Irish capture NCAA football crown

By Bernie Puchalski - November 12, 2021

Notre Dame’s 30-10 victory over Saint Paul Friday in the Niagara Catholic Athletic Association senior football final is the poster child for the final score not being indicative of the type of game that was played.

Saint Paul had 12 first downs compared to Notre Dame’s seven and the Patriots had a 241-183 advantage in net yards gained from scrimmage. But the defending NCAA champion Fighting Irish were able to survive the scare by forcing a fumble at their own one-yard line and producing a 109-yard interception return for a touchdown that closed out the scoring late in the fourth quarter.

The stiff challenge provided by the Patriots came as no surprise to Notre Dame head coach Tim Bisci.

“They battle, he keeps them motivated and he does all those things that need to be done,” he said. “We were beating teams up and it’s not even close and I am sitting at home stressing like crazy because I know what he (Saint Paul head coach Rick Oreskovich) is going to give us. Hats off to him because he is always going to give you his best and his best is always pretty good.”

Bisci has come to expect that from Oreskovich.

“It is a cliche all the time when you guys ask about the other team and I say they are well-coached. That is an understatement when it come to Rick,” he said. “He is the dean in our league and he is probably the dean in Niagara. He has been doing it for 30 years and it doesn’t matter who he has. He gets the most talent out of his kids and it is a salute to him that he can do it year in and year out.”

Friday’s performance was far from Notre Dame’s best in 2021.

“We were undisciplined,” Bisci said of his team’s 11 penalties for 100 yards “There was one drive where we were up 20-1 and once we got the ball we did nothing but take penalties and we were back 60 yards. We ended up giving them a score out of the deal.”

As usual Notre Dame was sparked by big plays from its best players. Dayshawn Johnson had a 60-yard fumble recovery for a score in the third quarter that was called back to midfield because of a penalty on the return and then the Grade 12 player iced the game late in the fourth quarter with a 109-yard pick six.

“He’s a heckuva player and an athlete, and the kid loves playing,” Bisci said. “He plays with a chip on his shoulder and he wants to do well. He just has to play within himself and when he does that, he is great.”

The 5-foot-11, 140 pounder has made a habit of 109-yard returns. In a league game against the Denis Morris Reds, he returned a missed field goal 109 yards for a score.

“I saw him (Saint Paul quarterback) going for the out and he had done it two plays in a row. We needed a touchdown right there so I jumped in front of it and took it.”

The 17-year-old agreed his team was far from perfect Friday.

“We were not great at all and we had a really shaky start,” he said. “Everyone was in their own heads, people were getting hurt and blah, blah, blah. Once we got back from halftime, it was Notre Dame football right there.”

Notre Dame will now meet Myer in the Niagara final for the third time in the past four years, excluding the pandemic pause in 2020. Bisci attended Myer’s 22-13 victory over Churchill Thursday night.

“They are athletic and fast and they look good on the turf. Maybe we should try to get them to Notre Dame on our sloppy field but that ain’t going to happen,” he said. “We are going to game plan them like we have done in the past. They are ranked third in the province in one poll so they have got to be doing something right.”

Not taking 100 yards in penalties would be a good start for the Irish.

“Oh God no,” Bisci said. “But we have done it in the past where we have taken a lot of penalties and then we get to big time games and we play disciplined. It’s bizarre but our kids have to understand that we need to be disciplined and we will harp on it this week.”

Johnson has a simple formula for success.

“We need to play a lot better,” he said. “We need to start hitting and getting more physical and we need to figure out that it is win or go home now.”

After the game, Oreskovich was lamenting all the missed opportunities.

“We had two red zone opportunities to score 14 points and we didn’t and that is why the game resulted the way it did,” he said. “We kept on fighting and I take full responsibility for not getting that ball in the end zone. There were plays maybe I shouldn’t have called and I should have done better with our short yardage offence. I didn’t and that showed.”

He gave Notre Dame full credit for the victory.

“They are good, they are physical and I have to give Tim a lot of credit. He does a great job with their offence and defence.”

He was happy with his team’s performance.

“Our kids were prepared and they came to play,” Oreskovich said. “They got up on us, we missed some opportunities but we never gave up and then we had opportunities at the end and never put them in.”

The Patriots were a much better team than the one that started the season.

“This is one of the nicest groups of kids that we have coached in a while,” Oreskovich said. “We had good chemistry on this team, they all stuck together, we had good practice turnouts and they were pretty focused. They tried really hard and the team did some nice things.”

He has high hopes for the future.

“I hope a lot of these kids return and a lot of them can return,” he said. “We hope in the future that we are better when we have to be better.”

STATS PACK

Fighting 30 Irish 10

Cat’s Caboose Player of the Game: Notre Dame’s Dayshawn Johnson with a pick six and a fumble recovery.

For the Notre Dame Fighting Irish: 46-yard TD pass from Marshall McCray to Jacob Tessier; eight-yard TD run by Tal Ibrahim; TD by McCray on one-yard QB keeper; 109-yard interception return for a TD by Dayshawn Johnson; 25-yard field goal by Jack Laewetz; interceptions by Ben Iannuzzi and Owen Borutski; on-side kick recovery by Justin Huggins; fumble recoveries by Johnson and Josh Dywan; sack by Anthony Battista.

For the Saint Paul Patriots: one-yard TD run by Javier Lewis; interception and convert block by Tyler Rankin; interception by Jack Busch; sack by James Zarafonitis

Game stats: Net offence: ND 183, SP 241. First downs: ND 7, SP 12. Turnovers: ND 2, SP 5. Penalties: ND 11 for 100 yards, SP 5 for 35 yards..

Up next: Notre Dame advances to play A.N. Myer Thursday at 7 p.m. at Kiwanis Field in the SOSSA semifinal.