Is Week 4 too early to look at computer ratings?
Not if you’re Giovanni Iacampo and the Benedictine Bengals. Iacampo & Co. went into a raucous environment at Notre Dame-Cathedral Latin on Sept. 12 and came away with a 28-14 victory.
Accompanying that win, at least by Iacampo’s tabulation, is a boatload of computer points that the Division III, Region 9 Bengals can count on for the playoffs that are still a few months away.
“It’s a huge win,” the Bengals’ senior quarterback said. “They’re 3-0. We knew there were computer points on this game whoever won. We wanted it really bad. We had a great week of practice and were prepared for it. It was a huge win for us.”
With the win, Benedictine moves to 4-0. Afterward, the hoots and hollers from the Bengals’ locker room showed how big of a win it was, regardless of it being a nonconference game.
“Tremendous game,” Benedictine coach Joe Prevesk said after emerging from the deafening locker room of celebrating Bengals. “Our guys were so prepared. We had the best week of practice all week. We were ready to go. Our guys rose to the occasion and stepped up to the challenge.”
Benedictine defenders converge for a tackle Sept. 12 at NDCL. (Brian Fisher – for The News-Herald)
To do so, the Bengals had to overcome an early deficit. When Casey McInnerney took a pitch into the end zone, the host Lions had a 7-0 lead and the massive crowd was pretty pleased. But the good feelings didn’t last long.
Benedictine answered right back when Earl Jackson took a handoff right up the middle for a score. That set the tone for the game, where the Bengals repeatedly pounded away in the running game — most of the time right down the heart of the Lions’ defense.
For the game, Benedictine ran 219 yards, with Corde Blair rushing for 118 and Jackson for 92. The Bengals held a 401-226 advantage in total yardage for the game.
“We noticed they were a little wide on the perimeter,” Prevesk said of the NDCL defensive alignment. “We knew the inside run would be there.”
That inside run made it 14-7 in the middle of the second when Jackson took another handoff up the gut.
NDCL had a chance to get a score before the half, but punted. That allowed Iacampo and the Bengals to get another score, with Luke Carlton hauling in a slant just before intermission to give the Bengals a 21-7 lead.
“That was huge to give up that score,” NDCL coach Andre Griffin said. “We were down 14-7 and were getting the ball back (to start the third quarter). You don’t want to give up anything going into the half.”
NDCL cut the gap to 21-14 late in the third when Brady Capel hit Blake Dumermuth for a touchdown. But from there, Benedictine’s defense took over, with guys like Tyrell O’Neal, Sean O’Connell and Kellen Donnelly providing constant pressure and getting sacks.
“Before the season, Coach said up front matters the most,” O’Neal said. “That’s where it counts. If we win the line of scrimmage, we win the game. It’s the trenches — trenches all day.”
Blair bulled in for a score in the fourth to make it 28-14, but NDCL was not done. The Lions were deep in Benedictine territory with less than three minutes left, but two straight holding penalties put the Lions well behind the sticks. They turned the ball over on downs, allowing the Bengals to kneel out the remaining time.
“If we score and get an onside kick at the end, you never know,” Griffin hypothesized.
Griffin said despite the loss, the Lions will get back to work with a Week 5 game at Bedford.
“We’ve still got all our goals ahead of us,” he said. “We’ve just got to take it one day, one step at a time.”
The Bengals? They’re just going to lean on what they’ve leaned on en route to their 4-0 start — the same recipe they used to defeat longtime rival NDCL.
Trench warfare.
“That’s what we hang our hat on — physicality,” Prevesk said. “Physicality on both sides of the ball.”
THE SCORE
Benedictine 28, NDCL 14