Crusaders blank Fisher Catholic to advance
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LANCASTER -- Fisher Catholic's Division VII postseason run was short-lived as the No. 8-seed Irish were shut out 27-0 by the No. 9-seed Steubenville Catholic Central Crusaders in the first round of the Region 27 playoffs on Friday, Oct. 30, at Fulton Field.
"It's always hard to end," Fisher Catholic coach Luke Thimmes said after the game. "There are only seven teams that end their season with a win (now). Of course, you never want to, but you look back at practices and games and think, the best part was from all the way back in June to now: five to six days a week for a few hours a day, the players and coaches are together. And now all of a sudden, the finality really hard part, hits and it's done. That's the really hard part."
The Irish (7-4) put together a solid effort on defense for roughly three-and-a-half quarters and trailed only 13-0 when the fourth quarter began. Offensively, though, they struggled with execution and consistency that ultimately led to the game getting out of reach late in the fourth quarter.
"Our defense did very well," Thimmes said. "I think in the beginning they didn't realize that when you're in the playoffs and you deserve it, everybody is good, including you. And I think it was just some of those growing pains and then confidence. And then we got into the second quarter, and our kids were like "Yeah, we can do this. We're hanging right with them."
The turning points came with Fisher Catholic's two offensive possessions in the third quarter that featured first downs starting from inside the Crusaders' (8-3) 15-yard line that both ended with turnovers on downs and zero points.
The first possession got a boost when Charlie Tencza broke off a 43-yard run on third down that got the Irish into the red zone for the first time. However, the Irish followed up with two runs for just three combined yards, a failed halfback pass that fell incomplete, and an incomplete pass on fourth down to leave them scoreless.
Then, after Fisher Catholic's Nick Harris recovered a Crusader fumble, a 17-yard run by Sam Tencza again had the Irish with a first down at the 13-yard-line. And just like the previous possession, the Irish followed with two run plays for a combined minus-one yard, and incomplete passes on third and fourth down to hand the ball back to the Crusaders.
"That hurt, the red zone failures," Thimmes said. "We needed better execution there, staying on our blocks. It was as simple as that, the basics. It was pretty emotional there, like a roller coaster as far as the turnovers, and then the offense seemed like we were moving, and then we'd just stall. Just back-and-forth."
The scoreboard still read only 13-0 until midway through the fourth quarter, when Catholic Central's Matty Jones intercepted Fisher Catholic quarterback James Wilkinson's pass and returned it 30 yards for a touchdown to give the Crusaders a 20-0 lead. And then Jones finished it off on offense later in the fourth on a two-yard run to boost the visitor's lead to 27-0.
Jones ran for 41 yards on five carries with two touchdowns, threw for 57 yards, and had two interceptions on defense to lead the Crusaders. They nearly had two 100-yard rushers as well, as Rahim Mitchell ran for 101 yards on 11 carries, while Ryan Holzworth came in at 99 yards on 20 carries.
Fisher Catholic's offense was heavily in the hands of senior Ethan O'Rielley, who ran the ball 18 times for 72 yards and also caught five passes for 27 yards. Charlie Tencza added 57 yards on the ground and Sam Tencza added 28 yards.