Cardinals smother Episcopal, 33-7

Cardinals' defense has yielded only 1 touchdown in last 2 games.

With little more than 4 minutes remaining in the contest, the Cardinal Crazies took up the chants, “undefeated” and “Coach Ver-du-chee” as Bishop Ireton wrapped up its second strong performance against a city rival with a 33-7 win over the Maroon of Episcopal. The “Migration” Saturday felt like the home game the Ireton skipper was looking for earlier in the week as Cardinal fans filled the east side of the beautiful Hummel Bowl on the campus of Episcopal. Three quarters of the crowd appeared to be Ireton supporters, including another strong showing on the road by the Cardinal Crazies.

The undefeated Cardinals played a dominating defensive game, limiting Episcopal to only 75 yards of total offense for the day. Early on, that defense was key as the Cardinals struggled early to find its offensive rhymn, but Coach Matt Shea’s lads, led by junior Jack Beer and senior Andrew Lutterloh on the line, backers Ned Curry and Hudson Sullivan, and Kevin Moreno, with his first interception, gave Episcopal no breathing room and few yards. All this against an offensive line group that Ireton coaches suggested may have been the best the Cardinals have faced so far.

Ireton kicked off to open the contest and the defense quickly set the tone for the game, forcing a 3 and out series for the Maroon. The visitors started at their own 39 and put together a 9-play drive that eventually stalled at the EHS 35, where Aurelian Guillaud punted to put the hosts on their 17. The teams would trade defensive stands, although the Maroon went out without gaining a first down on their 4 possessions of the game.

As the scoreless first period moved into the second, the error-proned home team would commit 7 first half penalties and two turnovers, Ireton converted a turnover that would lead to the first score of the contest. In a dominating defensive series, the Maroon struggled to get out of their own end when Kevin Moreno picked off a Coker pass only to fumble the pigskin back to the quarterback on the return. With a new set of downs, the Maroon’s Johnny Bond fumbled on their second play of that series and Moses Webb recovered on the Episcopal 10 yard line.

It took the Cardinals one play for Webb to take the fumble to the end zone and stake Ireton to a 7-0 lead. After a Nick Galdos PAT, he’s perfect in that category this season, Episcopal had their brightest moment of the afternoon when DuButts returned the Galdos kick off 90 yards to paydirt and tie the game moments after the Cardinals had seized the lead. As much as it may have electrified the home sideline, it also may have had the same effect on Bishop Ireton.

The Maroon held Ireton on the next series but again put themselves in trouble when a bad snap forced Bond to scramble on 4th down and eventually was penalized for intentionally grounding the ball, causing not only loss of yardage, but loss of down. Ireton took over on the Maroon 9-yard line. Although the Cardinal ground attack faltered in the “red zone”, Nick Galdos kicked his first field goal of the season from 21-yard line for a 10-7 advantage.

Justin Paige picked off another Coker aerial at the Ireton 31 and, after a two-yard loss, Brandon Price-Williams, who rushed for over 200 on the day, broke a 71-yard dash into the end zone to increase the lead to 17-7. Episcopal tried to counterattack but when they were forced to punt with 27 seconds left, Verducci’s squad saw an opportunity.

The Cards started on their own 46 and Zingler found Price-Williams down the sideline for 17 yards before the heady junior stepped out of bounds to stop the clock. In what may have been the play of the game, Zingler executed the screen pass perfectly to senior Moses Webb. With Ireton’s linemen and receivers blocking down field, Webb alternately sprinted, dodged, and stuttered his way into the endzone on the final play of the half to put Ireton up 23-7. The Cardinals tried to catch Episcopal off balance with a fake kick, two-point conversion, but the Ireton pass was incomplete.

Price-Williams lost the ball on Ireton’s first possession of the second half deep in Cardinal territory, but the defense owned this day and forced a 32-yard Maroon field goal attempt that sailed wide to the left. Ireton took the ball on their 20 and, with Zingler pitching to Malcolm Westbrook, Moses Webb, and Matt McShea and handing off to Price-Williams and Webb, soon found themselves deep in Maroon territory again on the Episcopal 5 yard line before the drive stalled. Galdos converted his second field goal, again a 21-yarder, to push the lead to 26-7.

It was again three and out for the home team and Ireton would again drive into the home end of the field as the third quarter moved into the final period. Galdos would miss on this attempt from 32 yards as his boot was just wide left.

Cardinal reserve players got their turn in the game in the 4th and Kelly, Spollen, Moseley kept the pressure on the Maroon offense. Forcing yet another punt, Ireton mustered one final drive in behind the running of Price-Williams. As the offense emptied the bench, Sullivan moved from linebacker to quarterback. Riding his running, the sophomore scored Ireton’s final touchdown on a one-yard sneak to put Ireton up 33-7. When EHS turned the ball over on downs, the Cards took a knee to close the contest and push the VISFA’s top ranked team to a perfect 4-0 on the season.

Next up for the Cardinals is their third of four home games this season when the Wolves of Pope John Paul the Great visit Fannon Field for the first time in the young diocesan school’s history. The Dumfries school stunned the Cardinals 27-23 last fall in the first ever meeting of the football teams.

Odds & Ends:

– Kickoff is moved to 3pm to accomodate students taking the ACT college exams Saturday morning.

– Ireton debuted an all-white road uniform, trading in the gold pants with cardinal and white stripes for the solid white breeches with white jersey on cardinal & gold numerals.

– The win was the largest margin of victory for Ireton of the 7 wins in the series, Maroon has 11 wins on their ledger.

-Cardinals are 4-0 for first time since 1998 season.

– See Washington Post post game interviews and game highlights at http://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/bishop-ireton-dominates-episcopal-33-7/2011/09/25/gIQA4UK7vK_video.html

Scoring summary:

Quarter: 1 2 3 4 total

Bishop Ireton 0 23 3 7 33

Episcopal 0 7 0 0 7

BI – Webb 10 yd run (Galdos kick)

EHS – duButts 90 kickoff return (Myers kick)

BI – Galdos 21 yd field goal

BI – Price-Williams 71 yd run (Galdos kick)

BI – Zingler 37 yd pass to Webb (Galdos kick)