If you\u2019re passionate about defensive football, the Lake Catholic-Benedictine game at John Carroll on Sept. 19 was the game for you.<\/p>\n
Hard hits. Fourth-down stops. Turnovers. Zeroes in the box score for three quarters.<\/p>\n
In the end, Lake Catholic got a fourth-down stop and a turnover on the same play inside its own 5 with 4:30 to play, and drove the ball from its own 1-yard line past midfield to run out the clock in a 6-3 victory.<\/p>\n
Both teams are now 4-1, and it\u00a0would be an understatement to say the win was an emotional one, judging by the way a fired-up Coach Marty Gibbons addressed his team after the game.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s my favorite way to win games. It\u2019s our favorite way to win games at Lake Catholic,\u201d Gibbons said of the defensive slugfest. \u201cCredit to Benedictine. Their coaching staff does a phenomenal job. It was a battle. I just said to them it\u2019s about players and stepping up in key moments.\u201d<\/p>\n
The emotion of the win over a longtime rival wasn\u2019t lost on those players that\u00a0Gibbons referenced.<\/p>\n
\u201cOh my God,\u201d Lake Catholic junior defensive end Michael Barnes, who had two sacks, said. \u201cI love my brothers on this team. They\u2019re amazing. I couldn\u2019t do anything without them.\u201d<\/p>\n
Benedictine had a golden opportunity midway through the fourth quarter to grab a lead. The Bengals were forced to punt from their own 41 after one of\u00a0Barnes\u2019 sacks, but the Cougars muffed the return, and Benedictine recovered on the Cougars\u2019 29. A penalty tacked on 15 yards, giving the Bengals the ball at the Lake Catholic 14.<\/p>\n
Two runs put the ball on the six, and the Cougars stuffed a run on third down. Eschewing a field-goal attempt, the Bengals tried a QB sneak that appeared to garner the necessary yardage, but the ball came out before the runner was down, and Lake Catholic recovered at its 1-yard line.<\/p>\n
\u201cNo, we were going for it,\u201d Benedictine coach Joe Prevesk said when asked if there was any discussion about whether to kick or go for it on the fateful fourth-down play. \u201cWe needed less than a yard, and we were trying to win the game.\u201d<\/p>\n
All of the game\u2019s scoring took place in the first quarter. Lake Catholic overcame an early roughing the punter penalty with a fourth-down stop eight plays later at its own 40.<\/p>\n
On third and 14 at the 36, sophomore QB Max Pisano connected with a wide-open senior WR Pete Malchesky, who raced into the end zone to complete a 64-yard touchdown play. The extra point kick was wide left, so it was 6-0 Cougars.<\/p>\n
\u201cI saw no one deep,\u201d Malchesky said of his scoring play. \u201cWe were practicing this all week. They had the nickel manned on me. I kind of lazily ran into the flat, then with just a bolt of energy ran straight up the field, and we connected.\u201d<\/p>\n
Benedictine responded with a drive from its 46 to the Lake Catholic 14, and sophomore kicker Nate Majors kicked a 31-yard field goal to cut the deficit in half.<\/p>\n
Each team turned the ball over twice and had one defensive stop on fourth down\u00a0before halftime. An interception by Benedictine Kellen Donnelly, a fumbled snap recovered by Lake Catholic senior Zach Povijsil, a fumbled punt recovered by Cougars\u00a0senior Tristan Negrelli, and an interception just before halftime by Bengals\u00a0junior Antowine Smith left the score at 6-3 going into the break.<\/p>\n
It was more of the same when the teams came back out of the locker room for the second half. Lake Catholic took over at the Benedictine 37 after an exchange of punts, but the Cougars were turned away on fourth-and-two at the Bengals\u2019 21.<\/p>\n
The Cougars forced a three-and-out, but Benedictine again stopped them on fourth down, this time at their 38. The Bengals moved the ball across midfield as the third quarter changed into the fourth, but a leaping interception by Malchesky at the 7 gave the ball back to the Cougars.<\/p>\n
Lake Catholic went three-and-out but forced another punt, and the Bengals recovered a fumble to set up the game\u2019s ending sequence.<\/p>\n
Lake Catholic outgained Benedictine, 211-183. The Bengals had more first downs, 12-7. Corde Blair ran for 55 yards and Kayden Forte 50 for Benedictine, and Gio Iacampo passed for 67.
Danny Zmorowski ran for 66 yards for Lake Catholic, and Pisano passed for 85.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey settled in,\u201d Prevesk said of the Bengals\u2019 defensive effort. \u201cThe (defensive)\u00a0coaches had a great game plan, and they played their hearts out out there.\u201d<\/p>\n
The schedule won\u2019t get any easier for either team on Sept. 26. Benedictine will face St. Ignatius at John Carroll, while Lake Catholic will return to Mentor to take on Cuyahoga Valley Christian Academy in an NCC opener.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt had been a few years (since the last game against Benedictine),\u00a0so we had to kind of re-introduce them to the rivalry,\u201d Gibbons said. \u201cAll of us coaches that played at Lake participated in this rivalry. We\u2019ll have many tough games upcoming with us and Bene. They\u2019re just an awesome program.\u201d<\/p>\n
THE SCORE<\/p>\n
Lake Catholic 6, Benedictine 3<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"If you\u2019re passionate about defensive football, the Lake Catholic-Benedictine game at John Carroll on Sept. 19 was the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":382218,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2053],"tags":[58704,228,227,256,2296,7,3131,8519,66896,6,9],"class_list":{"0":"post-382217","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-cincinnati-bengals","8":"tag-benedictine-bengals","9":"tag-bengals","10":"tag-cincinnati","11":"tag-cincinnati-bengals","12":"tag-cincinnatibengals","13":"tag-football","14":"tag-high-school-sports","15":"tag-hs-football","16":"tag-lake-catholic-cougars","17":"tag-nfl","18":"tag-sports"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/115235272074929746","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/382217","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=382217"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/382217\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/382218"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=382217"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=382217"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=382217"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}