Brandon Price-Williams scores the Cardinals' first quarter TD just before getting leveled. Photos by Kevin Curry
by Brian Kapur, DCSportsFan
Both the Bishop Ireton Cardinals and Bishop O’Connell Knights had a slew of miscues throughout the afternoon. But, despite the errors, Ireton found themselves up by a touchdown with two seconds to play and the Knights found themselves with a golden opportunity as twilight began to turn to dusk.
With one last play and the ball resting on the Ireton 27-yard line, the Knights had a chance to score a potential game-tying touchdown. O’Connell senior quarterback Thomas Terwilliger readied for the final snap of the game as the racous, standing room only crowd at Bishop Ireton’s Fannon field grew louder. Terwillinger corralled the snap and looked down the field to launch the ball, but before he could set up, Ireton’s pressure forced him to step up. Moments later he was sacked by Cardinals’ senior defensive lineman Andrew Lutterloh with no time remaining on the clock. The Cardinals hung on to win 14-7 as the Cardinal Crazies rushed the field.
“It means a lot for our seniors who haven’t beat them,” Ireton’s junior quarterback PJ Zingler said. “It means a great deal for this Ireton team. It’s great to start off 1-0. We had a huge crowd here today. It shows that we are ready to face a lot of people no matter who they are.”
While there is a lot of bad blood in this rivalry, there was a great sense of community and respect because before the game. Both teams honored Steve Trimble with a moment of silence before the game and the Knights wrote a black stripe down the middle of their helmets in his honor
“It was a very emotional game,” O’Connell head coach Tony Green said. “Our kids were very nervous- we had some issues going through the emotions.”
“The effort on both sides was reflective of what [Trimble] would have expected from both schools,” Ireton head coach Tony Verducci added. “O’Connell played very hard and well. “
The Cardinals scored the first touchdown of the game late in the first quarter. Zingler threw a 43-yard strike to Moses Webb to put the Cardinals in scoring position. Then junior running back Brandon Williams-Price scored on a seven yard sweep to give the Cardinals a 7-0 advantage.
Midway through the second quarter the Knights would answer. O’Connell gambled on a fourth down from their own 38-yard line. They lined up in their punt formation but their punter, Terwillinger, is also their quarterback. The trickery worked as he completed an 11-yard pass to sophomore running back Marquis Rowe for the first down. Later in the drive, Rowe would put the ball in the endzone on a 28-yard scamper to tie the game at seven.
The Cardinals couldn’t fully regain their momentum. Ireton’s redzone issues began before halftime when an effective two-minute offense was derailed by penalties in the redzone and the Cardinals ‘ 28-yard field goal went wide left.
The second half would be marred by missed chances by the Cardinals who had several chances to build their lead, but Ireton missed another missed field goal. And O’Connell junior defensive back Kamrin Moore intercepted Zingler in the endzone and returned it 100 yards to seemingly tie the game at 14. But a block in the back penalty would wipe the score off the board.
Its just the way the afternoon went for the Knights who couldn’t capitalize on the extra opportunities. O’Connell had two critical fumbles in the second half, one of which set up a 17 yard drive by the Cardinals, which Zingler capped with a 6-yard quarterback draw to give Ireton the decisive points.
Cardinals (1-0) make their first road trip Saturday, September 10th when they travel to Bullis for a 7pm kickoff with the Bulldogs (1-0). The Falls Road school returns a punishing ground game that controlled the ball against Ireton last fall and eked out a 20-17 win in Potomac. That contest featured a “trick play” by the Bulldogs that fooled Ireton and the officials who whistled dead what turnout out to be a 60 yard touchdown run. Kickoff is 7pm.
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