By Fred Cay

Akron Beacon Journal

AKRON

The curse is over for Dan Boarman. And his Akron St. Vincent-St. Mary team will march into the state football playoffs as a result.

In Boarman’s six years as SV-SM’s coach, his teams have always come up short against the two Youngstown schools on their schedule. That changed Friday night.

Sophomore Vince Lockett intercepted Ursuline’s desperation fourth-down pass with 48 seconds left, and Akron’s Fighting Irish (8-2) clinched a Division III playoff berth with a 16-14 victory at Green Street Stadium.

“Got the Youngstown monkey off my back,” Boarman said. “Been here six years and I haven’t beaten either them or [Cardinal] Mooney. We play them both every year and finally got them off our back. That’s been the tough one. We needed this to get in the playoffs. That locks us in now.”

SV-SM held Ursuline to 152 total yards, its second-lowest total of the season. Ursuline (6-4) had already clinched a Division V playoff spot.

“We didn’t play very well and that’s all on us,” Ursuline coach Larry Kempe said. “Sometimes you get beat by a good team and St. V is a good team. They’re going to the playoffs and I wish them nothing but the best.”

Ursuline is going, too. Kempe’s Irish will qualify in Division V despite the loss. They were fourth in Region 17 entering Friday’s action.

The game wasn’t decided until the end. After a punt, Ursuline drove from its own 32-yard line to SV-SM’s 33. On fourth-and-11, quarterback Chris Durkin threw down the middle, but Lockett made a game-clinching interception.

Ursuline had no timeouts left, and SV-SM ran out the clock.

“I just tried to put the team on my back, and I had to step up big and I did it,” Lockett said. “And it felt amazing.”

Lockett, a two-way player, also played quarterback much of the time from the Wildcat formation, rushing 16 times for 63 yards, including a 4-yard touchdown run that made it 16-7 with 6:11 left in the third quarter.

Lockett’s score was set up by Fransohn Bickley’s 28-yard punt return to the Ursuline 23. Then senior quarterback Clayton Uecker hooked up with Jordan Hargrove on a 17-yard pass to the 4.

Ursuline came back on its next possession, as Durkin found Shawn Cole on a 15-yard scoring pass, cutting the margin to 16-14 before both defenses clamped down in the fourth quarter.

SV-SM never trailed after Uecker hit Joe Weber over the middle as the senior tight end turned it into a 47-yard touchdown to cap the Irish’s initial possession of the game. Dylan Labbe’s extra point made it 7-0.

“It feels great to make it to state,” Uecker said. “That’s been our goal all year.”