Normally I am not one for cheezy headlines, but this one fits. Prep senior quarterback Damion Terry lit up the Archbishop Wood defense 317 yards and 1 touchdown. Terry also ran for 55 yards and a score leading the Ramblers to a 24-14 win in front of a frenzied crowd of Erie fans. “I’m really proud of this team, Damion is a heck of an athlete and performed as we hoped he would all season” said Prep head coach Mike Mischler.
The game started with a bang. Wood took the ball 80 yards in just over three minutes to make the score 7-0. Running back Josh Messina carried 4 times for 60 yards in the drive, finishing it off with a 32 yard touchdown run. Andrew Guckin, who had a stellar game himself rushing for 178 yards on 30 carries, carried the ball 3 times for 20 yards on the drive.
But Prep shot right back with a quick 80 yard drive of their own. Terry hit a wide open Troy Woodard in stride and Woodard raced 60 yards for the score. The kick after was good tying the score at 7 midway through the first quarter.
On their next possession the Vikings committed 4 penalties in 5 plays killing a nice drive to the Prep 35. Nick Visco missed on a 42 yard field goal attempt.
The Ramblers then put together another nice drive, this one to the Wood 16. There the drive stalled and Prep settled for a John Chereson 33 yard field goal that would have been good from 50. The drive was highlighted by 2 great plays, the first a beautiful laid out catch for 27 yards by receiver Nafeez Carter-Brown and the second a great scramble by Terry enabling him to connect with Felix Schell for 17 yards.
Prep held the Vikings to three and out their next series. On third and 11 from the Rambler 43 Terry was again aided by another acrobatic catch, this one from Delton Williams for 40 yards to the Wood 10 yard line. Terry finished the two minute drive with a 6 yard td and Prep was in control 17-7 with 8 minutes left in the half.
The Vikings again failed to move the ball on their next possession, punting to the Ramblers 35 yard line. After a five yard run from Delton Williams, Terry had wide eyes as he saw Schell come up to the line of scrimmage uncovered. Sixty yards later Schell was celebrating in the endzone. “Yeah, we saw it. I came up to the line and I was in shock nobody was covering him and he’s one of the fastest players on the team so I just threw it to him right away and he’s a playmaker so he made the play ” said Terry. Prep took a 24-7 lead going into halftime.
Archbishop Wood never gave up. The Vikings held Prep out of the endzone on the opening drive of the second half, a drive aided by a controversial catch by Charles Fessler that gained 42 yards putting the ball at the Wood 30. It appeared that Fessler never had control of the ball but the referee ruled he made a football move then fumbled. The drive stalled at the 27 and Wood took over on downs following a 4th down incomplete pass.
The Vikings rumbled down the field on a 6 minute/13 play drive going 80 yards. Andrew Guckin finished the
drive with a 5 yard touchdown run bringing the score to 24-14.
The Ramblers defense then stiffened and with 6:42 left to play in the game the Vikings drove to the Rambler 24 but on fourth and one the Prep line stopped Messina at the line to take over. “I know we don’t have the biggest line but they are all aggressive and I’d take them over anyone” said Terry of his defense. Prep would turn the ball over to the Vikings 2 plays later on a carry by Messina. The Vikings drove to the 21 but on third and 10 freshman quarterback Tom Garlick was intercepted in the endzone to kill the Vikings hopes once and for all. “We made a lot of mistakes you just can’t make, we were our own worst enemy with penalties and such” said Archibishop Wood head coach Steve Devlin.
Cathedral Prep then ran out the clock to claim their title.
“We had a bunch of guys who had to step in after we had some season ending injuries last week. Troy Woodard, he’s just a sophomore and he had a touchdown catch. The thing is with Damion he just doesn’t pick out one or two guys who are his favorite, he passes to the guys who are open. We moved the ball in the second half we just weren’t able to capitalize in the redzone there in the second half. We won a street fight, they had some big boys over there. We’re 15 and 0 and I just couldn’t be any more proud of these kids and my staff” said coach Mischler of the win.
16 Responses
Wood got out coached big time!! Snap infraction happens all the time. It’s a shame Ben aka Xeno aka 16th and Georgetown… It’s called all the time.
Ben, did you really just say they should have issued a warning for the snap infraction? This is the title game, not a preseason scrimmage. You are right about Wood dominating the LOS. It’s ashame everybody saw it except for the Wood coaching staff. 1st down; up the gut for 7, 2nd down; bootleg the freshman, 3rd down; counter sweep, 4th down; punt. It may not be sexy, but 5-6 yds up the middle wins games. Easy to win when you have 7 D1 recruits, I’m sure there will be plenty of incoming transfers next year.
Ben – Come on… Boo Hoo. The better team won. Wood will be very good next year with the young kids they have coming back, move on…
Soup,
300 yards passing but 150 of them came on the three bad defensive plays Wood made. Not much else.
Wood dominated LOS.
Are you kiddin’ me? Week in and week out….I have never seen four flags in five plays like that against the same team.
Snap infraction???? The kid spun the ball to grip it.
Should have been a warning at best.
You surly don’t make a call like THAT in a state championship game!
Then a procedure call.
No hold at all on the first down run by #1, another terrible call!
Then another procedure call.
Four flags in five plays!
Changed the game.
They called a snap infraction 3x in the game.
I’ve never seen that called in any game I have ever seen.
No doubt wood’s gonna come back loaded next couple of seasons. Who’s in agreement that we may see a rematch next december?
ECP passed for over 300 yards without their best two receivers. Anyone who followed Wood this year saw that they had a hard time in the secondary vs the pass. The catch that was not a catch by ESP did not change the outcome what so ever… There are missed calls week in and week out in HS fb. Stop with the excuses, Wood is young and will be back strong as ever next year.
This game was not an easy win for ECP.
A few terrible call’s (snap infraction, phantom hold & completed pass) from the ref’s and a couple bad defensive plays by Wood.
This game could of went the other way.
Congrats to ECP AAA Champs, they are a good team.
#6 Terry and #11 Manus-Schell played great.
Not so sure about #5, he is a big kid, good Game on D, but the third or fourth best back on the field yesterday, Guckin, Messina and Terry all better.
Not sure he will get much time in Michigan State’s backfield, he looked slow footed and tentative.
prep was easily the better team, they can do so much more on offense they deserved to win, its not like wood wont be there for the next couple years to come tho they have a few young guys that will lead them for a while. garlick looks like he might be a stud by the time hes a junior a 6’4 frosh starting in a program like that?! we havent heard the last from wood but prep wasnt 1 dimensional like wood and prep was more disciplined
Oh, and for everyone convinced that wood “helped” prep win, officials are human. Bad calls are made at every level. And yes, if one team commits too many legit penalties, that’s their fault. Prep was more disciplined and therefore, deserved the win.
Mike, nobody’s better than the PCL, huh? Looks like Cathedral Prep dispelled that myth. HA!!
Donna, your attitude is just fine! ECP won, kudos to them; AW will be back next year and will bring it home again! Keep the faith Donna!
Donna, you are showing a very poor attitude.
Cathedral Prep was the better team. They were the better team all season long and the better team in this game. That fumble no-call was more than made up for with a ridiculous missed PI call in the endzone on that drive. If the refs call the pass incomplete, the Rambler drive continues. The missed PI call ended a drive and gave Wood the ball back.
People will give Wood what they deserve: a runner-up trophy.
ROLL RAMBLERS
I am tired of people not giving Wood what they deserve. Both teams played very good football. Wood help Cathedral Prep the entire 2nd half. And we are not the ones that are saying that one bad call cost us the games. Our own coach said our penalties are our own worse enemy.
Wood people will be talking about that long pass that went ECP’s way. I wander if the officiating knew that the PCL is not supposed to lose? Hmmm those officials may never officiate again, for letting a PCL team go down. Nobody is better than the PCL so it had to be the officials and not that wood actually got beat.
Thanks for catching my error.
Quick! Someone complain about Fessler’s (Not Fesher) “fumble that should have been an incomplete pass that was clearly the reason Wood lost the game”!!
I have to admit, it was controversial to say the least. But the refs made up for it post-haste only a couple plays later with a no-call pass interference on Wood in the end zone that would’ve kept the drive going and very likely would have resulted in more points. The Wood defender absolutely mauled the WR.
Hats off to both teams. It was a hard-fought battle and a very entertaining game. Congratulations to Erie Cathedral Prep on their first title in a dozen years.