By Kevin Connelly

kconnelly@vindy.com

BEDFORD

On the very first series of the game, Ursuline held Cleveland Benedictine to a negative rush play, a negative pass play and an incompletion.

For the next 46 minutes and change, it was the Irish who were on the wrong end of too many negative plays to be able to hang with a talented Bengals team.

Benedictine used its stable of ball carriers Saturday night at Bearcat Stadium in Bedford to trample Ursuline, 27-6.

Senior Jerome Baker finished the game with 20 carries for 198 yards and sophomore DeCavilon Reese added 138 yards on 21 carries. The two backs just wore the Irish defense into the ground.

“That’s a very good Benedictine football team, without a doubt,” said Ursuline head coach Larry Kempe. “I was disappointed, from our standpoint, on our lack of quality assignments in every phase of our game.

“That more than anything is an issue with us.”

Kempe was frustrated with his team’s negative plays, many of which came at inopportune times. After forcing a three-and-out on the Bengals’ first drive of the game, the ensuing punt bounced off a Irish player’s helmet and into the arms of a Benedictine player.

“There’s not much that poor kid can do,” Kempe said. “He can’t see the punt and it just hit him in the back.”

The Bengals (2-0) took advantage of the short field and three plays later Baker waltzed into the end zone.

“We came out with kind of an idea of how we were going to start the game, but it didn’t go that way,” said Benedictine head coach Joe Schaefer. “Luckily they gave us a second chance to kind of start again — hit the reset button — so that was good.”

Toward the end of the opening quarter, with the Irish (1-1) backed up inside their own 5-yard line, junior running back Kimauni Johnson created the first big play for the Ursuline offense when he spun out of a tackle and broke down the sideline near midfield for a big gain.

However, much like the rest of Ursuline’s possessions, it was halted because of a negative play. On a fourth-and-1 to start the second quarter, the Irish were called for an false start penalty that forced them to punt.

“You do things during the week in preparation, and then when you play under the lights and we make mistakes we shouldn’t make, those are the things that hurt us,” Kempe said. “There’s a lot of things, as I told the boys after, that we need to do to be a good team like Benedictine.”

The Irish had another chance later in the half with good starting field position at the Benedictine 46. Ursuline quarterback Vito Penza threw his first of two interceptions a few plays into the drive to end the threat.

Benedictine’s second scoring drive of the night took seven plays, as they marched 63 yards down the field to go up 14-0.

Penza’s second pick wasn’t his fault, as it first bounced off the hands of his receiver. Two plays later, Baker hit the Irish with a gut-punching 55-yard touchdown run.

“It was tough, but all you have to do is fight,” said Johnson, who had 69 rushing yards for the Irish. “I believe in my brothers.

“We hurt ourselves when we started turning over the ball [and with] all those penalties. We just gotta be more mentally sound.”

Ursuline’s lone score came in the fourth quarter on a broken play. Penza mishandled the snap and scrambled to get the ball. Once he did, he threw what looked like a jump pass to Dakota Hobbs, who was standing free in the end zone.