BY PAUL LIOTTI
When McQuaid head coach Bobby Bates huddled up his troops with 2:40 to go in the game and down by 3 point for one final drive, what he saw didn’t surprise him.
What he saw was a senior-laden team, steeled by past disappointment, realizing that this was just another drive. Ice water in their veins. It’s no big deal.
And when senior RB Mark Passero scooted around left end from 5 yards out with 25 seconds left it, capped a 56-yard drive that gave the Knights a 38-34 win.
“Our guys were very calm and steady and the drive didn’t seem to phase them,” Bates said. “There were 2 minutes left and we had to put the ball in the end zone and they played it like it was a normal drive in the middle of the second quarter.”
Senior QB Hunter Walsh dissected the Wildcat defense going 4-for-5 on the drive for 58 yards, hitting senior WRs Ben Beauchamp and Connor Zamiara two times each. Walsh, who finished the night completing 17-of-28 passes for 229 yards and 3 TDs, took more and more command of his offense as the game wore on.
“Last year we were in the same situation in the (Sectional) semifinals against Pittsford where we had to put together a last drive to win and we folded and weren’t successful,” Bates said of his 13th-ranked Class AA team. “They’re a year older now and they know how to bring their best. They were so calm, there was no rush. There was no urgency or timidness on that drive.”
Forget about the fact the league title was on the line. Forget that not scoring meant their perfect season would be over.
It didn’t matter. There was no way the Knights were going to fail.
“We worked the whole game and never quit. We knew we would get that score at the end. Our line was playing great opening holes and protecting Hunter,” said Passero, who finished with 160 yards on 22 carries and 2 TDs. “That last drive we knew we were going to score.”
The loss overshadowed an incredible performance by Wilson’s Desi Floyd Jr. The senior RB terrorized the Knights from both sides of the ball, logging a whopping 350 yards on just 31 carries (11.32 yards per carry) and scoring 2 touchdowns, one of which went to the house for 63 yards. On defense, he had more than a dozen tackles and seemed to be in on every play.
“We knew this was going to be a tough game and in the first half we didn’t play very well,” Floyd said. “We had to keep fighting to the end because they are a good team.”
Class A’s 16th-ranked Wildcats took their second lead of the game deep in the fourth quarter as QB Deon Edwards made a superb read on the defense on first down from the McQuaid 16 yard line. The Wildcats — who had chewed up almost 6 minutes of the fourth quarter traveling 66 yards in 13 plays with healthy doses of Floyd carrying the ball — had the Knights on the rope when the ball was snapped. Edwards stuffed the ball in Floyd’s stomach and when the entire defensive line collapsed on Floyd, Edwards pulled the ball out, tucked it, and scampered 16 yards untouched around the left side.
“That’s a read Deon is allowed to make,” Mortier said. “Desi is going to draw so much attention over time, we just have to pick the right times for Deon to make that decision. And it was a great call on his part to keep the ball.”
The loss ended Wilson’s chances of unseating the Knights as the reigning RCAC champions. While McQuaid (5-0) has one game left against an RCAC foe – Week 7 against East – the best Wilson (3-1) can do is finish tied for the league championship, but the tie-breaker in head-to-head competition is now owned by McQuaid.
“We really don’t have time to let this loss bother us,” he said. “I told them to take pride in the fact that that was one of the better AA teams out there and we went toe-to-toe with them. We have to build on the competitive feeling of this game and realize when we play as strong as we did tonight we are going to beat a lot of football teams.”
In addition to this loss, Wilson must now play two games in the next 7 days – completing their suspended game against East on Tuesday night, then playing upstart UPrep next Friday night. It’s a killer stretch that Mortier hopes his team will respond to.
Of course, it helps to have Floyd in your backfield, who has now rushed for more than 1,000 yards on the season.
“We will put this behind us,” Floyd said. “We are sad now of course, but we will put it out of our heads and get ready for East on Tuesday.”
After both teams slugged it out for most of the first quarter without scoring, McQuaid got on the board first as seldom used RB Mike Vongphachanh dove in from 2 yards out with 2:29 left in the opening stanza. Moments later, Walsh found Zamiara from 13 yards out to push the lead to 13-0. The quick succession of scores was set up when Mike Maloney picked off Edwards and returned it 37 yards to the Wilson 26. Four plays later Walsh hit Zamiara.
But Wilson responded by showing its championship mettle. The defending Class A Sectional champs responded with a 9-play drive, mostly on the ground and mostly with Floyd carrying the ball, the final 2 yards after his massive offensive line opened up a gaping hole. The point after by Ahmed Ahmed was good and it was 13-7.
Wilson took its first lead just before halftime after Rickey Gamble Jr. picked off Walsh’s errant pass at the Wildcat 47. Another 9-play drive ended when Edwards connected with Gamble from 13 yards out with 1:27 left. The PAT was good and Wilson took a 14-13 lead into halftime.
After holding Wilson deep in its own end to open the second half, a poor punt gave the Knights the ball on the Wildcat 14 yard line. Passero scored his first TD of the game 2 plays later from 14 yards out and McQuaid regained the lead 19-13.
McQuaid increased its lead to 25-13 on its next series on another short drive, consisting of 3 plays aided by a 44-yard run by Passero. Walsh connected with Beauchamp from 11 yards and it looked as if the momentum had shifted.
But of course, the Wildcats have Floyd, so any perceived momentum is, at best, fleeting.
Floyd answered 2 plays later, skirting around the left side of his line and simply out running the Knight backfield down the sideline for 63 yards. Edwards connected with Nasir King Jr., and just like that it was 25-22 with 4:39 left in the third.
Not to be outdone, Walsh tossed his third touchdown of the game this time to Casey Howlett from 26 yards out and the lead back up to two scores at 32-22 with 2:43 left in the quarter.
Yet another 9-play drive by the Wildcats ended when Edwards once again found Gamble, who snared the ball between defenders for a 16-yard TD reception. The missed extra point pulled the Wildcats to within 4 at 32-28 just one minute into the fourth quarter.
“You knew this was going to be a battle from the moment we walked out on the field,” Bates said. Wilson has some real playmakers and they are a very well-coached team. Desi is a LEGIT running back, Gamble and King are playmakers, and their line was moving piles all night. All the credit goes to Wilson. It was a great game.”
McQuaid travels to arch-rival Aquinas next Saturday afternoon. It finishes up the season home against East, which could be for the RCAC outright title.
| WM | 0 | 14 | 8 | 12 | 34 |
| McQ | 7 | 6 | 19 | 6 | 38 |
| Scoring | |
| McQuaid | Mike Vongphachanh 3 run (Eric Schertler kick) |
| McQuaid | Connor Zamaria 13 pass from Hunter Walsh (kick failed) |
| WWilson | Desi Floyd Jr 2 run (Ahmed Ahmed Kick) |
| Wilson | Ricky Gamble Jr 13 pass from Deon Edwards (Ahmed Ahmed kick) |
| McQuaid | Mark Passero 14 yard run (pass failed) |
| McQuaid | Ben Beauchamp 11 pass from Hunter Walsh (kick failed) |
| Wilson | Desi Floyd Jr 63 run (Nasir King pass from Deon Edwards) |
| McQuaid | Casey Howlett 23 pass from Hunter Walsh (Eric Schertler kick) |
| Wilson | Ricky Gamble Jr 16 pass from Deon Edwards (kick failed) |
| Wilson | Deon Edwards 16 run (pass failed) |
| McQuaid | Mark Passero 5 yard run (pass failed) |
| Rushing | |
| Wilson | Desi Floyd Jr 31-350, Deon Edwards 8-34, Jah’kier Moore 2-11, Dante Mcgowan 1-8 |
| McQuaid | Mark Passero 22-160, Andrew Passero 5-27, Mike Vongphachanh 1-3, Hunter Walsh 3-(-8) |
| Passing | |
| Wilson | Deon Edwards 12-27-154-2-2, Desi Floyd Jr 0-1-0-0-0, Rickey Gamble Jr. 0-2-0-0-1 |
| McQuaid | Hunter Walsh 17-28-229-3-1 |
| Receiving | |
| Wilson | Rickey Gamble Jr. 10-129, Marquis Crawford 1-14, Jah’kier Moore 1-11 |
| McQuaid | Connor Zamiara 6-95, Ben Beauchamp 7-68, Mark Passero 2-38, Casey Howlett 2-28 |
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