High School Sports

Ursuline comes back to best Cougars

YOUNGSTOWN -- Settling into Rayen Stadium for its first-round playoff game, Ursuline appeared at home Friday as the eighth-seeded Irish overcame an early deficit to defeat No. 9 Mentor Lake Catholic 34-20 and advance in the Division III, Region 9, bracket.

"When you get into a playoff game, it’s a win or go home. And it was clear that Lake Catholic didn’t wanna go home. They fought the whole way," Ursuline head coach Tony Stephens said. "We just kept pushing and pushing, and we never panicked."

Starting on defense, the Irish struggled to stop the Cougars on the visitors' opening drive. Lake Catholic nearly stopped itself, though, after advancing the ball inside Ursuline's 35-yard line over the course of several minutes.

On second-and-6, an errant snap sailed over the head of quarterback Max Pisano, who recovered the ball at his team's 45 for a 21-yard loss.

Pisano then helped the Cougars get back on track by completing a screen pass to Guy Dominick, who followed his blockers and picked up the first down with a 33-yard gain.

Set up with first down at the Irish 22, Pisano faked a handoff and targeted Ben Mitchell, who outmuscled a defender to bring down the touchdown pass with 6:45 remaining in the first quarter.

"We just gotta get off the field," Stephens said. "We have too many third-and-longs, and we give up big plays. If we wanna continue this, we gotta minimize the big plays. We gotta be able to get off the field and get the ball back in the offense’s hands."

Ursuline found itself in several third and fourth downs on its first offensive possession, although the Irish time and time again earned first downs and kept moving the ball down the field.

First, Patrick Reardon completed a 9-yard pass to Tyshawn Hamilton on third-and-7, which was the first of three consecutive first-down completions.

Then, on fourth-and-3, Reardon drew the Cougars offside to pick up another first down.

Facing another fourth down, this time fourth-and-long from the Lake Catholic 16, Reardon found Ray Javey in the end zone for a touchdown. Antonio Ricchiuti's extra point tied the game at 7 with 2:40 left in the opening period.

The Cougars would have no such success on fourth down, as the Irish stuffed a rushing attempt on fourth-and-inches from midfield to begin the second quarter.

Ursuline continued to move the ball on its next drive, during which Reardon completed a pair of first-down passes and Vinnie Fecko bruised his way down inside the Lake Catholic 15. Then, on third-and-seven, Fecko received an option pitch and sliced through the defense for an 11-yard touchdown run.

A missed PAT kept the score at 13-7 with 9:13 to go in the first half.

Another errant snap derailed the Cougars' next drive, which had reached the Ursuline 6 before the low snap and fumble recovery backed Lake Catholic back to the 20-yard line. The Irish forced a turnover on downs a few plays later.

Ursuline relied on Reardon's arm once again back on offense; the Irish quarterback completed three of four passes for 27 yards before he faked a handoff and found Ethan Sandusky in stride. Sandusky raced down the field and shook off would-be tacklers to score the 60-yard touchdown.

The two-point try failed, keeping the Irish ahead 19-7 going into halftime.

Within the first minute of the third quarter, a holding penalty negated a 76-yard touchdown pass from Reardon to Sandusky, a mistake that was only compounded when a dropped long snap gave the Cougars the ball at the Irish 10-yard line.

The favorable field position quickly led to Lake Catholic points, as Danny Zmorowski plunged into the end zone.

Ursuline got off a punt on its next drive, pinning the Cougars back at their own 6-yard line, but a 65-yard run by Dominick on the first play of the drive instantly put the Irish back on their heels. Fortunately for Ursuline, Lake Catholic turned the ball over on downs again.

Another ineffective offensive possession, however, gave the Cougars the ball back on the Irish's side of midfield, which Lake Catholic capitalized on with a 4-yard Zmorowski touchdown run up the gut to take a 20-19 lead 2:59 remaining in the third quarter.

Zalin Struther gave Ursuline the boost it needed on the ensuing kickoff, another squib by Lake Catholic, when he returned it from his own 30-yard line to the Cougars' 27.

A few plays later, Fecko scored a touchdown from 13 yards out to reclaim the lead. He then dove into the end zone on the two-point try to put Ursuline up 27-20 with 1:14 to go in the third period.

On the next Ursuline drive, after a long pass from Reardon to Javey, Michael Barnes intercepted Reardon in the end zone to give the Cougars' offense a chance to tie the game.

However, despite drawing the Irish offside on fourth down to extend the drive, Lake Catholic fumbled on a screen pass, and the ball was recovered at midfield by Sandusky with 5:20 remaining.

Sandusky then iced the game several minutes later, finishing off the drive with a short rushing touchdown to extend the Irish lead late.

"It’s growing pains with these guys, but you get this late in a football game and you had a long season and you were off a season," Stephens said. "These guys, [it's] the first time they’ve been in the playoff game for a lot of them, actually on the field. But they bounced back, and they did what they had to do, and they secured a win."

With the win, Ursuline improved to 7-4 on the season and advanced to the next round of the postseason, where it will face undefeated No. 1 seed Willoughby South.

The Rebels, who have won their 10 games by an average of 26 points this season, will host the Irish next Friday in Willoughby next Friday.

"We're in the playoffs. The season starts now. And this is why we’re here," Stephens said. "We were picked to be 2-8, 1-9. And look where we’re at. No one thought we would be here but us. And I’m proud of these guys, I love them. And we just gotta keep doing what we’re doing.

"I don’t know too much about [South], but I know we got to line up, and we got to play our brand of football. We're gonna come at them with everything that we got, and my message is gonna be the same: We work Saturday through Friday, and we wanna get paid on Friday."