Div. III final is run-first rematch

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Div. III final is run-first rematch

By JOE SCALZO

Vindicator sports staff

Here’s good news for Mahoning Valley football fans hoping to catch both Mooney and Ursuline on Friday: There should be plenty of time between games.

“We may be out of there by 11:30, quarter to 12,” joked Cardinals coach P.J. Fecko, whose team plays Columbus DeSales in a Division III state final at 11 a.m. “We may be in the record books.”

For the record, the OHSAA does not list a record for shortest state final. But the point stands. Friday’s matchup pits a Mooney team averaging 305 yards per game on the ground against a DeSales team averaging 283.

The schools’ top quarterbacks have combined for 120 attempts, which is less than one-third the number of attempts by Coldwater quarterback Keith Wenning this fall. Wenning, whose team plays Ursuline at 3 p.m., has attempted 369 passes.

“I really do think we won’t get a lot of chances [on offense],” said DeSales coach Ryan Wiggins, whose team lost to Mooney 21-14 in Week 2. “The game will go by quick with the amount of running both teams do.

“I remember in the first game looking up and the first quarter was over. You have to make good on the chances you have when you have them because you might not get that many.”

The Stallions (11-3) are one of just three teams to get within single digits of the Cardinals (14-0), who are outscoring teams 37 to 12. (The others are Boardman and Ursuline.)

That September game snapped DeSales’ 21-game regular season winning streak as the Cardinals rolled up more than 330 yards on the ground, compared to 191 for the Stallions.

“They beat us,” Wiggins said. “They controlled the line of scrimmage, they rushed for [more than] 300 yards, they played their style of football and we weren’t able to play our style.”

Just outside the locker room following that September game, Wiggins was asked about possibly playing Mooney again.

“Yeah, because I guess if we see them again it’s because we’re in the state final, which would be a great thing,” he said.

Mooney, the state’s top-ranked team in the division, is led by district offensive player of the year Braylon Heard, who rushed for more than 300 yards in last week’s dominating win over Steubenville.

Heard, a West Virginia recruit, has rushed 185 times for 1,795 yards (9.7 per carry) and 22 TDs. The numbers would be even better if he wasn’t rotating with three other running backs.

“He’s as good of a runner as we’ll see all year, or at any point,” Wiggins said of Heard. “He’s a great high school running back, one of the best I’ve ever seen.”

The Cardinals, who are in the state final for the fifth time in six years, can set a school record for wins on Friday and capture an area-best seven state crowns in the process. Mooney, which won 14 games in 2006 and 2007, is 48-16 all-time in 23 playoff appearances.

This is the eighth year that two Mahoning Valley teams made it to the state final. The area has never had two champions in the same year.

The unranked Stallions, who lost in the Division II state semifinals last season, are 47-16 all-time in the postseason with three state titles.

DeSales started the season 2-2 but has been on a roll since. Its other two losses were against perennial powers Cincinnati Elder and Cincinnati Anderson.

“Those two losses really put the pressure on us and we treated every game as a must-win,” said Wiggins. “Losing is not something we like — obviously everyone wants to win — but ... if losing makes you buckle down and get back to basics and learn from your mistakes and get better, then losing is OK.

“Obviously, you can’t do it too much.”

scalzo@vindy.com