from Langston Wertz Jr. at the Charlotte Observer:
Mallard Creek’s defense held Ohio power Cincinnati Moeller’s high-powered offense to 14 points Saturday and stunned the Buckeye State’s No. 1-ranked team 21-14 in overtime.
The Mavericks, who left Charlotte at 5:30 a.m. Saturday and traveled by bus for 5 1/2 hours to Ironton, Ohio, for a 1 p.m. kickoff, picked off two Crusader passes and recorded five sacks. The last of those sacks came on the game’s final play, as Anthony Dangerfield brought down Archbishop Moeller quarterback Matt Ponatoski for a 7-yard loss on fourth down. Earlier in the game, Dangerfield had picked off a Ponatoski pass and returned it 50 yards for a touchdown.
Archbishop Moeller, an iconic Ohio high school power, had won its first three games by a combined score of 122-53. But the Crusaders had a miserable day against Mallard Creek (2-1), which held Moeller to 193 yards’ total offense. Maverick senior linebacker Zykeir Stripling also had a huge day, with four tackles for loss and two sacks.
Mallard Creek bulled to a 14-0 lead, scoring on a 57-yard run by Caleb Knight late in the first quarter and then on Dangerfield’s pick-6 early in the second period. Moeller cut the deficit in half on a short pass from Ponatoski to Landon Adams with 5:11 left in the half.
The Crusaders tied the game with 11:19 left in the fourth quarter, on a 5-yard pass from Ponatoski to Roman Mason. Once the game was tied at 14-all, defenses took over.
There were eight punts and three interceptions in the game’s final nine minutes, with all of the interceptions coming in the final 54 seconds.
Mallard Creek won the toss for overtime, and coach Kennedy Tinsley(played for Dudley Panthers, and coached at Eastern Guilford as an assistant, and was head coach at Southeast Guilford HS) elected for the Mavericks to go on offense first. On a third-and-11 at the 21, Evan Rambert fired the go-ahead touchdown pass to Curtis Clark.
Archbishop Moeller, playing a North Carolina team for the first time in school history, then got possession. The Crusaders threw an incompletion, gained 6 yards on a run, then lost 4 yards. That set up the game-ending sack by Dangerfield. Knight led Mallard Creek with 75 yards rushing.
The game was the opener of the Ironton Football Classic, with Ironton facing Buffalo St. Francis in the Saturday evening nightcap. Archbishop Moeller and Mallard Creek were scheduled for the event after each found themselves with schedule openings. Moeller had a vacancy after a game against a Georgia school was canceled. Mallard Creek’s opening developed when the Mavericks’ scheduled game earlier this season against Cardinal Gibbons was canceled due to a thunderstorm.
Read more at: https://www.charlotteobserver.com/sports/high-school/article292116580.html#storylink=cpy