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By Pete Mollica

The Irish are the only area team still in the playoffs and face Kirtland on Saturday.

YOUNGSTOWN — Ursuline High football coach Dan Reardon was surprised this weekend.

Reardon wasn’t surprised that the Irish advanced to the Division V Region 17 championship game. Instead his shock came when he found out the Irish were the only area team still alive in the playoffs.

Unbeaten Ursuline (12-0) defeated Gates Mills Gilmour Academy 35-7 on Saturday night and advanced to Saturday’s regional final against unbeaten Kirtland (12-0) in a 7 p.m. kickoff at Warren Harding High’s Mollenkopf Stadium.

“When you are in the middle of all the preparations that you need to take care of while in the playoffs you tend to lose track of what the other area teams are doing,” Reardon said. “I knew we had a lot of teams in the playoffs and that’s why I was so surprised to find out we were the only one left.”

Thirteen area teams qualified for the postseason this year and three of them were in Div. V, Region 17. Kirtland eliminated Crestview 41-13 to leave Ursuline as the only one left.

“Still we feel pretty good about where we are at this point,” Reardon said.

“We know that we are going up against a pretty good football team in Kirtland,” he added. “But then when you get to this point in the season everybody is pretty good.

“We’ve watched a couple of films on Kirtland [Sunday] and we were very impressed,” he added. “They like to apply a lot of pressure defensively, while offensively they will give you a lot of different looks. They’ll go at you and try to find a seam in your defense”

“I was really impressed with how well they take care of the football.” Reardon said.

But then again Reardon has been watching a team all season long that takes care of the football probably better than anyone.

“All season long we’ve played very good team defense and have excelled on special teams, but probably our strongest point is the way we take care of the football,” he added.

“We are currently a plus-22 in the turnover margin after 12 games and I don’t know if I’ve ever been around a football team that has accomplished that,” he said.

Against Gilmour Academy, the Irish spread around their offensive attack as 10 players contributed to 330 yards of offense and another 125 on kick returns, while five different players scored or participated in the team’s five touchdowns.

While the offense was clicking on all cylinders, the defense held the Lancers to just 83 yards rushing and less than 200 total yards, while forcing three turnovers.

All the regional finals will be played at neutral sites Friday and Saturday. The state brackets will be configured next Sunday for the semifinals. The championship games are scheduled for Nov. 28-29 in Canton and Massillon.

Five teams remain alive in the Pennsylvania, including New Castle, which plays Thomas Jefferson in a WPIAL (District VII) Class AAA semifinal Friday.

The other four teams are in District X — Farrell and Mercer in Class A, and Sharon and Wilmington in Class AA.

mollica@vindy.com