Bishop Ireton (4-2), is no stranger to playing in homecoming games after the third consecutive weekend, but Saturday’s homecoming game at St Albans (2-3) also marked the Centennial celebration for the elite Washington DC private school for boys. If the capacity crowd and the weeklong activities distracted the Bulldogs, Coach Gary Schnell’s squad didn’t show it. For the Cardinals, however, the game never seemed to come into focus.
The Cardinals started well when they took the opening kickoff and smartly marched to inside the Bulldog 5-yardline with Mike Larrrabee guiding Ireton down the field with crisp passes to Tommy Kestermann, Moses Webb, and a great grab by Tommy Gallinaro. The first of a long string of miscues befell the Cards as a botched short field goal attempt resulted in turnover to the home squad on their own 13 yardline.
St Albans was stopped on their first drive and punted to Ireton. The Cardinals’ second drive from the Ireton 37 went nowhere and the teams would trade punts. Ireton went back to work and Doug Vines’ first appearance on the field yielded a 43-yard touchdown run, only to be negated by the first of a number of holding calls Tony Verducci’s squad would receive on the afternoon. The drive stalled and the home team took over on their 29 yard line early in the second period.
The cardinal and gold defense would again hold St Albans and a 54-yard punt would give Ireton the ball on the Cardinals’ 20. With Oliver Noon at quarterback, the Cardinals went back to work and moved the ball into Albans’ territory only to see Ireton’s second holding penalty rescue the Bulldogs when the defense seemingly couldn’t. Ireton then punted the ball away.
St Albans took over with 5:22 left in the scoreless contest at their own 14 yard line. Schnell gambled on 4 & 1 on his own 25, sending senior Todd Bracken on a fullback dive for the necessary yardage, keeping the drive alive. The Bulldog offensive line began to wear down the Ireton defense, and as the drive continued, fullback Mike Cogo burst up the middle and lumbered just over 50 yards for an apparent touchdown, only to see a late holding penalty rob him of the score but set the Bulldogs in business deep in Ireton territory. Three plays later senior Rob Sniezek would score the half’s only touchdown to count and junior Chris Smith would add the PAT to send the hosts to the locker room with a slim 7-0 advantage.
Schnell’s squad took the opening kickoff to start the second half with the obvious goal of controlling the line of scrimmage and the game with a ball control offense. With Fritz Parker, Mike Cogo, and Jimmy Cahill sharing the load with the day’s workhorse, running back Rob Sniezek, the Bulldogs marched methodically on the ground. Only when senior quarterback Henry Brooke rolled out into a 10-yard sack did Ireton find the ability to stop the St Albans drive.
The tired Ireton unit got no help from the offense. Ireton finally touched the ball in the third quarter, only 6:05 remained. It took less than 2 minutes and another three and out for the Cardinals and St Albans was back to work.
Following the Kevin Galloway punt to the 27, Ireton had the Bulldogs third and eleven, only to see the all purpose Sniezek, who rushed for 131 yards on the ground and 24 through the air, haul in a Brooke pass and lumber to the 40 for a critical first down. St. Albans continued to drive and eat clock into Ireton territory as the the game moved to the final quarter. Chris Smith missed a 41-yard field goal and Ireton took over on their own 20 with 11:50 left, down 7-0. The third Ireton holding penalty of the game stalled the redbirds and Ireton again quickly returned the ball to the DC school with just over 10 minutes remaining and the ball on the St Albans 45.
Sniezek pounded up the middle yet again for a 31-yard run and while Ireton would stiffen their defense, Smith kicked a 29-yard field goal to push the lead to 10-0. On the following possession Oliver Noon’s pass would be intercepted by junior Thomas Wheet and returned to the Ireton 24. Cogo would slam up the middle for 10 yards, then another Ireton penalty, this time for a face mask, would move the ball to the Ireton doorstep. Sniezek again pounded off tackle for a 5-yard touchdown and Smith’s PAT upped the lead to 17-0.
The navy blue uniformed home team avoided Doug Vines most of the afternoon on kickoffs, but when Chris Smith’s kickoff drove the speedy Ireton senior inside the 10 yard line, the field opened for the Alexandria native. Breaking a number of tackles and bouncing on one leg to regain his balance after a missed tackle, Vines broke free at the Bulldog 45 and outran Smith down the sideline for the only tally Ireton would muster this day, 95-yards for the touchdown. Perhaps typical of the futility the Cardinals experienced on Satterlee-Henderson Field Saturday, Mark Holmes extra point attempt went wide to the right, leaving Ireton down 17-6 with just under 6 minutes to play.
When Ireton senior Kevin Galloway stripped Brooke on a quarterback keeper with 4:51 left, the Cardinals suddenly had the ball back at near midfield. But just as quickly, Mike Larrabee’s pass over the middle was picked off by senior Darren Pagan at the 49 yardline. The Bulldogs returned to punishing the Cardinals up the middle as the home team took over the line of scrimmage. A late hit penalty on the Cardinals moved the ball deeper into Ireton territory, then the Bulldogs threw the Alexandrians a “curveball” and Brookes pitched a perfect 30-yard pass to junior Andrew Jones, who slipped behind the Cardinals’ weary defenders. Smith’s third PAT ended the scoring and Ireton offense scrambled but turned the ball over on downs as the clock ticked down on the 24-6 setback to Virginia’s third ranked independent football team.
Bishop Ireton will try to regroup and head to Richmond for a date with St Christophers. St Chris, 33-0 losers to St Stephens earlier in the year, drilled Ireton last year at homecoming.
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Bishop Ireton 0 0 0 6 – 6
St Albans 0 7 0 17 – 24
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