The Cardinals rolled to a 30-6 win in a regional quarterfinal to
continue on the undefeated trail.

By JOHN BASSETTI

VINDICATOR SPORTS STAFF

YOUNGSTOWN — Coshocton made inroads against Cardinal Mooney on its first drive, then found out that the Cardinals are a hard nut to crack.

As a result, Mooney scored on the ensuing drive and proceeded toward a 30-6 Division IV victory at Stambaugh Stadium Saturday night.

Quarterback Dan McCarthy scored two touchdowns on runs of 19 and 7 yards and Brandon Beachum and Ray Vinopal added a TD apiece for the unbeaten Cards (11-0), who face Akron St. Vincent-St. Mary next.

SVSM eliminated Perry, 42-0. The Irish gave Mooney difficulty during a Week 8 encounter before losing, 21-17.

Coshocton was seeded No. 8 in Region 13

About the only glitch in Mooney’s playoff-opening evening was penalties.

The Cards were pushed back numerous times by false start infractions and holding calls.

With two-way starter Brandon Erickson out with the flu, Mike Rucci made his first varsity start at center. The 5-foot-9, 210-pound senior, who was filling in on few days’ notice, did his best to trigger the offense. But some plays sent the Cards backwards.

“We definitely broke our rhythm and those are things that we can’t have in the postseason,” coach P.J. Fecko said. “It was tough to keep a good rhythm going.”

Coshocton started with limited success using double passes, halfback passes and reverses, but the Redskins (7-4) couldn’t produce on the scoreboard.

“We knew there would be some type of trickery and things like that,” Fecko said of Coshocton’s misdirection out of the wing-T formation behind quarterback Seth Nolan.

“They are hard to anticipate. It’s a credit to them that they drew up some nice stuff and executed it well.”

Beachum’s 3-yard touchdown run followed his 52-yard gain that was the longest of the night. Ed Reese had a 21-yard field goal to give the Cardinals a 23-0 lead before the visitors from Muskingum County tallied when Marcus Johnston scored from 4 yards out.

Vinopal’s TD run was a 25-yarder with 2:47 remaining.

Taylor Hill got into Coshocton’s backfield on several key plays in the first half.

In those instances, the defensive end said he didn’t meet much resistance.

“It was pretty easy for me to get around my blockers tonight,” the 6-3, 215 senior said. “Most of the time there wasn’t a guy really blocking me.”

Coshocton coach Marty Arganbright admitted that, despite a touchdown-negating penalty during Coshocton’s first series that also negated an early attempt to establish momentum, the Redskins did make some progress offensively.

“We got some things going, offensively, I think we kept them off-balance enough to move the ball, but we just weren’t consistent enough. Mooney has a lot of weapons, skill and ability. We’re just inconsistent and they were disruptive at the right time. At times, we didn’t execute well which helped them, but I think we were out-manned, so, in order to compete against a great team, we have to have a great execution.

“We knew we needed to get some momentum early and that would help us stay in the ball game especially against a good team like Mooney.”

bassetti@vindy.com