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Mooney made key play in win
CANTON
Springfield Shawnee quarterback Brad Jarzab had already completed 4-of-11 passes for 152 yards. Furthermore, his 1,363 yards on the season and near 3,000-yard career passing totals are nothing to slouch at.
But with the Division III championship hopes in his hands, he was off by mere inches.
Trailing 21-14 with under two minutes left in Friday’s state final against Cardinal Mooney, his fourth-and-six pass attempt to Tyler Sherrock fell incomplete.
If Mooney’s Ryan Farragher wasn’t there to break it up, though, it very well could have been the Braves (14-1) celebrating their first state title win, rather than the Cardinals’ eighth.
“Ryan has been doing that all year,” Mooney coach P.J. Fecko said. “He’s been somebody that has done a good job of playing the football well. He did that, obviously, on the last play.”
It wasn’t just that final play that made things interesting — it was the entire final drive.
With three minutes, 18 seconds remaining in the game, Shawnee took over on the 20-yard line after a Marcus McWilson punt rolled into the end zone.
It picked up two first downs, but on a fourth-and-10 play, the Cardinals (11-3) were flagged for defensive pass interference giving the Braves an automatic first down and new life. Two plays later, another Mooney interference call advanced the ball inside the Cards’ 20-yard line.
P.J. Quinn was sweating on the sidelines.
“I was real nervous,” Mooney’s quarterback said. “That final drive seemed to last forever. It was something else watching the pass interference plays. We knew it wasn’t going down like that. I knew our guys would never give up, that’s one thing I knew. They had to keep it going.”
The Cardinals sure did.
They wouldn’t allow another first down and only surrendered nine yards after the pair of interference calls.
And that final play was one both sides will never forget.
“I was .. .happy,” Quinn exclaimed.
“My heart sank,” said Shawnee defensive lineman Lucas Sparks.
Farragher, though, was at a loss for words.
“I’m just happy I made that play,” the senior said. “No other way to say it.”
Jarzab said he picked up a strong rush from Courtney Love, who was giving him troubles all day.
“I dropped back to look for it and it wasn’t there so I got out of the pocket,” he said. “For a second, I looked at [running] but I wasn’t sure I could get [six].
“Then I saw a receiver [Sherrock] in the back of the end zone and it didn’t go our way.”
The Farragher tip was just one of many stout plays pulled off by the Mooney defense.
The unit limited a potent running game to 90 yards and held the Braves to just 62 yards through the air.
“We had done a pretty good job all night of playing defense against the run and the pass, especially with the amount of points they put up over the year,” Fecko said.