After a season full of near misses and fourth quarters that felt minutes too short, the Cardinals grabbed a 27-10 lead and held on to win in Alexandria Saturday 27-24.
With the Huskies of Flint Hill badly needing a win to get qualified for the VISFA playoffs and extend their winning streak to 4, Ireton played a gutsy, physical contest on Fannon Field.
The Huskies fumbled the opening kickoff but the Cards promptly lost the ball back to the visitors at midfield. Flint Hill engineered their first scoring drive of the contest that ended with a Windmuller 17-yard field goal and a 3-0 lead.
Sophomore quarterback PJ Zingler navigated the Cards to their first scoring drive early in the second period, culminating with a 6-yard touchdown toss to Riley Walters. An illegal formation penalty moved the Cardinals back 5 yards and Theo Daubresse missed the PAT, leaving Ireton with a 6-3 advantage.
The defense continued to contain the Huskies, with Eddie Busch, Zane Bush, and Jack Beer bottling up the ground game and pressuring nearly every pass play. Offensively, both Zingler and junior quarterback Andrew Bladen found running room up the middle and Brandon Price-Williams lugged the pigskin effectively for the Cardinals.
Zingler dashed 6 yards for touchdown, then Bladen pounded three yards for a score and suddenly the Cardinals seemed to be pulling away at 20-3. A lightning bolt 54 yard sprint by the Huskies’ Ogundepo pulled Flint Hill to within 20-10, but Zingler again drove the Cardinals down the field, and hit Price-Williams for a 27 yard TD that seemed to salt the game away for the home team as Daubresse’s third PAT gave Ireton a 27-10 final quarter advantage.
Flint Hill wouldn’t throw in the towel however and capped a long drive with a Callaghan 1-yard run. On the next series, Ireton could not sustain a drive, then a near disaster visited the Cardinals as a blocked punt was recovered by Flint Hill on the Ireton 16. Three plays and a five yard TD pass pulled the Huskies to 27-24 with more than two minutes remaining.
This time, however, the clock was kinder to the Cardinals. After covering an on-side kick, Andrew Bladen battered the Huskies with quarterback runs, and the Cardinal linemen provided the Ireton junior with enough running room to pick up a key first down to run out the clock.
Bishop Ireton (2-7) closes out the 2010 campaign Saturday with the Knights of St Mary Ryken High School. The Senior Day contest will be a 1:30pm kickoff, not 2pm as originally scheduled, while the Flint Hill (4-4) heads to a show down with undefeated Potomac School. Festivities recognizing the graduating seniors will take place prior to the kickoff.
Scoring:
Flint Hill 3 0 7 14 – 24
Bishop Ireton 0 6 14 7 – 27
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