Saturday, August 21, 2010
Defending champion Irish crisp vs. GlenOak
By JON MOFFETT
Youngstown
More than eight months after winning their second consecutive Division V state football championship, Ursuline High has picked up right where it left off.
The Irish had a scrimmage against Canton GlenOak at Stambaugh Stadium on Friday night. Urusline won the game 21-14 and seems ready to go when the regular season starts next week.
“GlenOak is a very, very good football team, and that’s why we scrimmaged them,” said Ursuline coach Dan Reardon. “They have a couple of very skilled athletes, and it’s always a physical, hard-hitting scrimmage.”
And physical it was.
Although the referees limited some of the physicality (teams were automatically given the ball at their own 30-yard line to avoid kickoff-return collisions) there was still plenty of pads popping. Just ask GlenOak junior running back Brionte Dunn.
Dunn, listed at 6-foot-1, 225 pounds, rushed four times on the team’s first two possessions. Each drive ended prematurely when the Irish defense forced Dunn to cough up the ball. Reardon was happy with his defense, knowing it’s no easy task.
“[Dunn] is tremendous,” Reardon said. “And I think our kids did pretty well against an elite back. But he got his plays in, too. It was a scrimmage, and you have to keep that in perspective.”
Dunn scored later in the two-quarter scrimmage on a 7-yard run. But Dunn was stuffed later on goal line situation.
A long pass by Eagles quarterback Alex Meredith put his team within an eyelash from the end zone.
Dunn was stuffed for no gain. On the next play, the Irish swallowed Dunn in the backfield for a 4-yard loss. But Meredith kept the ball on third down and scrambled into the end zone for the game-tying score.
Aside from the two touchdowns, the Irish defense was solid.
“I think we did some good things, but there are going to be plenty of things on the film that we need to improve on,” Reardon said. “We talk to our kids every single day about getting better every single day. And great teams do that.”
If the defense embodied the Steel Curtain, the offense was galvanized.
Quarterback Paul Kempe connected on two long touchdown passes, and blink-and-he’s-gone running back Akise Teague ran for another.
The Irish’s first offensive series — which consisted of two plays — Teague zoomed around left end and was in the end zone 43 yards away, untouched, in a heartbeat.
Teague also hauled in a 75-yard touchdown pass from Kempe. And Kempe tossed an 8-yard pass to junior Jesse Curry who took it 50 more yards, zigzagging across the field to the end zone.
Kempe said it’s been a long training camp. And it’s just nice to play against guys in different jerseys.
“It was good to get out here tonight; it’s been a long training camp,” Kempe said. “It was just a scrimmage, but we treated it like a regular game for us.”
Kempe said he was encouraged by the way the team played. But he said there is always more they can do to stay focused.
“We have to practice harder every week, because when we come ready to play we can be a good team,” he said. “But if we come in lackadaisical, anyone can beat us.”
More impressive was the offense’s ability to stay cool and composed.
With a little more than five minutes to play, and the game tied, Kempe and the Irish got the ball on their own 30. Kempe rolled out and connected on a deep ball with Kevin Cylar. But there was a flag.
Illegal forward pass. Offense, No. 4. Five-yard penalty. Replay first down.
No matter. Kempe connected with Teague on the very next play for a 75-yard score.
“Our line is great, and I had all day to throw back there,” Kempe said. “But our skill is we’re a pretty fast team. Hopefully we can use our line’s size and our [team] speed to our advantage.”
Ursuline will open its regular season next Thursday at Stambaugh Stadium against Cleveland East Tech at 7 p.m.