Irish dominate Thunder
Notre Dame advanced to the NCAA championship game with a 46-0 victory over the Blessed Trinity Thunder. Photo by WILLIAM VANDERLAND.
The Notre Dame Fighting Irish took no prisoners once again Friday.
A week after dominating the St. Francis Phoenix 50-0 to wind up the regular season undefeated, the Irish were hitting on all cylinders versus the Blessed Trinity Thunder.
The Irish scored early and often en route to a 46-0 triumph in a Niagara Catholic Athletic Association senior boys football semifinal playoff game at Kiwanis Park.
The Irish advance to the NCAA championship game Thursday at Kiwanis Park versus the Saint Michael Mustangs.
“I’ve been saying it all year, when we get to this point we have to be ready for bigger and better things,” Irish coach Tim Bisci said. “You don’t want to demoralize other programs, but we have to be ready to play in our next game.
“I thought last year we let up a little bit and we weren’t ready to play at those later points but this year we’re firing, we’re intense.”
Irish quarterback Hunter Cropper agreed with his coach that the team needs to be peaking at this time of the season.
“We did it (let up) last season against Saint Paul and got our asses kicked. We just came out and fought the whole game, all 48 minutes,” he said. “For a lot of 12B guys it could be their last game now that we’re into playoffs so we have to fight all 48 minutes and take it one play at a time.”
The Irish scored on their first two possessions, but had them both called back due to penalties and had to settle for a field goal.
Bisci would like to see that aspect of their game cleaned up.
“We’ve been saying we have to be disciplined,” he said. “We go down the first drive, and it’s great drive into the wind, and we go all the way down and score and get a penalty. We score again and we get another penalty on it and we end up with three points rather than six.”
The Irish did a good job of mixing things up on offence.
“To have a good passing game, you have to have a good running game,” said Cropper, a 17-year-old, Grade 12 student. “It’s nice to have good running backs like (Jacob) Succar and (Zack) Melnyk so we can throw the ball too.”
Cropper finished 8-for-11 with a pair of touchdown passes.
“It’s nice to have great receivers like (Jared) Tessier and Owen (Tofano) that when I throw it deep they will catch it and go score.”
Bisci feels having a good mix of running and throwing is vital.
“That has been by design all year,” he said. “We’ll throw 10 or 12 times a game.
“Hunter has been real decent, really working on his reads, and hopefully he can keep doing that and making some good throws and we can keep running the ball.”
The Irish built a 39-0 lead at the half, which meant the second half was played in real time.
Thunder coach Sean Jones lamented a roster issue that cropped up Wednesday.
“For me this was a season of a lot of firsts in many ways,” he said. “It’s the first time I’ve had a starting quarterback quit two days before a semifinal game, so that made things pretty tough. It’s tough to ask a back-up quarterback to go in there and rally the troops.
“They’re a talented team, a big and strong team, and we were down to 24 effective players and some of those were banged up.”
Jones realized the Thunder were facing a near-impossible task.
“We tried to tell our guys to play with pride and to the best of their abilities and don’t worry too much about the scoreboard. Just go out there and do your best job.
“You try to teach them and sometimes you win, and sometimes you lose, but you play the right way.”
STATS PACK
Irish 46 Thunder 0
Mick and Angelo’s/Johnny Rocco’s/Cracker Jacks Player of the Game: Notre Dame quarterback Hunter Cropper who finished 8-for-11 with 2 touchdown passes.
Notre Dame Fighting Irish: Jacob Succar 2 touchdowns, interception; Jared Tessier 2 touchdowns; Zack Melnyk touchdown; Mason Mastroianni touchdown; Matt Huggins interception.
Blessed Trinity Thunder: No scoring.
Game stats: Cropper 8-11, 2 touchdowns; BT quarterback Gavan Banga 2-for-5, 2 interceptions; Cole Smith 25-yard field goal, 5 extra points; BT also conceded a safety.
Up next: The Fighting Irish take on for the NCAA championship Thursday at Kiwanis Field. Time to be announced.
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