Beating your archrival is often a daunting task. Doing it twice in the same high school football season? Even tougher.
Archbishop Hoban accomplished just that Saturday night. But more than bragging rights were at stake when the Knights faced St. Vincent-St. Mary at InfoCision Stadium in Akron.
Spotting the Irish an early touchdown after a turnover, Hoban (11-1) scored all the rest of the points for a 21-7 victory in a Division III regional semifinal playoff game.
The Knights will face New Philadelphia at 7 p.m. Saturday in the regional final at an undetermined site. The Quakers defeated East 27-20 in the other semifinal.
All the scoring occurred in the first half. St. V-M (7-5), paced by the relentless running of senior Myles Williams, threatened on its first two possessions of the second half, but was turned away by the opportunistic Hoban defense.
With Williams carrying the load, St. V-M took the second-half kickoff and drove from its own 34 to the Hoban 2-yard line with a first-and-goal.
But the Irish were stuffed on four cracks into the line. Senior quarterback Donte Taylor was stopped on the 1 by senior John Bozzelli and junior Will Collier to end the 13-play drive with 5:59 left in the third quarter.
The Irish also reached the Hoban 17, but fumbled with Knights senior Jabari Taylor recovering on the last play of the third quarter.
Taylor also had two of seven sacks by Hoban.
Williams, a shifty 5-foot-11, 195-pounder, raced for 195 yards on 30 carries.
St. V-M senior Ross Faetanini recovered a Hoban sideways pass ruled a lateral that missed its target on the third play from scrimmage, returning it 14 yards to the Hoban 22.
Three Williams runs and an offsides penalty moved the ball to the 2-yard line. Taylor, who replaced sophomore quarterback Ryan Fischer whenever St. V-M neared the goal line, plunged across for a touchdown. Jamie Martucci’s extra-point kick made it 7-0 with 9:49 left in the first quarter.
After an exchange of punts, Hoban senior Todd Sibley went to work. He turned a short pass from quarterback Danny Clark into a 34-yard play. Three Sibley runs — the last one a 2-yard touchdown — and Grant Kersh’s first of three extra points tied it 7-7.
Sibley led the Knights with 80 yards on 17 carries.
After the kickoff, sophomore Matt Salopek made the first of his two interceptions and returned in 22 yards for a touchdown and a 14-7 lead.
Later in the half, Clark hit junior Garrett Houser in stride on an 81-yard bomb down to the 2. Three plays later, junior William Collier ran to the 1 but fumbled into the end zone, where teammate and junior lineman RJ Kelly recovered for a touchdown. Kersh’s kick made it 21-7 with 3:57 left in the second quarter.
Read the high school blog at http://www.ohio.com/preps.