Irish come alive in second half vs. US
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YOUNGSTOWN -- Back in the summer, few would have projected that the Ursuline football team would have an opportunity to play for a regional championship this fall.
The Fighting Irish had been doubted several times this season. But a week after knocking off the region's top seed, Ursuline returned home to Stambaugh Stadium on Friday night and pulled away from No. 12 seed University School 50-21 in a Division III, Region 9, semifinal.
"God put us in a situation, and I just thank Him for putting this team in a situation so that I could lead these young men to something that they believe in themselves," Irish head coach Tony Stephens said. "God has a plan, and I never listened to the outside noise. That's what I was telling my players, telling the coaches. We ain't playing for them, we playing for ourselves. We had STP -- something to prove. And it wasn't about proving it to them, it was something to prove to ourselves that we were capable of doing what we needed to do."
Back on Oct. 31, the Irish suffered an emotional loss to archrival Cardinal Mooney. After that game, Stephens told his team that they still had a lot to play for.
Since then, Ursuline has rattled off three straight double-digit victories in their playoff run, and now, the Irish will play for the Division III, Region 9, title next week against No. 2 seed Notre Dame-Cathedral Latin at a site to be determined.
"That's a rivalry game. There are big emotions and we were playing tight. Guys were overexcited and we weren't playing relaxed," Stephens said. "Mooney's a good team. They played us well. But like I told the guys, that game was behind us. I just told the guys, we gotta get back to basics. Now let's relax, play our brand of football and just do what we do best, and that's what we've been doing."
For most of the first half, University executed its gameplan to perfection. The Preppers controlled the game by possessing the ball and bleeding the clock down, keeping Ursuline's offense off the field.
After Antonio Ricchiuti's 32-yard field goal attempt was blocked on Ursuline's opening possession, University strung together an 18-play scoring drive that used almost the entirety of the opening period.
The Preppers scored on a 4-yard touchdown run by Tylar Robinson on a drive that was kept alive by a fake punt deep in their own territory. On that play, University lined up in a punt formation, but quickly audibled into a hybrid set that resulted in a 24-yard completion from Preppers quarterback Nico Morelli to Hank Johnson.
University's momentum continued to build after the Irish were forced to punt on their next possession.
But Ursuline's Ethan Sandusky made two game-changing plays on back-to-back possessions. He jumped a route to intercept Morelli on the first, before picking off Morelli once more on the Preppers' next possession, somehow snagging a ball out of the air that looked like it had been thrown away out of bounds.
The Irish then turned each of Sandusky's takeaways into points for their first lead of the night. Tailback Vinnie Fecko helped Ursuline convert the short fields with a pair of short goal-line touchdown runs. That gave the Irish a 14-7 advantage at halftime.
"Big players make big plays," Stephens said. "Ethan came up big and changed the momentum of the game.
"I wasn't happy with the first half. I think we were selfish and we were getting penalties that were unbecoming of us that we haven't gotten all year. I don't know if we took things for granted, but those are things that I gotta make sure we clean up. I gotta get them to trust the process that got us here and not revert to something that we don't normally do."
While University's Ethan Ewart returned the second half kickoff 95 yards to make it a one-point game, Ursuline responded with two long touchdown passes to extend its lead.
Irish quarterback Patrick Reardon hit Ray Javey in stride on back-to-back possessions, the first went for 55 yards, while the second was a 43-yard strike. Those two scores made it 27-13 for Ursuline.
"Wasn't happy with the second-half kickoff. We had guys walking, not running, taking things for granted," Stephens said. "Had the ball at the 2-yard line and we didn't hustle down and they broke a big one. But we grew. We came back and we did the things we had to."
But the lead was short-lived, as the Preppers took advantage of a handful of Irish penalties to cut the lead on a 13-yard touchdown pass. By the end of the third quarter, Ursuline led University 27-21.
The two teams ended up combining for 32 penalties for 295 yards.
On the first play of the fourth quarter, Reardon connected with Javey for the third time, finding him in the corner of the end zone for an 11-yard touchdown to put the Irish back up by two scores, 35-21.
Ursuline picked off Morelli twice more in the fourth quarter. The first by Dale Peterman was returned 60 yards for a touchdown and the second was picked off by Zalin Strother.
Strother then capitalized on his takeaway by running in a 14-yard touchdown on the next play, which put the Irish up 50-21.
In addition to the four takeaways, Ursuline's defense held University to 191 total yards and a 3-for-14 mark on third down.
"We can always get better. I knew they were going to come out with some different stuff, and we just told the defense, just play your brand of football," Stephens said. "We put a spy on the quarterback because we knew he liked to drop back and run. Our D-line got pressure, so we knew he was going to be running. Coach Dominic Cole called a heck of a game. We did what we had to do and started getting off the field on third downs."