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Mooney routs SVSM
AKRON — A nine-point first-quarter deficit is no reason to count out the Cardinal Mooney High football team.
Mooney rallied behind three Braylon Heard touchdowns and a 95-yard interception return by Don Delisio to turn back Akron St. Vincent-St. Mary, 34-9, in a battle of two of the top programs in Division III Region 9.
Mooney (8-0) was ranked number one in the region heading into the contest against the Fighting Irish while SVSM (5-3) was third.
“We got off to a little bit of a slow start,” Mooney coach P.J Fecko said. “St. V’s is a good team and they obviously came out ready to play.
“When we got down nine points, our guys did a really good job of settling in and refocusing and we were able to get back in the game.”
Mooney (8-0) has played in many big games and Fecko said that he didn’t sense any panic after the Irish jumped out to the quick lead against the Cardinals.
“It was early in the game and there was no reason to panic,” Fecko said. “They made some early plays and we shot ourselves in the foot with some penalties and mistakes and that makes for a deadly combination.”
Mooney ran only five offensive plays in the first quarter while committing six penalties for 66 yards.
St. Vincent-St. Mary took advantage of those miscues to score on its first possession with a 32-yard field goal by Dan Toth.
Then after forcing Mooney to punt, the Irish scored seven plays later when junior quarterback Oliver Hildebrant hooked up with Dominique Mitchel on a 20-yard scoring pass and catch for a touchdown.
Heard, who rushed for 107 yards on 21 carries, said the Cardinals knew that there was plenty of time to get their act together.
“We knew we had to just keep pounding and pounding,” Heard said. “We knew they were a good team but that if we keep working we’d be okay.”
Heard got the Cardinals going early in the second quarter when he scored on a 1-yard run to cap an 8-play, 72-yard drive.
Heard rushed four times for 19 yards while quarterback Alex Zordich added runs of 7 and 16 yards in the drive.
The Mooney defense then came to life and virtually shut down the Irish the rest of the contest.
SVSM was playing without 1,000-yard rusher Mark Murphy, son of former Washington Redskin standout Mark Murphy, who was out with the flu. Mooney’s defense was dominant throughout the remaining three quarters.
The Cards held the Irish to 65 yards rushing on the ground and only 95 yards through the air. Mooney also picked off two Hildebrant passes.
“Our defense, outside of those nine points, did a great job of settling in and shutting down a team with a lot of great athletes,” Fecko said.
Mooney took the lead 14-3 before halftime on a 4-yard run by Karrington Griffin.
The Cardinals made a statement drive to start the third quarter that pretty much took the wind out of any SVSM upset bid.
Mooney marched 65-yards on 9 plays and Heard darted in for a score on a 10-yard run that gave the Cardinals a 21-9 lead.
Heard intercepted a Hildebrant pass on SVSM’s next drive and that led to the senior’s third touchdown run on a 2-yard dive.
“The line opened a lot of nice holes,” said Heard who will attend West Virginia. “The O-line and I were on the right page most of the game.”
Mooney put the game away when Delisio nabbed an errant Hildebrant pass and raced 95-yards to score with 8:52 remaining.
Mooney out-gained the Irish 273 to 167 and the Cardinals offense controlled the contest with 15 first downs.
Fecko said the Cards will enjoy this win over SVSM, but Mooney will have to quickly turn its attention to next week when they face rival Ursuline on Friday at Stambaugh Stadium.