Irondequoit exorcises its demons, casts out Wilson 35-27

BY PAUL LIOTTI

The wait was long and excruciating.

It was 351 days to be exact. But who’s counting.

Irondequoit was.

And when Eagle captain Liam Jones broke through and sacked Wilson’s Samuel Jackson on the game’s last play with the Wildcats inside the five yard line, Irondequoit exorcised a few demons with a 35-27 victory over the defending Class A champ.

“As soon as we got that sack everything unloaded,” Irondequoit coach Dan Ficher said. “It was a long time since losing a sectional title like that and we’re happy.”

“This game was exactly the way we thought it was going to go; this is a good football team we played,” Ficher said. “But our big players came to play – and Jaden Turner was outstanding tonight – and this is a big win for our football program.”

But the win was not in the books until Wilson’s desperation drive at the end of the game fell just feet short of potentially sending the game into overtime.

Trailing 35-27, Jackson, a reserve quarterback who was inserted into the Wildcat game plan because of his ability to throw the deep ball, engineered a drive that belies his experience under center. The junior signal caller was handed the keys at his own 28 yard line with 1:28 left and no timeouts.

After two completions and facing third and 10, Jackson completed an 18-yard pass to Khajana Smith and then after spiking the ball, found Rickey Gamble Jr. and Gamble made the grab 41 yards downfield that shows why he was offered a scholarship to by the University of Albany. Jackson deftly spiked the ball after Gamble’s catch at the three yard line and with 2.3 seconds left he rolled out looking for anything in the end zone.

But the Eagle defense rose up, and with defensive linemen Cameron Martin, Dylan Dambaugh and Jones crashing in from all sides, Jackson had no chance and the game was over.

Wilson gets to the 3 but Jackson sacked pic.twitter.com/8du0DiDv27

— boomersoonerptl (@boomersoonerptl) October 20, 2018

“(Jackson) has a really strong arm and he throws the deep ball very well and we thought we could catch them a little,” Wilson coach Greg Mortier said. “I don’t know a lot of teams that are going to make that drive quite frankly. He managed it well and Rickey made a great catch and we’re down to one play but it didn’t quite happen.”

Irondequoit thought it had the game in hand just before Wilson’s last ditch drive. With 2:52 left in the game Freddy June Jr.

scored from four yards out – his fourth touchdown run of the game – then ran in the conversion to put the Eagles on top 35-27. On the ensuing kickoff Wilson failed to cover the live ball, and Irondequoit recovered at the Wilson 19. But big stops by the Wilson defense and perfectly called timeouts forced Irondequoit to turn the ball over on downs and give the Wildcats life.

“When we made the mistake on that kickoff, we still believed in ourselves and our defense made a stop and we got the ball,” Mortier said. “That shows us what kind of team we are.”

Sitting at the No. 7 seed, the Wildcats (4-4) lined up as by far the toughest seventh-seed in the five classes. They have big playmakers on both sides of the ball and a defense that prides itself in shutting down its opponents.

But the Eagles have weapons of their own and put them on full display in front of a standing room only partisan crowd. Irondequoit ran 77 plays on offense (to just 43 for Wilson) and ground out 277 yards on 55 carries. Turner’s speed and cutback ability chewed up chunks of yards and led him to a game-high 142 yards on 19 carries. His 14-yard highlight-reel scoring run just before halftime allowed the Eagles to gain momentum as they tied the game at 13-all.

June didn’t have his usual night throwing the ball (11-22-72 yards) but he carried the ball 29 times for 110 yards and the four scores.

However, it was Irondequoit’s defense that – aside from that last drive and a couple of long plays during the game – bottled up the explosive Wildcats all night long. Standout running back Desi Floyd Jr., who has had multiple games this season of 200+ and 300+ games, never got on track and finished the game 43 yards on 11 carries. He did score three times – two on offense and one on defense – but Mortier knew Irondequoit would be gearing up to stop him, especially since he gashed the Wildcats last year for 239 yards on just 18 carries.

“One of the reasons we started (Jackson) is because we knew they would be geared up to stop Desi and not let him have a game like last year,’ Mortier said.

The Wildcats gained 338 yards in the game, but 229 came on the last drive and two other long offensive plays during the game. Other than those plays, Irondequoit held Wilson to 109 yards on 32 offensive plays.

Floyd did find running room on one play, as his 27-yard run midway through the fourth quarter was followed by Jackson’s conversion pass to Jervon Johnson tied the game at 27-all with 6:41. Other than  that, though, the Eagles defense limited him to 16 yards on 10 carries. Back-to-back touchdowns in the first half by Floyd – on a one yard run after a blocked punt put the ball on the Eagle one yard line and 30-yard pick-six interception return – staked the Wildcats to a 13-7 lead midway through the second quarter.

The turning point in the game came late in the third quarter. With the score tied at 13, June took it in from 2 yards out and a missed PAT gave the Eagles a 19-13 lead. Then on the ensuing kickoff, Ficher reached into his bag of tricks and dialed up an onsides kick which James Clements recovered. Nine plays later June scored and ran in the conversion for a 27-14 lead.

“We saw some holes in how they lined up for the kickoff returns where we thought we could put the ball on the ground,” Ficher said. “Our special teams coach (Phil Prinzi) made an outstanding call right at that very moment. It was a big play for us.”

Two plays later, though, Deon Edwards hit Gamble on a fly pattern and Gamble’s speed outran the Eagle defense for a 94-yard scoring play to breathe life back into the Wildcats with 1:05 left in the third.

“It hasn’t hit me yet that our season and my high school career is over,” Gamble said after the game. “I’m sure it will tonight.”

While one career is over, others are still alive. Irondequoit will play East in the Class A semifinals next Friday at 8 pm at SUNY Brockport. Third-seed East (7-1) came from behind to knock off sixth-seed Greece Arcadia (5-3) 14-7 on Friday.