Watterson wins as Irish struggle

Ursuline scored its only points with 3:31 left in the 21-6 contest.
By PAUL TRGOVAC
VINDICATOR CORRESPONDENT
YOUNGSTOWN -- Turnovers, especially in the opponents' red zone, usually cost football games.
Friday, two turnovers in the Columbus Bishop Watterson red zone in the first half came back to hurt the Ursuline High football team as the Irish fell 21-6 to the Eagles.
"The two times we were in the red zone, we came up empty handed, turning the ball over, and against a good team like Watterson, you got to take care of the football," Ursuline coach Dan Reardon said.
The win improved Watterson, the seventh-ranked team by the Associated Press in Division II, to 7-1, while Ursuline (3-5) fell for the fourth time in the last five games.
Slow start
Ursuline got the first break when Ross Revella intercepted an Eagles pass at the Ursuline 22 on the initial drive of contest.
Back-to-back runs by Matt Yarab of 21 and 18 yards on the first two plays for the Irish moved the ball into Eagles territory.
A penalty helped to move the ball further before the first mistake in the red zone cost Ursuline.
On a third-and-6 from the 10 yard line, Ursuline quarterback Bryant Youngblood was intercepted at the 4-yard line by Greg DiSalvo, ending the Irish threat.
The Irish defense forced a three-and-out, and Ursuline took over after the punt at the Watterson 34 yard line. Ursuline ran 10 plays, moving the ball to the Watterson 2-yard line in the second quarter.
On first-and-goal, a fumble by Maurice Jones was recovered by the Eagles at the 5.
Watterson then went on a 15-play, 95-yard scoring drive that included three conversions on third down.
Mike Kundla scored on a 6-yard run, and Brian DeLucia kicked the first of his three extra points for a 7-0 lead at halftime.
In the third quarter, Watterson moved 60 yards in 13 plays for the score, an 8-yard pass from Billy Griffin to Kundla on a third-and-seven play.
Watterson again was three-for-three on third downs in the drive and increased their advantage to 14-0 with 2:49 to play in the third quarter.
"They played a little sloppy after the long bus ride in the first half, but once they got it going, we had a hard time stopping them," Reardon said. "They converted a lot more than we did on third down."
Final minutes
The Irish got on the board with 3:31 to play in the game as they went 56 yards in 14 plays. Yarab scored on a 1-yard run after the Irish had hit a trick play on a fourth-and -6 from the 18 yard line.
Yarab took a toss and handed off to Ray Hightower coming around from the left end. Hightower then lobbed a pass to Youngblood, who caught the ball and was tackled at the 1.
On the extra point, the snap was not handled, and the run failed leaving the score ,14-6.
Watterson recovered the onside kick and ran off all but the final 11 seconds of the game before they punted back to Ursuline.
The next Irish pass into the right flat was intercepted by Bobby Hogan, who returned it 31 yards.
Yarab finished with 104 yards rushing on 20 carries. Ursuline had 143 yards rushing on 36 carries and added 20 yards passing for a total of 163 yards and nine first downs. Kundla finished with 84 yards rushing on 21 attempts while Jonathan Thomas added 62 yards on 17 carries. Griffin hit 8-of-11 passing for 103 yards. Jason Ferrell had three catches for 50 yards. The Eagles had 149 yards rushing and 252 yards of total offense with 15 first downs.
"Our defense has not played well the last couple of weeks but tonight played real well, especially in the first half," Reardon said.