By Brian Dzenis

Ursuline over East | Blitz Live

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The Blitz Live hosts discuss Ursuline's win over Youngstown East with Brian Dzenis. Ursuline 40, Youngstown East 16

Blitz Live | September 2, 2016

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Podcast Episode

Defensive shutouts and come back wins highlight the second week of high school football in the Valley. Look back at the night with Corey Crisan, …

bdzenis@vindy.com

YOUNGSTOWN

Ursuline didn’t have to travel far playing against East.

The bus ride is only two miles and on the field, the Irish made the most of prime field position in a 40-16 win against the Panthers on Friday night.

For a half, it looked like Ursuline would have a letdown after Week 1’s double-overtime win against Cleveland Benedictine.

“Tonight started on Monday. After Benedictine, we came in like, ‘It’s East. It’s just East.’ I could see it with the younger guys and we started slow. We have to start clicking earlier,” said Irish receiver and defensive back Dakota Hobbs. We’re going to play better teams on our schedule and we can’t be going three and out, three and out, three and out.

“We get complacent. We try to hold the ball. We have to step on them, step on them and step on them some more.”

East was wearing red and blue jerseys honoring the undefeated 1980 South High School Warriors and it seemed like the team channeled some of that greatness. The Panthers fell in a 14-0 hole in the first quarter after Ursuline’s Daylen Harris found the end zone on his team’s opening drive. He was set up by Joe Floyd’s 51-yard run and Harris scored from 11 yards out.

East went three and out and in what would become a theme for the night, punter Leon Bell was tackled before he could kick the ball. That put the Irish at East’s 14, setting up Jared Fabry’s 5-yard touchdown pass to Anthony Howell.

But East wouldn’t die. One week after giving up four rushing touchdowns to Boardman in the first half of a 41-0 loss, the Panthers’ defense proved to be pretty stiff. Floyd’s 51-yarder was the most rushing yardage he and his team had that half. Spencer Warren — who scored three touchdowns last week — was held to 10 yards for the contest. Fabry had negative rushing yards and his only completed pass was Howell’s TD.

“East gave us fits up front and I told the kids that for the majority of the game we went with three sophomores up front and two juniors and it’s not an excuse,” Ursuline coach Larry Kempe said. “I just told them it’s time to grow up real quick. The schedule doesn’t get any easier and nobody cares that you’re sophomores.”

Following Howell’s TD, East running back Michael Lawrence returned a kickoff to the Panthers’ 45. From there, they engineered their lone touchdown drive, which ended with Lawrence’s 1-yard scoring dive and subsequent two-point run. Lawrence was East’s best player on both sides of the ball with 36 rushing yards and four tackles for a loss and an interception on defense.

After Ursuline picked up another two points in the second quarter by taking down Bell in the end zone on another botched punt, East’s Michael Ramey returned a kickoff 80 yards for a touchdown to open the second half. A diving Tyrone Jefferson caught quarterback Thomas Steele’s two-point conversion to tie the game.

There may have been an upset in the air in Rayen Stadium, but abysmal punting and handed Ursuline prime field position again and East’s offense sputtered after losing center Arthur Ford to a back injury.

Ursuline’s second-half scoring drives started on East’s 10, 20, 14 and 17. The results were a Ian O’Brien field goal, two Mario Fusillo TD runs and a Joe Floyd rushing TD. All but one of those came from poor special teams. The field goal came from a fumble.

“We saw on film that special teams wasn’t East’s strong point, so we practiced getting there and that had a lot to do with our guys inside,” Hobbs said. “They got to the ball and made it easier for us — me and Daylen Harris — to get around and block the ball or do our best to block the ball.”