Junior Brandon Price-Williams rushed for 172 yards in Cardinals' win at St Mary's Ryken Friday.
Bishop Ireton secured its number 2 seed in the VISAA’s Division I football playoffs with a dominating 48-0 win on the road in the regular season finale for the Cardinals.
It was a cold, windy night for the Knights’ senior game, but the visitors were hot the entire first half, scoring almost at will. After holding Ryken on their first drive of the game, junior running back, Brandon Price-Williams bolted up the middle, racing 60 yards for the Cardinals first of 7 touchdowns on the evening. Senior Nick Galdos added the extra point and Ireton had a 7-0 lead early in the quarter.
The home team fumbled the pigskin away on their next possession, Price-Williams again galloped for 25 yards to put Ireton in the “red zone” and junior PJ Zingler hit Malcolm Westbrook for a 6 yard touchdown pass with 7:24 remaining in the opening quarter.
The second quarter opened with Ireton again knocking on the door and Price-Williams scored his second of three touchdowns on a 7-yard run to give the Cardinals a 21-0 lead with 11:21 still on the clock. Ryken would again lose the football and Price-Williams shredded the Knight defense for a 55-yard sprint to the end zone. The PAT was blocked, but it was 27-0 with time left in the second quarter.
SMR began to move the ball more effectively and the defense began to have some success slowing the Cardinals, but when Ryken was forced to punt with little more than 30 seconds remaining, head coach Tony Verducci sent the punt block order to the defenders. With a successful block, Ireton was in business again at the Ryken 27 yard line. On the second play of the drive, Zingler connected with Westbrook on a perfectly executed screen pass and the Alexandrians ballooned the lead to 34-0 at intermission.
With the Cardinals playing reserves in the second half, they finished a long drive with sophomore Hudson Sullivan making a one-yard dive to bump the lead to 41-0 and the running clock went into effect. Justin Paige closed the scoring for night when he returned an interception 22 yards to “the house” and a 48-0 final was in the books.
The Cardinals had a good night offensively, Brandon Price-Williams rushing 15 times for 172 yards (11.4 yards/carry) while PJ Zingler gained 35 yards in 3 carries. Darnell Duckett rushed for 18 in three carries, and Hudson Sullivan gained a yard in one carry but it did result in a touchdown. Zingler was 13 for 18 and 124 yards passing, Westbrook hauled in three aerials for 49, Merid Merid had a pair for 41 yards.
For the Cardinals, the campaign closed at 8-2, a number 2 seed in the VISAA playoffs, and the opportunity to host the first round game. St Christopher’s of Richmond moved into the three seed after Potomac School surprised Flint Hill 19-14 to win the MAC championship. The Huskies held on to the 4th seed and will travel to top ranked Liberty Christian Academy Friday night in their first round action.
The playoff game will kickoff at 1pm on Fannon Field. As a state playoff game, no passes or complimentary tickets, including our athletic booster passes, are honored except as issued by the VISAA. Winners from this coming weekend will meet at the higher seeded school the following weekend to play for the state championship.
Scoring Summary: 1 2 3 4 Final
Bishop Ireton 14 20 7 7 48
St Mary’s Ryken 0 0 0 0 0
BI – Price-Williams 60 yard run (Galdos kick)
BI – Westbrook 7 yard pass from Zingler (Galdos kick)
BI – Price-Williams 7 yard run (Kick failed)
BI – Price-Williams 55 yard run (Guillaud kick)
BI – Westbrook 27 yard pass from Zingler (Guillaud kick)
BI – Paige 22 yard pass interception return (Gullaud kick)
News and Notes:
– Cardinals and Saints ruined each other’s homecomings in 2008 at Ireton and at St Christophers in 2009. They have not met since.
– 8-2 regular season record ties previous best by an Ireton team.
– This is the third playoff in the 2000’s. Cardinals lost 2004 semifinal to Collegiate School, 17-14 in OT, defeated Flint Hill 12-7 in 2007 before losing 35-14 at Liberty Christian in the title game.
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