The Benedictine Bengals and Notre Dame-Cathedral Latin football programs have built a super tradition of success on the gridirons of NE Ohio.
Game photos click here.
The Benedictine Bengals and Notre Dame-Cathedral Latin football programs have built a super tradition of success on the gridirons of NE Ohio.
There have been some lean seasons. But this season, with both teams coming into their week-four contest at Lions Stadium with 3-0 records, is not one of those lean years.
Both came ready to play, but while the Lions gave everybody a lift quickly, it wasn’t enough, and Benedictine hunkered down to take a tough 28-14 victory.
A punishing ground game has been the Bengals’ modus operandi for many decades. Many can recall names like Larry Zelina from the early and mid 60s. There have been others, to be sure.
In this season’s early stages, the twosome of junior Corde Blair and sophomore Earl Jackson are making names for themselves in football circles.
The Lions were ready for them on Sept. 12. And what the Bengals (4-0) weren’t really ready for was an NDCL attack featuring some good runners for the Lions.
Taking advantage of breaks would be the mantra in this game, and NDCL (3-1) got the first big one.
A quick three-and-out for NDCL, with Brendan Hernan stuffing Blair on a big third-down run, set up a punt situation. A good rush on the kicker did its job, sending the punt sideways toward the sideline in Bengal territory at the 43 yard line.
Junior quarterback Brady Capel hit senior Dylan Hoenigman with a quick screen pass to the left for 12 yards on the first play. Hoenigman then took a handoff and broke three tackles going over right tackle for 27 more yards, and Casey McInnerney capped the stunning drive from four yards out for a quick Lion lead.
NDCL had gotten into the heads of the Bengals, a bit based on the right foot of kicker Ryan Cvitkovic, who started the game by drilling the opening kickoff over the end zone.
After the touchdown, he did it again. The second drive, however, was more efficiently executed by Benedictine. Eight plays, six of them runs by Blair, and a pass from Giovannia Iacampo set up a first down at the NDCL 47.
Enter Jackson. Breaking through a big hole over left guard, he raced untouched to the end zone, and the conversion kick from Nate Majors tied the game.
The next drive was when the contest unravelled a bit for NDCL. Driving into Bengal territory with authority, they got inside the Bengal 40, where Capel was separated from the ball on a scramble that looked, from the press box, to be a good gainer. Whoever the big lineman was for Benedictine, however, that got his hand on the ball and sprung it loose, changed the first half’s momentum.
Jonathan Spikes gathered the ball at his own 42 and, nine plays later, with 8:10 on the clock in period two, Jackson took it in from the 3 to break the tie.
“We knew what they would do tonight,” NDCL Head Coach Andre Griffin said. “It was just a matter of us making too many mistakes, especially in the second and third periods.
“Late in the second period, heading to halftime, being down 14-7 wasn’t too big an obstacle for us. There were some big special teams plays both ways late in the period, though, and when they scored just before halftime, it put us into a big hole.”
Starting from their own 20 with 2:08 left before halftime, Blair rushed for a first down a minute later. Iacampo dropped back and hit Xander Smith for a first down at the 28, Iacampo hit John Jones Jr. at the 18 after a penalty pushed the ball back to the 33, and then, from the 18, Iacampo hit his target again. Luke Carlton ran a perfect slant pattern from left to right, grabbed the ball, and fought his way to pay dirt for a 21-7 lead.
The Lions tightened things up for the second half, especially shutting down the ground game of Benedictine. Then, with 4:09 left in the third period, Capel took over, hitting four of six passes while running the ball himself three more times. His four completions ended with 1:43 left on the clock when he hit Blake Dumermuth from 20 yards out on a pass to the corner of the end zone.
The previous Lion possession was a portend of things to come late in the game, however.
A bad handoff in the backfield to Jackson saw Hernan and several teammates all converge on the ball at the same time. After a brief scrum, NDCL had the ball at the Bengal 39. The next play, a Capel pass, was picked off on a sideline toss, and that’s about the time that Benedictine’s bigger lines showed off their superiority.
That size edge and penalties took over the rest for the Bengals.
Blair finished with 119 yards on 24 carries, and Jackson showed up with 85 on 12 tries. A key for NDCL to get back into the game was that Jackson, after rushing for 77 in the first half, had a lot more Lion buddies with him, limiting him to eight yards on seven carries.
Iacampo passed for 168 by hitting on 10 of 18 passes.
After that opening drive, Hoenigman was stuffed most of the night as he led NDCL with 42 yards on five carries.
Capel, under a fierce pass rush all night long, had some big moment in hitting on 13 of 25 passes for 112 yards, but the Lions were unable to maintain much momentum most of the night.
“We have Bedford next Friday night,” Coach Griffin said. “This is a resilient bunch of kids here this year, so we’ll just go back to work on Monday to get ready for that game.”
The Lions will be ready and hungry.
