By John Bassetti

The Cardinals offense struggled to score; and will face Steubenville next.

YOUNGSTOWN — Playing without standout two-way lineman John Simon, the Cardinal Mooney High football team managed enough ball-control for a 14-6 victory against Cuyahoga Valley Christian Academy in its Division IV Region 13 opener at Stambaugh Stadium.

While Mooney’s offense was rolling up 280 rushing yards and 18 first downs, its defense held CVCA to 83 yards on the ground and eight first downs.

When CVCA (9-2) finally scored with 7:20 left, Braylon Heard’s 47-yard kickoff return helped the Cardinals (9-2) finish the job.

Of three playoff meetings between the teams (Mooney won in 2005 and 2006), this was the closest.

“These guys played with their hearts 10 weeks in a row,” CVCA coach Ray Carroscia said. “I was not surprised by the effort, but disappointed with the outcome.

“We came down here to win,” Carroscia said. “For our 16 seniors, this is their fourth time in the playoffs. We were hungry for this. They brought that energy onto the field and hung in there. I guess we were one big play away from tying it or making it go our way.”

The absence of Simon, save for a few plays, did lessen Mooney’s strength on certain plays, but the Cardinals, collectively, eventually showed their superiority.

“We did a really good job of moving the ball,” Mooney coach P.J. Fecko said. “It just seemed like every single drive we’d go backwards in penalties. But our offense kept its cool, picked up some first-and-20s and second-and-15s.”

Mooney’s defense had several face-mask penalties to keep some CVCA drives alive, but the defense played solid enough to minimize the damage.

Mooney didn’t score until three minutes remained before halftime when quarterback Alex Zordich scored from a yard out and Ed Reese added the point-after kick.

Karrington Griffin’s 24-yard run and Zordich’s conversion scamper at 7:52 of the third quarter pushed Mooney’s lead to 14-0 before Andy Hoffman caught a 36-yard TD pass from Jacob Hay.

Griffin finished with 119 yards, followed by Braylon Heard’s 96 and Zordich’s 40. Ray Vinopal had six carries for 25 yards, but the 5-foot-11, 180-pound junior running back had his best play on defense.

“Ray had a really good game defensively,” Fecko said. “He came up with an interception, he had a lot of solid tackles and then he blocked the extra point. If they score [another six points], that forces them to come up the two-point conversion.”

Of meeting Steubenville in its next game, Fecko said: “I’m sure a lot of [Steubenville] people have been watching Div. IV in this region for that rematch.

“I have not seen them this year on film or in person anywhere. Everyone knows they’re the No. 1 team in computer points in our region, so our players knew that, sooner or later, as we kept winning, we’d meet up.”

Fecko said the positive side of Mooney’s penalties is that they weren’t mental mistakes like jumping offsides or procedure, but rather, judgment calls.

Simon, who had a high ankle injury against Columbus Watterson, was replaced by Chuck Gruber as tight end and by Kyle White and Scott Johnson on defense.

Carroscia, who had some 100-pound freshmen in uniform and said that many of his players go both ways, knew that Simon was dinged up from last week.

“We saw him out [on the field] a couple times here and there on defense, but we tried to stay with our gameplan.”

bassetti@vindy.com