Correspondent photo / Michael G. Taylor Cardinal Mooney running back Ike Lake (5) attempts to break a tackle while running for a first down during the second quarter of Friday’s Division V regional quarterfinal against South Range at Stambaugh Stadium.

YOUNGSTOWN — Emerging from a two-week layoff, it took a while for first-seeded Cardinal Mooney to get going in Friday’s Division V regional quarterfinal vs. No. 8 South Range. But when the Cardinals got going, they really got going.

After a scoreless opening quarter and surrendering the first touchdown of the game, Mooney scored 34 unanswered points in what became a 48-12 rout of the Raiders at Stambaugh Stadium.

“Pretty excited about it,” Mooney head coach Frank Colaprete said of the win. “The guys played well against a great team, a well-coached team, a talented team, a disciplined team, a team that can score at any time … so I’m excited that our guys battled and then pulled away a little bit.”

Earlier in the week, Colaprete said playing a team twice — and for his team, twice in a row — would be a tough task. And it certainly seemed that way through the first quarter, which came and went without either team putting points on the scoreboard.

Early in the second quarter, South Range, coming off a dominant first-round win vs. Berkshire last week, took the lead with a successful speed option by quarterback Nick Toy and feature back Jason Vorshak.

Facing third-and-9, Toy took the snap and sprinted right and, just before being tackled by a Cardinals defender, pitched the ball to Vorshak, who took it the rest of the way for a 33-yard rushing touchdown. The Raiders unsuccessfully went for two, keeping the score at 6-0.

Mooney, which earned just one first down during its first two offensive possessions, immediately responded after getting the ball back.

On the second play of the drive, quarterback Vince Gentile went deep to Kingston Powell on a post for a 40-yard gain. The Cardinals followed up their biggest play of the game to that point with a toss to Tyree Dawson, who went 25 yards for a touchdown run. A successful extra point put Mooney ahead 7-6 with 9:15 to go in the half.

After a South Range three-and-out, Mooney gave the ball back to the Raiders with a fumble on a fourth-and-short handoff. Fortunately for the Cardinals, though, South Range’s subsequent drive stalled when two penalties put the Raiders behind the sticks once getting into the red zone.

After Toy nearly threw an interception in the end zone, Drew Starkey’s 33-yard field goal sailed wide right.

The Cardinals quickly took advantage of the empty possession, as Brady Desmond took a handoff on the first play of the next drive for 74 yards, down to the Raiders’ 6-yard line. Two plays later, Ike Lake scored from 5 yards out on a run to give Mooney a 14-6 lead with less than three minutes remaining in the first half.

On the next two drives, Toy and Gentile each threw interceptions in quick succession, with Gentile’s coming moments after Dennis Clark’s 28-yard rushing touchdown was called back due to a block in the back.

A little more than two minutes after the beginning of the second half, Lake took a run 71 yards into the end zone, giving the Cardinals a 21-6 lead.

The big offensive play would soon be followed by a big defensive play, as Mooney stopped Toy well short of the marker on a quarterback keeper when the Raiders kept their offense on the field for fourth-and-1 from their own 30-yard line.

“I made a bad call there. … I felt like it was one of those things where we needed to sustain the drive in order to stay in the game, and it didn’t work out, so we gave them a short field there,” South Range head coach Dave Rach said.

Mooney used the short field to take a three-score lead when it went back to the same play that sprang Desmond late in the first half. The fake-toss handoff worked to perfection again, and Desmond earned a 10-yard touchdown to give the Cardinals a 28-6 lead less than halfway through the third quarter.

Seconds into the fourth, Gentile found John Brenner for the touchdown, and a few minutes later, Mooney momentarily triggered a running clock when Dawson broke off a 65-yard touchdown run, putting the Cardinals up 41-6.

“They had plenty of opportunities,” Rach said of the big plays allowed Friday. “It was hard for us to sustain drives there in the third quarter. And they got some good players; their back’s really good, he’s explosive and he can do some things. I think it’s hard when the defense is on the field, and we gave them some short fields.”

The Raiders managed to get the deficit under 30 points, thus stopping the running clock, with a 77-yard touchdown pass from Toy to Starkey with 5:23 to go.

But Mooney fired back moments later, as Tonnie Baddie took the ensuing kickoff 83 yards for another big Mooney score, which would be the final one of the game.

With the loss, South Range’s season ended with a 7-5 record, and the Raiders’ seven-year streaks of regional semifinal appearances and eight or more wins in a year were snapped.

“It’s going to take some time to reflect. Really proud of the seniors and the leadership they provided for us,” Rach said. “…I told [the team postgame] we got nine months before we open up again. And the next nine months are going to be the most grueling nine months they’ve ever experienced.”

The top seed in Region 17, Mooney (8-2), which also beat South Range 38-30 on Oct. 17 in Beaver Township, is heading back to its first regional semifinal since 2022, when the Cardinals coincidentally lost to the Raiders.

Mooney will play No. 4 Garrettsville Garfield next week. The G-Men defeated fifth-seeded St. Clairsville 48-31 on Friday.