by LAKEWOOD, OH – It was the annual Holy War as the St. Ed’s Eagles hosted the Saint Ignatius Wildcats in the annual Holy War. This has long been one of the most exciting games of the season for both historic programs. Tonight, the Eagles once again came out on top with a 45-31 victory as both teams had a ton of offense to show.
The Eagles were led on offensive as their O-Line once again did a masterful job creating holes all night, plenty of time for Evanchick to pass and just dominated in the trenches. This led to Brandon White rushing for 233 yards on 22 carries with 3 touchdowns. Meanwhile, Zach Hackleman got open several times for 120 yards on 5 catches with 3 of them touchdowns. Quarterback Johnny Evanchick finished with 185 passing yards and 3 touchdowns on 9 of 12 passing.
For Ignatius, the Wildcats found the endzone a few times as well, most times working with a short field after outstanding kickoff return work tonight from Billy Cole giving them short fields to work with. Dane Donovan finished with 95 yards on 8 of 13 passing while also rushing for 60 yards on 8 carries with a touchdown. Their top rusher was Owen Colwell who went for 78 yards on 13 carries while Jake Bobinski went for 30 yards on 11 carries with a score.
The stellar Eagle secondary soared again tonight, as the first team held St. Ignatius without any big completions to star receivers Trey Haddad or Luke Simms. However, later in the game during the final minutes, Jacob Mikin checked in and finished strong, going 3 of 4 with 78 yards. It was then that Trey Haddad earned two catches for 40 yards, including a touchdown while Luke Simms caught 2 balls for 38 yards. Mikin had an arm like a rocket and made a strong case to start the rest of the season. Not exactly sure why he didn’t tonight but Iggy went hard on the run game and Donovan is your man for that.
However, our player of the game tonight was St. Ed’s placekicker Will Lavelle who went 6 of 6 on XP’s with a Field Goal to “boot” as well.
Brandon White returned the opening kickoff to the Eagle 40-yard line and then took the opening play 10 yards to get them to midfield quickly. Two plays after that, it was Evanchick launching one to a wide-open Zach Hackleman for a 31-yard touchdown pass. The Wildcats sold out on the blitz and got burned. It was 7-0 with 11:10 left in the first quarter.
The first Wildcat play resulted in a Eagle pick sick by Brayden Thomas that was called back after a roughing the passer was called. Donovan made the most of the second chance with several big runs of his own after his initial pass was picked off. Eventually, it was Jake Bobinski taking a sweep around the edge for a 9-yard touchdown jaunt. Just like that, the Wildcats tied it at 7 with 6:17.
The next Eagle drive was fueled by a 35-yard pass to Hackleman and a 25-yard run from White. It wasn’t long after that when White took it in from 15 yards out to score. It was now 14-7 Eagles with 4:42 to play in the first. White already had 68 yards with a score on just 4 total touches.
Billy Cole of St. Ignatius answered right back with a 59-yard kickoff to take it all the way back to the Eagles 40-yard line to start their next drive. A 10-yard run by Owen Colwell instantly got the Wildcats moving. A few Donovan runs later, the Wildcats approached the endzone from the 4-yard line. From there, it was Owen Colwell blasting it up the middle to score. This made it 14 all with 1:05 on the clock still to play in the first.
The first quarter ended tied at 14 with the Eagles driving to re-take the lead. A few plays later, they were threatening to score as they faced a third and one from the 13-yard line which they converted by the nose of the ball. They eventually had to settle for a 27-yard field goal from Will Lavelle that was good enough from 37 yards if not 47, he blasted it!
The Eagles tacked on 7 more on their next drive with another launch to Hackleman, this one from 32 yards out to increase the lead to 24-14. A 36 yard kick by Griffin Roberts cut into the Eagle lead for a few moments until White answered with a 68 yard touchdown run for the Eagles. To send the game to half with the Eagles up 31-17.
The Eagles started their initial drive of the second half on the Wildcat 19 yard line after a botched punt from the Wildcats. A few moments after that, White scored on a perfect misdirection to increase the Eagle lead to 38-17 with 8:30 remaining. Another touchdown pass to Hackleman increased it to 45-17 with 4:32 remaining in the third quarter.
From there the Eagles created the second Wildcat turnover which handed the ball back to the Eagles at midfield where the third quarter ended with St. Ed’s up 45-17. The Eagles went on to cruise to a 45-31 victory.
