Bishop Guertin's defense bent, but didn't break, in opening-round football playoff win against Dover

After almost 15 minutes of last Saturday's Division I preliminary-round game, the Bishop Guertin High School football team was cruising.

The Cardinals were already up by three touchdowns on their way to a 42-14 win, and to that point, had kept Dover's offense pretty much in check.

Bishop Guertin had just gone up 21-0 when a personal foul against the Green Wave on the kickoff return seemed to push them deeper into the hole. And then, all of a sudden, they weren't.

Dover quarterback Ryder Aubin connected with Brett Davis and Tony D'Andrea on consecutive passes that got the ball down to the Cardinals' 4-yard line. The Green Wave now looked poised to get back into the game, but that's when disaster struck.

The first-down snap went over the head of Aubin, and while the quarterback recovered the fumble, Dover lost 19 yards on the play. After an incompletion, the Green Wave got 12 yards back on third down to set up fourth-and-goal from the 11, but Aubin's pass was incomplete and the Cardinals' defense held.

Ten plays later, Charlie Bellavance scored on a 3-yard run, the second of his two touchdowns, to make it 28-0 with 1:47 remaining in the first half.

Despite not having much time on the clock, Dover was able to get down the field again, this time aided by a personal foul on the Cardinals. On first down from the Bishop Guertin 20-yard line, Brady Mcinnes ran for a long gain, but a holding call brought the play back.

After a run for no gain by Davis, the Cardinals defense forced two incompletions before Aubin was picked off by Matt Santosuosso on fourth down with 11.3 seconds to go until halftime, keeping it a four-touchdown lead.

"It’s high school football, you’ve got to have enough pride, when teams are driving, to not give up at the end of a drive," Bishop Guertin coach John Trisciani said. "When you drive down the field, it’s hard. There’s not a lot of space inside the 10. You get a penalty, a negative play, a bad snap, so for the guys to buckle down . . . is it bend, but don’t break."

For Dover, it felt like a big opportunity missed, especially since the Green Wave were able to score twice in the third quarter.

"To go into halftime 28-0, if we score one of those, it flips the field a little bit," Dover coach Eric Cumba said. "It puts things in a different situation. It gives us the opportunity to dig our heels in. It changes everything. We’ll play the what ifs for the next six months. Credit to them, they’re pretty good."

The Dover coach also felt like his team missed out on an opportunity to start the game, when the Green Wave recovered an onside kick to open play. But on the second play on offense, another bad snap went past Aubin and Bishop Guertin's Jakob Baker got to the fumble first.

Five plays later, Santosuosso connected with Ethan Chmielecki for a 10-yard touchdown reception.

"It’s quite the emotional roller coaster," Cumba said. "If we’re able to capitalize on that, score early, things change a little bit in terms of momentum. For us to turn the ball over, it put us on our heels. When you give a good football team a second chance like that, especially that early … We executed the kick perfectly. Couldn’t have asked for a better start. They made the play they needed to to stay ahead."

The two bad snaps helped keep Dover under a hundred yards in the first half (98), as the Green Wave at times abandoned the running game and tried to attack through the air.

"All year, I feel like we’ve been pretty solid against the run," Trisciani said. "You see coach Cumba is pretty good. He was doing stuff formation-wise and motion-wise and I didn’t adjust to it very well."

Bishop Guertin's run defense will get put to the test in the quarterfinal, as it now faces a Pinkerton team that ran for over two hundred yards in its 35-20 win over Spaulding last week. Cole Yennaco had 112 yards and three touchdowns and Jake Albert ran for 98 and another score.

"Ultimately, we’ve got to be able to get lined up," Trisciani said. "We’ve got to be physical and we’ve got to rise to the challenge. Can we knock guys back and get off blocks? Albert is unbelievable and Yennaco is scoring multiple touchdowns every game. Going to Pinkerton, not a lot of teams go there and win. It's quite a challenge."