The St. Vincent-St. Mary Fighting Irish and Archbishop Hoban Knights played true to an old cliché Friday night at InfoCision Stadium.
The Irish came into their annual grudge match undefeated and the Knights were winless.
It was clear, however, that the Irish were going to need more than luck as the two teams battled in a low-scoring defensive scrum that had the Irish (5-0) scrounging for every point in a 17-14 victory, their fifth consecutive win in the series.
An inspired Knights (0-5) defense throttled the Irish offense, usually led by an unstoppable passing game, that came into the contest averaging more than 50 points in its previous four victories. The Knights also forced four turnovers to slow the Irish.
“It’s the Hoban game,” Irish coach Dan Boarman said of his team’s offensive struggle. “I don’t care if you’re 0-4 or 4-0, it doesn’t matter.”
The Knights roughed up Irish quarterback Kevin Besser for most of the evening, causing three interceptions and a fumble that forced St. V-M to turn to a running game that previously hadn’t carried the load for the team.
Friday was different. The Irish rushed for 198 yards on 42 carries with running backs Matt Matuska (103 yards on 17 carries and a touchdown) and Sae’von Fitzgerald (78 yards on 13 carries) inflicting most of the damage on the ground.
On the fumble, Besser faced a thunderous rush from Hoban’s Jolewis Washington, who blindsided him on the play for the sack. The Knights recovered the ball to thwart an Irish drive.
That was typical of the hard-fought first half. Anytime the Irish discovered some rhythm on offense, the Knights came up with a play to throw them off.
It happened again before halftime. After marching down to the Hoban 4-yard line, Besser found himself with a second-and-goal with eight seconds to go before the half.
He dropped back to pass, hit Fitzgerald on the hands and the ball deflected into the air and was intercepted.
Trailing 7-3 at the half, and the passing game grounded, the Irish knew they had to adjust, Matuska said.
“We weren’t really sure why the passing game wasn’t working,” he said. “We made the adjustment at halftime. It worked and we stuck with it.”
Despite being behind, Matuska said, St. V-M didn’t panic.
“We knew that they were making us play their game, so we had to play our game,” he said.
The Irish took the ball first in the second half and practically rammed it down the Knights’ throats. The 10-play, 68-yard drive took more than five minutes and put the Irish ahead for the first time when Matuska crashed the goal line from 3 yards out.
That effort appeared to fire up the Irish defense. It forced the Knights to punt on their first possession of the second half, then gathered momentum as seconds ticked away.
The Irish took over at their 46 and Fitzgerald carried the ball three consecutive times, peeling off 27 yards. A keeper by Besser put the ball at the 15. On the next play, Besser hit Fitzgerald with a short pass for the winning score.
“The defender played to the inside,” Fitzgerald said, “and I just set up the block.”
The Knights had plenty of fight left, eventually scoring on a 16-play, 79-yard drive to trim St. V-M’s lead to 17-14, but were unable to mount another drive because the Irish milked the clock with their running game.
George M. Thomas can be reached at sportswriterabj@sbcglobal.net. Read the high school blog at www.ohiomm.com/blogs/varsity_letters/. Also on Twitter at http://twitter.com/ABJ_Varsity. Follow ABJ sports on Facebook at www.facebook.com/sports.abj.
