By Johnny Sanders, Sports Editor
MOODY – Friday night was a historic one at The Bill, which is becoming the norm for the Blue Devils. On Friday, the Moody Blue Devils hosted the Bishop McNamara Mustangs from Forestville, Maryland in the first-ever out of state game played or hosted by the Blue Devils.
The Mustangs brought about 100 fans to Moody and walked out of Bill Morris Stadium Friday night with a hard-fought 14-10 win over the home standing Blue Devils. While moral victories are not acceptable for Moody, they had to feel good about the way they played against a team that was bigger at almost every position than they were.
Bishop McNamara looked to dominate early on. Moody started with the ball and Blaine Burke found no running room on that first drive and Charlie Johnston missed on a third down pass causing the Blue Devils to punt. The Mustangs ran the ball seven out of their nine plays on the drive. One of the two passes was a four-yard strike on third and goal at the four-yard line from quarterback Ninoah Miguel to tight end Isaiah Inman. The two-point play made it 8-0 with 5:17 to play in the first quarter and the visiting team from up north looked to have the game well in hand.
On the next drive, the Blue Devils found some traction, mixing more passes into the offensive game play and putting Burke in the wildcat for some positive running plays. Moody would wind up punting it back to Bishop McNamara but Kaleb Goff would be able to flip the field and pin them back at their own 15-yard line to end the quarter.
The Moody defense would make adjustments and shut down the Mustang offense on the next drive and get the ball back. Once again, the Blue Devils would find some space and march the ball down the field. This time, they would get it into the red zone at the 18-yard line where Jake Ganus and company would show a new wrinkle in the form of a double pass from Charlie Johnston to Blaine Burke who found KD Barnes wide open in the end zone for the score. Junior Moreno would continue to be effective on PATs and knock one through to cut the lead to 8-7.
The Blue Devil defense held again and got the ball back, but had to punt it back. On the next drive, Miguel would drop back on a second and 11 from their own 20, but Moody’s Marshall Teofilo would pick it off to give Moody life just before halftime. Despite getting the ball down to the eight, Moody would settle for a Moreno field goal, sending the Blue Devils into the locker room with a 10-8 lead over the Mustangs.
Bishop McNamara would start the third quarter with the ball and they would start driving it down the field. On a first and 10 from the 49, Gavyn Baker would take the ball away from the Mustangs’ Charles Fortin and give Moody possession at midfield. But the Blue Devils offense would stall and give it back to the Mustangs, who would drive into Blue Devil territory and threaten to score. Ba’roc Willis, the freshman sensation, would sack Miguel for a seven-yard loss on a big third down and 15 to cause them to punt. The third quarter would end with no scoring from either team.
The fourth quarter would go back and forth between the defenses again. Moody still could not find any success running the ball and that is all the Mustangs could manage to do with Sidney Walton and the defensive backfield for Moody not allowing a single completed pass in the second half. On a fourth and seven from the Mustang 38, Kaleb Goff attempted to gather a low snap and threw it to Jacob Hadaway, but Goff’s knee would hit the ground, causing the play to end and give the Mustangs the ball back. Bishop McNamara would drive the ball down and milk the clock and at the 56-second mark, Miguel would find the end zone from five yards away for what would be the winning score to make it 14-10 Mustangs.
The Blue Devil defense played lights out in this one, allowing just 193 total yards and only 25 of those were passing yards despite tasking Sidney Walton with covering three-star wide receiver Lugard Edokpayi who has multiple division one scholarship offers from teams like Virginia Tech, Vanderbilt, Wisconsin and Cal. Edokpayi had zero catches on the night.
“We played really hard,” said Moody coach Jake Ganus. “That’s a really good team. If you weren’t here in person, you probably wouldn’t understand how good they were. They are long and athletic and strong at every position. Our kids never quit. I don’t believe in moral victories but Coach Saban says never to waste a failure. So we’re going to go back and figure out what went wrong in certain areas and get better. They were really aggressive and my team last year probably has eight personal fouls in this game. So we have grown in that area. It’s in ways that the casual fan wouldn’t maybe notice.”
This defensive performance was done without two of the best defensive backs on the team, A’mon Lane and Chase Jackson. Moody has adopted the “next man up” attitude. “Did you see that receiver? He measured 6’8” and ¼ yesterday at UAB. He had zero catches. Sidney Walton grew up. Jalijah Rutledge is a freshman and played every snap at safety and did a heck of a job. Had two touchdown saving tackles.”
Marshall Teofilo talked about the defensive performance. “We didn’t play as good as we can. We can improve. We came up short and there are no moral victories. We have to continue to grow.”
Defensive back AJ Madison said the following about the game, “We played our butts off. I would never want to play with anyone else. We knew that they were going to be big and fast and athletic and that is what we are going to see going to state. We have guys filling in, freshman and sophomores and they keep doing their job and stepping up. We are going to be great. We just have to keep executing.”
Moody moves to 3-1 on the season (1-0 in region play) and will host Lincoln next week at The Bill in their second region game of the year.