinals, and the current senior class, have started to see the fruits of their labor come to fruition as they are set to take on South Range in the Division V, Region 17 semifinals tonight at Girard’s Arrowhead Stadium.

Over the course of this season, Mooney has built an overall record of 6-6, with one win being forfeited due to an ineligible player being used during a 37-0 victory over East at Rayen Stadium.

Their improvement from one year to the next didn’t exactly come easily though as they’ve tested themselves against some of the bigger teams in the area.

They suffered losses to Division II Boardman and Division III powers Chaney and Ursuline. They also erased a 17-point deficit to defeat Division II Warren G. Harding. At this point in the season, Pelini believes playing through that tough schedule has prepared them for this time of the season.

“For a Division V team, we essentially played all Division II teams,” Pelini said. “Last week was a really tough game. They (Norwayne) were pretty good, but we had been through those types of games. Boardman, Chaney, Ursuline. So our guys were kind of seasoned for that.”

Along with a strong senior class, the Cardinals have gotten a lot of their young players. According to Pelini, freshman cornerback Dennis Clark has only allowed one reception all season long and has tallied 30 tackles and a team-high four interceptions and he’s just one freshman that has contributed. Todd White, another freshman defensive back has tallied 29 tackles this season and recovered one fumble.

“They’ve really filled in some holes and at this point in the season, I consider them sophomores anyway,” Pelini said. “They’ve played 12 games and they are pretty seasoned.”

“Their growth has come in the fundamentals of the game, but in terms of the confidence and the way they’ve played, I think they were so young at the beginning of the season that they didn’t know any better. So we were going up against Chaney and the receivers they have and it was just another person to them. They didn’t even know who the other guys were. So that kinda helped us early.”

The addition of offensive coordinator Rick Shepas this season has also allowed the Cardinals’ offense to take a step forward this season and it hasn’t just been in the offense they run each week, but their ability to adjust to what a team is giving them.

This past week against Norwayne, Pelini said they went into the game thinking they were going to be able to run the ball, but as the Bobcats stacked nine in the box, the Cardinals adjusted.

“We kinda leaned on our passing game after half time and we did very well with it,” Pelini said. “We just made some good adjustments at halftime, in terms of what our approach was going to be.”

Quarterback Ashton O’Brien has been a big piece of that as well. The junior signal-caller has thrown for 2,431 yards and 20 touchdowns this season while completing 68 percent of his passes. But, he’s also been able to extend plays with his feet and has rushed for 317 yards and a team-high five touchdowns.

“He’s confident and he learns more every week,” Pelini said. “Last week, we didn’t put a lot on him but coach Shepas has done a great job with the offense and has really put a lot on him to understand coverages and rotation and put the ball in the right place.

Senior Alex Delsignore has been one of his top targets this season with 42 catches for 702 yards and seven touchdowns. Nolan Radinsky has also caught 33 passes for 440 yards and two touchdowns.

Aidyn Paige and Jamarr Howell have also been big parts of the running game for the Cardinals. Paige has tallied 644 rushing yards and three touchdowns while Howell has rushed for 443 and played a big role in Cardinal Mooney’s comeback against Harding earlier this season.

Now, the Cardinals are preparing for one of their toughest games of the year, a matchup with top-seeded, and undefeated, South Range who have outscored their competition 515-96 this season and haven’t allowed a team to score more than 21 points.

“They are really really good and I don’t see a weakness there,” Pelini said. “They are really good up front, they have good skill guys and they play as hard as anybody I’ve seen this year on tape. They are fast defensively and they are a big-play team but they can also grind it out if they need to. We’re just going to have to play really well and be disciplined, especially on defense.”

The two teams kick off tonight at 7 p.m.