Bishop Ireton falls short in state title quest, 23-7

Cardinals' defense played one of their best games in the championship Saturday.

Bishop Ireton stood toe-to-toe with the top-ranked Benedictine Cadets for three quarters in the VISAA championship thanks to a bend-but-don’t-break defensive effort Saturday before a paid crowd a 1,533. But the fourth quarter saw a pair of Cardinal miscues doom their title hopes in a 23-7 setback to the host Cadets.

The teams struggled through a scoreless first quarter, neither team able to threaten. The opportunistic Cardinal defense garnered the game’s first turnover when Bernie Hayes III recovered a fumbled snap near midfield. Ireton, who struggled throughout the game offensively, could not capitalize on the field position, but did pin the home team deep in their end on an Andrew Latrash punt.

When the Cardinals forced Benedictine into a fourth down on their own 10, Cadets’ Coach Greg Lilly pulled a fake punt out of the playbook. Ireton wasn’t fooled and stopped the punter at the line of scrimmage. It took 9 plays and pair of penalties, but Joe Dickinson found his top receiver, Drew Smith one more time at 8:19 of the second quarter with a 7-yard slant for a touchdown and the visitors grabbed a 7-0 lead.

Benedictine countered immediately and capped their long scoring drive with a 22-yard TD pass from Scott Bracey to Ramon Jones, who gathered the pass near the line of scrimmage and sprinted by the Cardinals into the end zone at 4:54 left in the half. Junior Alex Duke picked off Bracey in the Cadets’ last drive of the half, but the Cardinals were intercepted on their subsequent drive and the teams went to intermission tied, 7-7.

Neither team could score in the third act of this championship play and the game entered the final period still deadlocked. The Cadets put a potential third period scoring drive together but once again penalties cost the home team and the field goal attempt from 37 yards was wide. But there was trouble ahead for the Cardinals in the final stanza.

A 22-yard field goal capped Benedictine’s 4th quarter scoring drive with 9:44 remaining in the ballgame. It was the beginning of a nightmare for the visitors over the next five minutes of the game. Following the ensuing kickoff, on third and five, David Plot picked off a Dickinson aerial intended for Ryan Verducci and raced 30 yards for a touchdown. Suddenly, the Cardinals were staring at a 16-7 deficit as a bad snap foiled the Cadets’ PAT with 8:49 remaining to play.

Ireton’s next series ended on the second play from scrimmage when Perris Jones lost the handle after a five-yard gain and Benedictine’s Graham Flinn scooped up the ball and scurried to the visitor’s 8 before being run out of bounds with 8:21 left. Two plays later, Bracey bulled his way in from the one yard line and Jake Waldrop’s PAT made it 23-7 with 7:37 left for the Cardinals to work.

Ryan Scott snared a long toss from Dickinson to get Ireton down to the Benedictine 29, but the Cardinals’ drive stalled and the Cadets took over on downs at their own 25. They would chew up the remaining 4:39 with a drive of sweeps and passes that carried them to the Ireton 6 yard line as the contest ended.

For the Cardinals (8-4), it was their first trip to the title game since the 2007 season. Coach Verducci, in his post game comments, praised the team for the way they competed in the championship and all throughout the season. He challenged them to make this the start of a strong run of success and not the end of a good season.

Box Score 1 2 3 4 Final

Bishop Ireton 0 7 0 0 7

Benedictine 0 7 0 16 23