By John Bassetti

sports@vindy.com

YOUNGSTOWN

A few bounces that went the wrong way could be blamed for Ursuline’s 39-29 loss to Cleveland Benedictine at Stambaugh Stadium on Friday night, but one big play could account for a stinging touchdown that carried the visiting Bengals to victory.

The parochial school teams battled back and forth until Ursuline tied it at 27.

Then, from his 15-yard line, Benedictine’s Nicholas Demchuk passed a short distance to Keith Williams, who ran the remainder of the distance to put the Bengals ahead for good, 33-27, with 1:16 left in the third quarter.

The Irish were still in striking distance until a muffed punt by Ursuline and subsequent in-air recovery by Benedictine early in the fourth quarter put the Bengals in position to score a short time later to go up, 39-27.

“First thing,” said Ursuline coach Larry Kempe, “is that I’m disappointed in the way we played defense. We missed way too many tackles and didn’t play pass defense well. When you score 27 points, you should be in pretty good shape to win. Yes, there were some weird plays and sometimes things go your way and sometimes they don’t but, still, scoring 27 points against a very good Benedictine team, we should win if we play defense.”

Joe Floyd scored twice for Ursuline and finished with 107 yards on 17 carries, while Jared Fabry connected on 9 of 16 passes for 112 yards before Bob Cavalier completed 2 of 4 for 25 yards.

James Phillips caught five for 53 yards from Fabry, including two for TDs.

A fumble recovery by cornerback Shondale Phifer set up James’ first TD catch in the second quarter.

Fabry was replaced when he cramped up late in the game.

“Bobby [Cavalier] came in and they [Fabry and Cavalier] could be interchangeable parts at times,” Kempe said. “Bobby made a great reception to get us down there,” Kempe said of a 39-yard gain before Cavalier took over at quarterback in Ursuline’s desperation moments in the end.

“We gave up close to 400 yards in offense and you can’t win giving up that much yardage,” Kempe said. “It’s squarely on our defense and we start Saturday morning to get better.”

The Ursuline-Benedictine season opener in 2016 ended with the Irish on top in double overtime, 33-32.

“We’ve had two good games against them two years in a row now,” Kempe said.