Photo

Photo by: Robert K. Yosay

Cardinal Mooney’s Justus Ellis-Moore (10) takes down Northwest quarterback Nick Riley, causing a fumble, during last Friday’s Division III playoff game at Stambaugh Stadium. The Cardinals play Steubenville in a regional semifi nal on Friday night.

By matthew peaslee

mpeaslee@vindy.com

youngstown

Put the ball in Roosevelt Griffin’s hands and he’ll be headed to one place and one place only.

“Whenever I touch the ball,” he said, “I always think end zone first.”

It is where the senior Mooney running back has ended up 11 times this season.

“We all just work hard everywhere, every day, every way,” Griffin said. “[On offense,] when we stay focused and run hard— we get the job done.”

Call it a work in progress, or, call it progress that works, Mooney has bounced back from a 7-5 season a year ago and sees itself in the second round of the playoffs.

While they did exceed this point in 2010, by eventually losing to Akron Buchtel in the regional final, something about this team is newer and improved.

“Every year is so different,” said Mooney coach P.J. Fecko. “It’s a whole new year, a whole new group of kids. And this year, we’ve had some challenges but this team has responded well and is hungry.”

Griffin, who has totaled 965 yards in a backfield that has racked up 3,755 rushing yards in 2011 — over 100 more than a year ago — has been joined by junior Justus Ellis-Moore in getting a bulk of the carries. With Griffin, a senior, mostly leading the way, he says it’s a luxury to have a talented partner.

“We go off of who is doing the best at that time,” Griffin said. “If I’m doing pretty good it comes to me, if Justus is doing good it goes to him. We can split it up and catch teams off guard.”

Ellis-Moore checks in 2 inches and nearly 20 pounds below Griffin’s 5-foot-9, 190-pound frame, but they have nearly identical styles in speed, power and work ethic.

“I see a lot of things that he’s done, that I’ve done in the past,” Griffin said. “We’re very similar and when you’re a junior, you have to step and prove that you’re ready to take the next step. I did and now he’s doing it.”

Quarterback P.J. Quinn’s next step came as a junior, too.

With quarterback Kevin McGuire fighting off nagging injuries throughout 2010, Quinn split some time with Courtney Love to get a feel of manning an offense.

“I got a good amount of reps last year,” he said. “Coming into the season confident was a really big thing.”

That confidence surely came into play against quality teams like Canton McKinley, Boardman, Red Lion and last week’s first round playoff game against Canal Fulton Northwest.

“At this point, he’s been battle tested,” Fecko said. “He’s gone through tough players and competition week in and week out. He’s always ready to play.”

What Quinn offers the most, though, are his intagibles.

“He’s done a pretty good job of learning the system,” Fecko added. “He’s a great leader and he’s done a great job of putting us in some positive positions and calling and adjusting plays on the fly.”

Quinn feels this really hasn’t been his first year as a seasoned player. Sharing the same beliefs and goals with teammates was already the first step of a brief introduction to his current role.

“I’ve meshed well from the beginning because everybody on this team is willing to work hard and we’ve done what we’ve had to do all year,” he said.

But, as for those goals.

“We want another state championship,” Quinn said. “It’s expected of us.”

Make that one goal.