Published: November 24, 2008 06:59 pm            

Pirates falter against Blue Devils in states

FAYETTEVILLE — Jodi Mote wasn’t going to lie.

When public address announcer Mike Pilato announced that No. 7 Madonna had upset No. 2 Pocahontas County 16-14, Mote, his players and the St. Marys fans took notice.

You see, the Blue Devils’ Class A second-round football matchup with Fayetteville Saturday at Fletcher Arritt Memorial Stadium had long been decided, although there was time left on the clock and the Pirates were still scrapping away at their foes. No. 6 St. Marys eventually posted a 56-36 upset of No. 3 Fayetteville to nail down a semifinal game at home this weekend against the Blue Dons.

“Yeah, I heard it,” Mote said in a jubilant St. Marys locker room. “They (the players) knew about it.

“As a matter of fact, I tried to use it as a motivational tool (as the Pirates’ Brian Trofy tallied two late scores, one on a 10-yard run and the other on a 43-yard shovel pass from MichaelAngelo Hernandez, to trim the final deficit).”

To get its desired final result, St. Marys kept Fayetteville on its heels all afternoon. The Blue Devils jumped out to a 14-0 lead on the strength of Derek Spitzer touchdown runs covering 40 and 43 yards. The first quarter ended at 20-7, including a 91-yard kickoff return to paydirt for Fayetteville’s Troy Hopkins, then the two teams combined for 42 points in a wild second quarter.

While a lot of points were put on the board on the cold afternoon, two defensive touchdowns in the closing seconds of the first half proved to be the big difference in the contest.

The Pirates’ Vernon Farrell hauled in a 34-yard scoring pass from Hernandez with 1:28 to play in the half, and Hernandez’s PAT kick made it 34-20. Fayetteville then forced St. Marys to punt for the first time and hoped to punch in another score to maintain the momentum. Instead, the Blue Devils’ Zac Anderson stepped in front of a Hernandez pass on second-and-14 from the 15 and legged it 10 yards to the end zone with :08.7 left.

To add insult to injury, Anderson’s teammate, lineman Hayden Ullman, reached high to intercept another Hernandez pass, this on first-and-10 from the Pirate 35 with just :02.9 to go, and crossed the goal line with no time left on the clock to push the score to 48-20 (the PAT kick made it 49-20) and switch the momentum decidedly to the Blue Devils’ corner.

“We could play ‘em 10 more times and I don’t think that sequence of plays would happen in that short of a time,” Fayetteville coach David Moneypenny said of the ending of the opening half.

“Those two interceptions really turned the momentum,” said Mote. “We would have to have been more strategic in the second half (if they led only 34-20). It really picked the kids’ emotions up.”

St. Marys (11-1) amassed 338 rushing yards and 146 passing yards, while being penalized just once for five yards. Spitzer surpassed the 200-yard barrier with 217 yards and three scores on 17 attempts. Anderson rushed 20 times for 108 yards and one TD.

For FHS (10-2), Hernandez was 14-of-26 for 221 yards and three scores, but he was also picked off three times. Drew Weis rushed 15 times for 77 yards, Farrell caught four passes for 78 yards and the score, Trofy had 72 total yards and two scores, and Hopkins provided two TDs.

“They just beat us; they just outplayed us,” said Moneypenny.

        

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