Through out it’s story history the Cardinal O’Hara football teams have been known to have stellar, hard nose defense this years version of the Lions is no different. Entering Saturday afternoons Philadelphia Catholic AAA contest against arch-rival and cross county rival Monsignor Bonner the Lions shut five or their six opponents and only gave 24 points the whole season. The Lions continued their dominance in a 16-6 shut over their rivals from Drexel Hill in the brand new Lion stadium on the campus of O’Hara.” Defensively we were awesome if ever a day we deserved a shut out it was today” Cardinal O’Hara Head Coach Dan Algeo said of his defenses effort.
One of the reasons that the Lions defense has been so dominate is the play of Linebacker Shawn Driggins. Driggins a Chester native and the rest of the Lions defense held the Friars to a total of 41 yards offensively while shutting down the Friar offense.”Too bad we couldn’t get the shut out today.” Driggins said adding we played well overall I thought, but we still have a lot of work to do. We blitzed, but they had a couple bad snaps and I think that’s what really threw them off. We just had to do what we had to do and we got the win. That’s all that matters.”
Adam Dempsey got the scoring started on O’Hara’s fourth play from scrimmage when he turned a fourth and one into a 52-yard touchdown. Dempsey ended the game with 95 yards on 18 carries.
On the ensuing Bonner drive Dempsey came up with a sack that put quarterback Sean Quarterman and his offense at their own 9 yard line. On the next play Quarterman mishandle the snap in the end-zone resulting in a safety and a 9-0 lead for O’Hara.
The Friars defense did something that their offense couldn’t do and that’s score against the mighty Lions. Their score came off a fumble recover by Brendan Garrison and he returned it 32-yards to the house for the score reducing the O’Hara lead to 9-6.
The Lions responded with Damiere Shaw. All Shaw did was amassed 117 yards on 11 carries including his 50 yard touchdown in the second quarter that gave the Lions the 16-6 halftime advantage.
In the second half the Lions defense continue their dominant performance not allowing Quarterman to complete a pass till the fourth quarter and holding with the Friars deep in their territory. Driggins also blocked a Friar field goal in the fourth quarter to keep the defensive shut out.
Up next for O’Hara is another Delaware County rival Archbishop Carroll next Friday night at 7:30 at Radnor
