St. Edward Football Runs Away from Youngstown Cardinal Mooney

Electric special teams and a strong defense carried the football team during the first half Saturday night.

Running back Dwayne Aaron carried the team — and the ball on just about every play — during the second half.

The result? Just another win for the defending state champions.

The Eagles struggled to move the ball much against the Cardinal Mooney Cardinals during the first half of their first home game this season, but managed to string together four good enough quarters to walk out of and on to the team buses with a 34-17 win (box score).

“We’re a team out here,” junior linebacker Ryan Davis said. “Everyone just goes their hardest. 

“Everyone’s just together.”

Junior wide receiver Anthony Young sparked the Eagles (3-0) on the first play of the game after he fielded the opening kickoff and ran 93 yards down the right sideline for a touchdown. Less than three minutes later, the Eagles blocked a punt — though no one on the field, on the sideline or in the press box seemed to know who, exactly, swatted the ball — and scored another touchdown thanks to a short field to stretch their lead to 14-0 just 3:12 into the game.

But the Eagles struggled from there, at least on the offensive side of the ball. They gained all of 33 yards on 17 plays. They held the ball for just 5:53. They gained exactly one first down. On a penalty.

“It was just mistakes,” coach Rick Finotti said. “We kept making mental mistakes and mistakes in our assignments. Costly penalties kept moving us back. We had to just find a way to erase all our mental mistakes and build on all the good things we were doing.”

Like that strong defense. Yes, the Eagles forced only one turnover out of the Cardinals (2-1) — the 2009 Division III state champions and a playoff team last season — but they were on the field for more than 18 minutes, they held the Cardinals to 10 points and, perhaps most important, they made that one turnover count.

With the game winding down in the second quarter and the Cardinals down 14-10 and driving, Davis stepped in front of a pass from Cardinal Mooney quarterback P.J. Quinn and returned it 36 yards to the Cardinals’ 2-yard line. Five plays later, Eagles kicker Jake Wilhelm converted a field goal. That stretched the lead back to a touchdown and provided a spark for the second half.

“At half, coach talked with us,” Aaron said, “and things started to click.”

Everything started to click, in fact, including Aaron, a diminutive junior running back listed at all of 5-foot-5. With such a low base and quick turnover, he proved too much for the Cardinals’ defense in the second half. He rushed for 33 yards on the Eagles’ offensive play after halftime — equaling the team’s entire offensive production prior to the break — then churned out 57 more yards during the quarter. He finished with 147 yards and three touchdowns.

Junior running back Kenny Butler added 76 rushing yards, all during the fourth quarter, and the defense racked up a few more sacks, including one by defensive lineman Darryl Render. 

Now, with the season rolling along, the Eagles can start to set some impressive records. A win next week over Cincinnati Elder at Fairview High Stadium would tie the school record for consecutive games without a loss — the 1974 and ’75 teams went 18-0-1 across parts of two seasons — and a win the week after that over Tampa Jefferson back at Lakewood Stadium would set a new record.

Not that Finotti or any of the players care about any of that — “Doesn’t mean a thing,” Finotti said — though four more strong quarters would help. So would more of that second-half offense.