Ursuline vs. Norwayne

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Team

Ursuline

Record	Div.	Conf.
2/8	Div. IV	Independents

By John Bassetti

bassetti@vindy.com

GREEN

It was all-Teague pretty much all the time.

Akise Teague, Ursuline’s speedy and powerful tailback, scored four times in the first half on Saturday as Ursuline cruised past Norwayne, 42-0, in the Division V Region 17 semifinal game at Green High School.

Teague gained 170 yards to power the rout.

Saturday, Ursuline (12-0) will play Kirtland (12-0) in the regional final at a site that will be announced today.

“Considering it was 28-0 at halftime, I feel our defense played pretty well,” Ursuline coach Dan Reardon said. “All year long, our defense has done a very good job of limiting opponents’ success.

“We’ve been a bend-but-don’t break defense at times and our kids did an effective job on both sides of the ball,” Reardon said.

Norwayne was in trouble early as Jeff Podolsky made a 32-yard field goal with 8:27 remaining in the first quarter.

The lead grew to 10-0 on Teague’s 12-yard run after he made a 48-yard gain.

“It’s not that there’s any shaming losing to a team like Ursuline, but we wanted to have a better showing than that,“ Norwayne coach Joe Harbour said,

The Irish finished the first quarter with a series of penalties that pushed them back to their own 22-yard line.

But, on the second play of the second quarter, Paul Kempe’s quick-kick punt traveled and rolled a combined 66 yards to pin Norwayne at its 9-yard line.

On the Irish’s next possession, Teague broke off for a 65-yard touchdown and 16-0 lead.

Reardon didn’t care for his team’s penalties (5 for 40).

“I was disappointed because that was uncharacteristic, so we have to clean that up,” Reardon said. “But I was pleased how we ran the ball and in the defense we played from beginning to end,”

Kempe hooked up with Teague for a 64-yard pass play that helped set up Teague’s 11-yard TD run with 4:49 remaining until halftime.

Right defensive end Michael Zappa had a good set of plays as the senior dragged down Norwayne quarterback Adam Wallace before batting down a pass.

Teague gained 164 yards on nine carries in the first half. Six of those plays netted first downs and four accounted for touchdowns.

Harbour hopes his team will experience from the disappointing loss.

“For the younger guys coming back, I think we learned, physically, that, maybe for one or two kids, we’re right there with them,” Harbour said. “But we made a ton of mental mistakes.

“The things we did all year long we didn’t do tonight,” Harbour said. “We allowed the gravity of the game and the name Ursuline to play in our heads. Hopefully, knowing this will allow us to play better next year.”

Defensive lineman Khallid Pierce got in the act when he picked off a Wallace pass that was thrown right at him as Norwayne’s intended receiver out of the backfield was oblivious to the pass. Pierce rambled 45 yards for a touchdown at 10:25 of the fourth and Podolsky’s point-after made it a 42-0 ballgame.

Through the first 11 games, the Irish averaged 39.81 points per game while Norwayne’s offense was putting up 27.