Cardinals Earn First Postseason Win Since 1935
BALTIMORE, MD. --- The 2008 CUA football team
has accomplished what this year's seniors had set out to do as
freshmen...take the team to the postseason and win a game.
Prior to today, CUA football had only recorded post season games in
1936 (1935 season), 1939, and then from 1997-99. In five
event, CUA walked away with only one victory, the 1936 Orange Bowl,
when CUA upset Mississippi, 20-19.
When this year's senior class were seniors in high school, the
Cardinals finished the season 0-10. As seniors, the team
played through and accomplished a feat that has been accomplished
only three times, nine wins in a single season. It was also
accomplished during the '97-'99 playoff run when CUA finished 10-1,
10-1, 9-2, respectively.
CUA jumped out to an early seven point lead when Miles Sabrick
(Douglassville, Pa./Reading Central Catholic) was on the receiving
end of Keith Ricca's (Poolesville, Md./St. John's Prospect Hall)
70-yard deep strike with 12:05 left in the first quarter. The
play was CUA's first from scrimmage.
The Cardinals extended their lead with a 19 yard field goal from
Joseph Owens (Blackwood, N.J./Paul VI) with 4:48 left before the
break.
CUA secured that 10-0 advantage until 12:11 left in the third
quarter when Alex Lachman converted on a 43 yard field goal with
the wind at his back.
Andrew Kase then capped a 14-play, 60 yard drive that consumed 4:41
off the clock in the fourth quarter, with a seven yard rushing
touchdown to knot the game at 10.
What happened next was nothing short of spectacular. After
seven plays and 48 yards, Keith Ricca had the offense within a yard
of the goal line when a broken play forced Ricca to make a break
for the end zone. At the one yard line Ricca was stood up and
stripped by Tom O'Neill. The ball popped high in the air and
was caught by Mike Todisco in the end zone. Rather than
simply taking a knee and the ball at the 20, Todisco did what would
have been considered stupid had it not worked out the way it
did. Todisco ran the ball out of the end zone and past all of
the CUA offense and into the end zone for the longest possible play
in college football, a 100 yard return for a touchdown.
With a seven point lead the Blue Jays kicked off to Nick Olivero
(Fairfax, Va./W.T. Woodson) who returned the ball 25 yards to the
CUA 43. The teams exchanged punts and ended up giving CUA the
ball with 2:31 left on the clock at the Johns Hopkins 48 yard
line.
Ricca converted on a third and ten to Mike Smith (Silver Spring,
Md./The Bullis School) then on back-to-back receptions Ryan McManus
(Malvern, Pa./Malvern Prep) the ball sat back at the JHU 1 yard
line. Seemingly unaffected by their luck the last time the
Cardinals were at this spot, Ricca handed off to Stevie Hendley
(Annandale, Va./Bishop O'Connell) for a one yard touchdown.
Rather than keeping to tradition and playing for overtime, head
coach Dave Dunn went for two and was not disappointed. Ricca
found Andrew Buis (Gaithersburg, Md./Gaithersburg) in the back of
the endzone and the Cardinals took an 18-17 lead with 1:04 left on
the clock.
Most would assume that it would come down to a deep pass from the
Blue Jays at time was expiring, but this game couldn't end that
way. The ensuing kickoff was fumbled by the returner and CUA
fell on the ball at the JHU 18 yard line. Stevie Hendley
rushed for two yards forcing the Blue Jays to call a time
out. After the time out Hendley was given the ball again but
was hit in the backfield and lost the ball.
With 1:15 left on the clock JHU was given another chance.
Eight plays later the Blue Jays were poised to at least attempt a
last second field goal into the steady wind. Tyler Porco
dropped back to pass with just over 10 seconds left in the game and
tried to connect with his receiver deep down the left
sideline. The ball was picked off by Dylan O'Shea (Westport,
Conn./Staples) with 6.8 seconds left and CUA simply took a knee and
secured the first post season victory in more than 70 years.
Ricca finished the day 25 of 47 for 283 yards and one touchdown
while Dean Petrone (Hamilton, N.J./The Hun School), who was also
named Most Outstanding Player of the game, finished with 13
tackles, 5.0 tackles for loss, and 2.5 sacks. His tackles for
loss accounted for 22 yards, while his sacks accounted for
16. Eight of his tackles were solo hits.
CUA finishes the season with a league high record of 9-2, passing
for over 3,300 yards offensively, and defensively forcing 30
turnovers.
This release is courtesy of the Catholic University
sports information department.