Staff photo / Preston Byers Cardinal Mooney’s Brady Desmond (4) signals after the play during the first half of a Division V state semifinal against Wheelersburg on Friday at Westerville Central High School.

WESTERVILLE — In its first state semifinal since 2013, Cardinal Mooney came up short Friday vs. undefeated Wheelersburg.

The Cardinals, who rolled to a Division V regional championship with three straight offensively explosive, lopsided victories, suffered from turnovers and a key injury in Friday’s 24-10 loss at Westerville Central High School.

“Hard-fought game. Proud of our guys for fighting through the end. Wasn’t the outcome we wanted or hoped for,” Mooney head coach Frank Colaprete said.

“They did a great job of attacking us where they needed to attack us and try to make us play a different way. They had a great game plan, and the guys just played relentless.”

Similarly, and much like the cold that engulfed Warhawk Field, Wheelersburg’s offense also immediately proved to be relentless as it gnawed away at the Mooney defense Friday.

The Pirates began to make their way down the field on the opening drive in a consistent and efficient fashion before a 22-yard run by quarterback Braylon Rucker put Wheelersburg on the other side of midfield for the first time. Then, after three negligible plays, the Pirates showed their aggressiveness by successfully faking a punt; Cooper Heimbach took the long snap and went deep to tight end Brew Hanzel, picking up 26 yards and more than enough for the first down in the process.

A series of errors — a negative play, false start and dropped touchdown reception — upended Wheelersburg’s drive, though, forcing it to settle for a 36-yard Heimbach field goal that put the Pirates ahead 3-0 nearly seven minutes into the game.

Mooney, which had scored 48 or more points in each of its three playoff wins, did not need nearly that long.

A minute and a half later, on the third play of the drive, star running back Ike Lake took a handoff hoping to earn at least the 2 yards needed for a first down. Instead, with the defense packed in, Lake bounced off a would-be tackler and ran into plenty of open space and, after a 62-yard trek, into the end zone.

After forcing a punt by Wheelersburg, Mooney tried its hand at an extended offensive possession, leading to mixed results.

While the Cardinals moved the ball from their 38-yard line to as far as the Pirates’ 28, on the sixth play, they lost Lake to a lower left leg injury, necessitating him to be carried off the field and miss the rest of the game. And on the 11th play, quarterback Vince Gentile threw the first of his four interceptions on the night.

“It does [change our offense] because you can’t replace someone as special as him,” Colaprete said of Lake. “We have some very great young guys in there ready to take the helm as well, so we didn’t change any of our calls. But when a leader goes down, it’s hard to see it.”

Wheelersburg capitalized on the turnover with another double-digit-play drive, which ended better than the first, as Stephen Hall capped it off with a 3-yard touchdown run to take a 10-7 advantage with 4:22 remaining in the half.

The Pirates, after forcing Mooney to punt, extended their lead to 13-7 with a 21-yard field goal by Heimbach 29 seconds left before halftime.

After the break, turnovers and potential turnovers dominated the game.

Gentile threw a pair of interceptions in the third quarter, his second and third of the game, which allowed Wheelersburg to go up 16-7 when Heimbach converted a 47-yard field goal with under four to go in the third quarter.

“We’ve been on the plus side of [the turnover margin], and when we didn’t get the ones that we thought we got, that really hurt,” Colaprete said. “Turnovers are a big part of the game, and, being on the wrong side of that, we ended up with a loss.”

Mooney cut it back down to a one-possession game with 7:23 left in regulation, thanks to a 26-yard field goal. It came after Johnny Brenner nearly came down with a one-handed, contested catch in the end zone.

Frustration only grew from there, as the Cardinals’ defense, on two occasions, almost came away with critical takeaways.

The first, a called fumble with less than six minutes remaining, was recovered by Wheelersburg, although the crew chief assigned to the game seemed to initially signal a Mooney recovery before quickly signaling for the clock to keep moving, reversing his decision.

More controversially a few minutes later, Mooney recovered a ball that numerous Cardinals emphatically insisted was on the ground because of a forced fumble. However, the referees, before and after a conference, ruled the runner down.

Soon thereafter, Rucker iced the game with a touchdown on a quarterback sneak with 1:36 to go.

“Unfortunately, it doesn’t matter what I think. It doesn’t matter what I see. You have to play what they call,” Colaprete said of the potential fumble recoveries.

With Friday’s loss, Mooney finished Colaprete’s first season at the helm of the program with a 10-3 record.

“I’m so proud of our players,” Colaprete said. “The willingness to be coached, their work ethic that they put in, the discipline that they have, I couldn’t be more proud of their effort and their attitude. It was truly enjoyable to be back home and coach this caliber of young men.”