Cards Top Archrival DeSales

WAITSBURG - Waitsburg- Prescott's defense bent a lot Friday, but didn't break when it counted, including stopping archrival DeSales' final scoring chance on the 1-yard line as the game clock expired.

The 16-13 victory dropped the Irish from the ranks of the unbeaten and propelled the Cardinals back into league- championship contention.

In its most lackluster of­fensive performance of the season-225 total yards, WP produced the big plays when needed, and capitalized on Irish miscues.

The first big play came less than 30 seconds into the second quarter. On the first and only play of the Cardinals' second drive, Dalton Estes took a handoff over right end and raced nearly untouched for a 69-yard touchdown. Estes missed the point after try to the left, kicking from 5 yards far­ther out than normal thanks to a false start penalty. The score remained, 6-0.

DeSales answered WP on its next possession, scoring a touchdown on a 10-play, 64- yard drive that took 4:22 to complete.

Luke Fazzari rushed seven times during the drive, but the big blows came via the air when Jeremiah Cox hooked up with favorite receiver Ryan Baumgart on consecutive pass­es of 25 and 16 yards. Fazzari scored up the middle from two yards to put the Irish on top, 7-6.

It looked as if the score might remain that way headed into halftime, but the Irish committed the first several big mistakes.

After, WP's third drive stalled at its own 36, Estes pinned the Irish deep with a superb 50-yard punt. Three plays later, DeSales faced a fourth-and-one from its own 23. The Irish lined up to punt, but the long snapper snapped the ball over punter Paul El­menhurst's head. Elmenhurst scrambled after the ball, which came to rest near the goal line, but as soon as he grabbed it Cardinal defenders surrounded him. Elmenhurst hit the turf at the 11 and WP took over on downs with 41 seconds to go in the half.

Estes kicked the Cardi­nals into the lead three plays later with a 30-yard field goal to make the score 9-7 at half.

DeSales committed its sec­ond mistake on its first drive of the second half. Coming imme­diately after a 47-yard Fazzari rush up the left sideline that was saved from being a touchdown only by the tripping hands of a diving Sterling Eastman of WP, DeSales subbed out Faz­zari to let him catch his breath. The next play Cox attempted a handoff to running back An­drew

Elmenhurst. The younger Elmenhurst, however, dropped the ball on the exchange, and WP recovered in a mad scram­ble at its own 20, thwarting a golden scoring opportunity for DeSales.

DeSales mounted its sec­ond scoring drive of the game on its next possession. The Irish alternated 5-yards-per- carry blasts by Fazzari with downfield tosses to Baumgart and Joe Duehn including the 13-yard Duehn catch and run touchdown that capped the drive with 10 seconds left in the quarter. The drive netted the Irish only six points. Six-foot, 4-inch Ben Shafer bull rushed up the middle on the point after try and blocked the low kick to keep the deficit to four at 13-9.

WP responded by scoring a touchdown on the ensuing possession. The Cardinals mounted their only sustained successful drive of the night, going 74 yards on six plays in 2:32. Quarterback Eastman connected with Roy Ebong on a short slant over the middle from 14 yards out. A Chance Leroue block and sweet Ebong spin move did the rest. WP took back the lead at 16-13 with 9:18 to go in the fourth quarter.

But WP had no answer to the power rushing of Fazzari, and it appeared DeSales would be able to score at will. The Irish moved from its own 24 to the WP 16 in 11 plays-eight of them rushes up the middle by Fazzari. After a false start backed the Irish up five yards on second down, DeSales coach Mike Speiss called for three consecutive pass plays, and this time the WP defense held. The first two passes fell incomplete and the third at­tempt on fourth down resulted in a sack by WP's Danny Stansell coming on a linebacker blitz.

WP took over the ball at its own 26 with 3:31 remaining, but moved the ball only 4 yards on three runs before booting the ball back to the Irish with only 1:40 remaining.

The Irish began its final drive from its own 31. Using the air exclusively, Irish QB Cox connected on 7-of-8 passes to move the green and gold quickly down the field to the WP 1. The final pass hit Duehn at the 1-yard line with Estes the only man standing between the Irish and pay dirt. But Estes somehow managed to keep him out of the end zone, tackling him at the spot where he caught the ball.

With 17 seconds left, out of timeouts, but with the clock stopped to move the chains, it appeared DeSales would have a couple shots at the end zone.

But instead of spiking the ball to stop the clock and hud­dle up-the Irish elected to continue the hurry-up, lining in an empty backfield formation with five wide receivers. Cox took the snap, dropped back a few steps then attempted a rush into the end zone around left end. It was a play set identical to the one the University of Colorado used to defeat Wash­ington State on its final play the previous weekend.

This time however, the op­posing quarterback was met at the line of scrimmage by WP's Stansell and Estes who brought him down short of the goal. Before the referee could set the ball and retreat out of the way for a second snap, time expired and WP players burst into cel­ebration of their hard fought 16-13 win.

"The last drive was terrify­ing," Estes said. "We knew they were going to throw, so we stayed in our cover three and tried to keep (all of their passes) underneath. When I hit Duehn (after the catch at the 1-yard line) I was thinking 'just pull back and don't let him in'. He had forward momentum and all I could do was wrap up and push and keep the legs going."

DeSALES0760-13 WP0907-16

Rushing: WP 115 (Brown 17-55, Estes 3-76 1 TD, Eastman 8-(-16)),DeSales 169 (Fazzari 28-165, A. Elmenhurst 3-(-3) Cox 6-19, P.Elmenhurst 1-(-12)).

Passing: WP 110 (Eastman 6-15-110 1 TD), DeSales 182 (Cox 17-22-182 1 TD)

Receiving: WP (Ebong 3-44 1 TD, Estes 2-36, Leroue 1-30), DeSales(Baumgart 9-96, Duehn 7-77, A. Elmenhurst 1-9).

Total Yards: WP 225, DeSales 351.

First Downs: WP 10, DeSales 20.

Turnovers: WP 0, DeSales 1.

Penalties: WP 7-63, DeSales 3-15.