Correspondent photo / Michael G. Taylor. Ursuline senior wide receiver Will Burney breaks away from a pair of Tallmadge defenders Friday night at Youngstown State’s Stambaugh Stadium.

YOUNGSTOWN — At first glance, the casual observer might think this year’s Ursuline team is similar to last year’s state runner-up squad.

While the scores and results have been similar, this year’s group has been anything but.

In addition to different players at key positions, especially offensively, the Fighting Irish have changed things up stylistically this season, as well.

“From an offensive identity, we’re different in how we move the football,” Ursuline head coach Dan Reardon said. “We’re running the ball probably as effectively (as last year), but in a different way — formationally and scheme wise.”

Last season, the Irish ran almost 75 percent of their plays offensively out of 10 personnel, in which Ursuline lines up with four wide receivers and one running back on the field to go with the quarterback and five offensive linemen.

While Ursuline still runs a lot out of 10 personnel, the Irish mix it up considerably more this season with 20 personnel, according to Reardon, which puts three wide receivers and two running backs on the field all together.

Those personnel groupings also often consist of different players, for example, in 10 personnel, DC Ferrell will line up out wide with Will Burney and Marc Manning, but in 20 personnel, Ferrell might move to the backfield with running back Christian Lynch and quarterback Jack Ericson.

“Just watching the evolution of it, finding out what the new faces on offense were good at and trying to find a way to feature those strengths, that’s always a fun part of the process as a coach when you get into week 13 and into the playoffs,” Reardon said. “We obviously look a lot different from week one in all phases, but offensively you start to add wrinkles, shifts, motions and things like that. That’s a different evolution and that’s a fun part of it.”

But still, regardless of the formation and skill players that the Irish have on the field at any given time, everything for Ursuline still is based around the veteran, senior-laden offensive line.

“Looking back early on, finding our identity, on both sides, offensively and defensively, the strength of our football team has been the experience we have upfront with those linemen,” Reardon said. “That enabled our skill guys to grow up when we were new in places and had a lot of new faces.”

Despite a lot of the same faces, the defense has been “night-and-day” different, as well.

“I feel like we learned from last year’s group,” Burney said. “We learned that in order to be a championship team, we have to start in practice. I feel like there’s sort of an edge to our team on both sides of the ball. We fly and we just emphasize tempo on both sides. We move very fast as a team and I feel like we play together.”

After giving up 31.9 points per game in 15 games last year, Ursuline is only surrendering 19.3 points per game through 12 games this season.

Reardon credits that to the experience that the players on that unit garnered from last season’s deep run.

“Those guys have just played with a lot more confidence this year and it’s grown more and more as the season’s gone on,” Reardon said. “With (experience), comes confidence. Last year, we were a very offensively-based football team and we had a young defense. The defense now has a lot more experience, they’re a lot more veteran and they’re playing like that.”

Heading into this Friday’s Division III regional semifinal showdown vs. Canfield, the Irish will need both sides of the ball to continue to come together if they want to continue to replicate last year’s playoff run.

“They have a fantastic quarterback [senior Broc Lowry] — he has a great arm and then you see him run the football and it seems like every game he has three touchdown runs,” Reardon said. “Obviously that’s an exaggeration, but it doesn’t feel like it. Defensively, you see a team that is very good at what they do. They’re assignment sharp, they know their responsibility and they attack their responsibility. They don’t give up many points and that goes back to them being a very well-coached football team.

Reardon added that with both teams possessing a run-first philosophy, the matchup will likely come down to which defense does a better job defending the other’s stout run game.

Kickoff between the Cardinals and Irish is set for 7 p.m. Friday night at Bo Rein Stadium in Niles.

nmadhavan@tribtoday.com