Lake County Sentinel
Willoughby South's season ends with 41-26 loss to Ursuline
BY JOEY SCHNEIDER
STAFF
(WILLOUGHBY, OH) - The number one seeded Willoughby South Rebels (10-0) hosted the eighth seeded Youngstown Ursuline Fighting Irish (7-4) in Division III, Region 5 in week two of the OHSAA football playoffs on Friday night at Harry E. Winters stadium in Willoughby. The Rebels were coming off a first round bye, while the Irish defeated the Lake Catholic Cougars 34-20 last week in the first round.
The Rebels entered the game 10-0 for just the fifth time in school history, but according to most, were still the underdog to the Fighting Irish, who at 7-4 have played one of the tougher schedules in Ohio, with games against Columbus DeSales, Bishop Watterson, Louisville, Walsh Jesuit, and Cardinal Mooney, all are whom are powerhouses in their divisions.
The game was an absolute battle in some harsh weather conditions, where it went from rain to sleet to hail and no player wanted their season to end. However, when the final whistle blew the Ursuline Fighting Irish outlasted the Willoughby South Rebels 41-26.
South won the toss and elected to receive. After a few first downs, the Rebels were stopped on a fourth down attempt, and the Fighting Irish would capitalize as Ursuline's sophomore running back Zalin Strother scored on an 11-yard touchdown run for the first score of the game and put the Irish up 7-0. Strother would strike again on the first play of the second quarter with a two-yard touchdown run.
South would fight back and find the end zone themselves as sophomore running back Elijah Fitch rumbled in from two yards out. A bad snap on the extra point would leave the score at 13-6. South quarterback Luke Jensen would connect with junior Anthony Mock on a five-yard score with just over three minutes left in the half. After a missed extra point, the Rebels trailed 13-12.
Ursuline didn't seem comfortable with the score that close and just over a minute later sophomore quarterback Patrick Reardon found senior Ray Javey down the field for a 46-yard touchdown pass and catch that silenced stadium. The point after was good and the Fighting Irish would take a 20-12 lead into the locker room for halftime.
Ursuline came out of the break with what seemed to be a bit of a different approach and wanted to see if they could run some time off the clock. They drove to ball down the field and scored on an almost eight minute drive that was capped off by a Patrick Reardon 13-yard touchdown run.
The Rebels would never show any signs of quit, as Jensen connected on a two-yard touchdown pass to running back Moogy Fullerton, with 1:34 left in the third quarter, but the Irish answered right back as Zalin Strother would score his third touchdown of the night as he dashed up the middle for a 34-yard score. Fullerton put on a clinic as he broke tackles and barreled into the end zone on a 12-yard run with 8:19 left in the game and the Rebels down by one score, 34-26.
The Ursuline Fighting Irish would drain six minutes off the clock and put up one more touchdown as Reardon would again find Ray Javey for a 12-yard dagger with 2:45 left in the game. Javey would then put the game away with an interception with two minutes left and the Fighting Irish ran out the clock, picking up the victory and advancing to week three of the OHSAA football playoffs.
The Willoughby South Rebels played their hearts out all night. Some fumbles and interceptions turned the tide of the game and it felt as if they were always trying to play catch up, but the Rebels had an outstanding season going undefeated for just the fifth time in school history and won the Chagrin Valley Conference Lake Division Title in just their first year in the conference.
Youngstown Ursuline will take on the University School Preppers as they also won Friday night 14-10 over the fourth seeded Salem Quakers. Next week’s Division III, Region 5 semi-finals will be at a neutral site on Friday, November 13th, at 7 pm.
POSTED 11/07/2026 00:08
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. Photo by Joey Schneider
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