By Brian Dzenis

bdzenis@vindy.com

RAVENNA

Ursuline coach Larry Kempe will come up with a plan to celebrate his first career regional title, but whatever it is, it’ll be indoors.

“I think we’re going to go back to Youngstown and getting warm, however that happens, we’re getting warm,” Kempe, the four-year coach said. “I’m very proud of our kids, we battled and battled all year with injuries and adversity and I can’t say enough about how they prepare and work, I especially want to thank my assistant coaches for the hours they put in taking care of our kids, I’m very impressed and thankful for all of them.”

The Irish are the Division IV, Region 11 champions after beating up Crestwood, 41-13, in windy and rainy conditions on Ravenna’s blue turf.

“It’s great for our coach, it’s great for our institution, we’ve never won one with him in our three years of playing and it’s just good to get it and move on,” running back Kimauni Johnson said.

After mustering just 62 yards of offense in the first half, the Irish exploded to outscore the Red Devils 28-7 in the second half. Johnson tallied three touchdowns and 40 rushing yards on 12 carries through a little over two quarters of work. There wasn’t any kind of tactical adjustment. The Irish just got more sharp as the game went on.

“We just went out and did our thing and pushed on them,” Johnson said. “They came out hesitating and we just had to come out and run the ball.”

Ursuline’s defense kept the team afloat when the offense was stagnant for the first half, buckling down after a first-quarter drive by Crestwood that ended with quarterback Jordan Fabry throwing an 18-yard touchdown pass to Logan Thut. Crestwood’s Fabry is not related to Ursuline quarterback Jared Fabry.

Thut coughed up the ball at his own 9 to open the second quarter and Kimauni Johnson ran for a 9-yard touchdown one play later.

Ursuline’s special teams came up huge late in the second quarter with punter Gianni Quattro and the coverage team pinning the Red Devils at the 1-yard line. A three-and-out put the Irish at the 31. With roughly two minutes left until halftime, Ursuline got its first first down of the game after Jared Fabry lobbed a 29-yard toss to Dakota Hobbs to the Crestwood 2. Johnson punched in his second touchdown a play later.

Crestwood lost its composure in the third quarter after giving up two consecutive pass interference penalties, letting up a total of 45 penalty yards, with the extra 15 coming from a Red Devils’ player kicking the penalty flag after the call. The infractions set up Tre Spinks’ 29 yard touchdown run. Crestwood got tagged for 115 yards on 12 penalties. Ursuline had two personal fouls called near the end of the game, but for the most part, the Irish stayed disciplined.

“Coach Kempe told us before the game to always handle adversity,” linebacker Jabbar Price said. “We were going to get penalties and we just have to continue to play football.”

Crestwood responded with a 62-yard catch and run from Mike Picone, who had to reverse field after making the catch to score.

The defense forced another punt from Crestwood’s 1 thanks to a Price sack. Johnson completed his touchdown hat trick a short time later.

“That’s a good football team that gave us fits and we kind of broke it open in the last quarter-and-a-half,” Kempe said. “I think what you get to is a bigger sense of urgency when you’re up only by a certain number of points and that’s something we talk about. You have to play with a purpose and with a sense of urgency and if we do that we’re a pretty darn good team.”

While the rain stopped in the fourth, the wind picked up and Crestwood’s fans walked out as Ursuline piled on two more touchdowns in the fourth quarter with one each from Ty Spinks and Joe Floyd.

Ursuline will play in a state semfiinal for the first time since 2010, which was the last time the Irish won a state championship.