By Ryan Buck

sports@vindy.com

Warren

A night of celebration quickly turned sour for the Warren Harding football team Friday.

As the Warren community paid homage to their former “Panthers” mascot with red-white-black throwback regalia and uniforms worn by players, coaches, band members and cheerleaders alike, the Ursuline Irish stole the show before Harding’s 1974 state championship team.

Irish quarterback-punter-linebacker Vito Penza ran for three scores and threw for another, leading Ursuline (3-2) to a convincing 33-14 victory at Mollenkopf Stadium.

On defense, the Irish held Raiders standout running back Keemari Murry to 42 yards rushing and quashed the dual-threat talents of freshman quarterback Samari Dean.

Irish coach Larry Kempe was pleased with a second strong showing in two weeks.

“I’m very hard on the boys,” said Kempe, whose team blitzed Mentor Lake Catholic, 39-14, last week, “because I know how well they can do and that’s very important that they know that they’ve got a lot more in them than just to show up.”

On fourth-and-8 from the Harding 35 after an illegal procedure penalty, Penza delivered an Irish blessing as he hit receiver Marcus Mosley in stride before he fought off two would-be tacklers and fell into the end zone with 1:02 left in the first quarter.

After a Penza punt pinned the Raiders deep in their own end and the defense forced a three-and-out, the Irish punt-block unit swarmed Hasan Muhammad at his own 13 before he could get a clean handle on the snap.

Penza plunged ahead from one yard out five plays later for a 13-0 lead at the 9:34 mark of the second quarter.

“That was big,” said Harding coach Steve Arnold. “At that time, it was 6-0 and they blocked the punt — we had a missed assignment — now it’s 13-0. It’s a big point. Aside from that, from the opening kickoff to the very end they beat us up front.”

Ursuline’s powerful lines — offensive and defensive — were decided advantages.

With the lead in hand, Penza and running backs Kimauni Johnson and Daylen Harris ran almost at will behind them as they neared 300 rushing yards for the game.

When the Raiders had great field position, down 13-0, after Elijah Cofield’s kick return to midfield, a stalwart line led by Giacomo Cappabianca and Jeff Marx dropped Murry on first down then gave Dean nothing on second and third down.

“We’re very quick up front,” Kempe said. “That’s what we wanted to do.

“I thought our front did very well in coming off the ball and we created some problems for them.”

On their ensuing drive after the punt, Penza hit David Collins for 20 yards then ripped off a 65-yarder on an option keeper to put the Irish ahead 20-0 with 7:27 to play in the second.

“Our line carries us,” Penza said. “We knew this from day one back in June when we were preparing. Our offensive line was going to take us all the way to December.”

The Raiders (2-3) accounted for two first-half first downs and had nearly as many penalty yards (13) as total offensive yards (19).

A 39-yard Johnson run set up a two-yard Penza sneak early in the third before both teams traded scores in the fourth.