Team

Cardinal Mooney

Record	Div.	Conf.
7/5	Div. IV	Independents

By George Thomas

Akron Beacon Journal

AKRON

It wasn’t one big play that sank St. Vincent-St. Mary Friday night at John Cistone Field at Green Stadium. A barrage of them did the damage.

The Irish’s woes against Cardinal Mooney started from the opening kickoff when Marcus McWilson returned it 72 yards to set his team up at the 25-yard line. Four plays later, Mooney had a lead that it never relinquished.

“We gained a lot of momentum with returning that into their territory. It started then from that point on, establishing the line of scrimmage,” Mooney coach P.J. Fecko said.

Ultimately they handed the Irish (7-1) their first loss, 41-21, as the hits kept coming for the soaring Cardinals (5-2). That opening salvo proved to be just one of a series of huge plays in all facets of the game for Mooney as sloppy tackling also sank the Irish early on.

“They had four plays for 200 yards in the first half,” Irish coach Dan Boarman said. “You can’t give Youngstown Mooney the big play.”

Although the offense showed some signs of life as they moved the ball into the red zone consistently. Scoring it was an altogether different story.

“You’ve got to get the ball into the end zone,” Boarman said as the Irish fell short on two goal-line efforts.

Points weren’t the only problem as the Irish couldn’t come up with a yard at key moment of the game that led to a two touchdown swing in favor of the Cardinals.

With a fourth-and-1at the Mooney five, they handed the ball off to running back Austin Manna. The Cardinal defense stuffed him, forcing the Irish to turn the ball over on downs. The Irish offense failed to come up with scores or first downs on three fourth-down situations in the game, something no one would expect coming from an offense that racked up 62 points last week in a dominating win.

“I think it’s the defensive line,” Fecko said when asked why they were so successful in those situations, “we were getting a push.”

Stopping a team at the goal line is normally a situation that’s as good as a punt for the squad forced to go on defense. Not this time as Mooney inflicted more damage on the ensuing series of plays.

Staring a third-and-7 at their own 8 in the face, Mooney quarterback P.J. Quinn dropped back and found 5-foot-7 running back Justus Ellis-Moore, who made a nice juggling catch, in stride at around the 35. The speedy scatback did the rest, racing down the middle of the field and in the process breaking a couple of tackles on the way to the end zone. After the extra point, the Cardinals held a 21-7 lead.

It was by no means the last big play the Irish gave up as that moment the dam burst on the Irish washing them away for the rest of the game.

“The momentum, from the opening half, I don’t think we let it slip out of our hand anywhere,” Fecko said. “And our guys kept swinging that momentum back in our corner [for] some big plays.”

Overall, the Cardinals stifled the Irish’s potent offensive attack either through sheer strength or via turnover as they forced four of them. They held the Irish to 294 yards on offense. The Cardinals offense dominated piling up 436 yards of offense.