by Matt MacKenzie ’18
On a wet and rainy night at Byers Field, the Saint Ignatius Wildcats cruised to a 41-0 victory over Valley Forge. The ‘Cats ran early and often as Jimmy Andrews dominated on the ground. The defense also recorded their first shutout since 2012 en route to the victory.
The Wildcats forced the Patriots to go nowhere their first time with the ball, and they had to punt. Moments later, Jack Cook set up Dennis Grosel and the offense on their first possession with a punt return inside the ten yard line. A couple of plays later, Jimmy Andrews scored on a tough three yard touchdown run to make it 7-0. Just the next series, Andrews did it again for his second touchdown of the game to double the score.
Later in the quarter, the passing game started to take shape when Dennis Grosel connected with Tyler Musbach for a 15 yard touchdown with a little over 3:00 minutes left to play in the 1st quarter. A bad snap led to a fumble recovery for a touchdown by Nick LaVigna and the Wildcats cruised through the first quarter up 27-0.
In the second quarter with 7:51 remaining Dennis Grosel found Cal Grbac on a slant across the middle to extend the ‘Cats lead as that made it 34-0. Elijah Wahib also had a nice touchdown run bouncing off the edge to make it 41-0 before halftime. That score would hold until the halftime.
A stagnant Valley Forge offense tried an onside kick to begin the second half, but found no success. That seemed to be the common theme with both offenses in the third quarter, as the running clock affected the scoring of the game greatly. Valley Forge held the ball for majority of the quarter and the score from the first half held, as it was 41-0 ‘Cats.
The fourth quarter saw a fumble recovery by David Speelman that set up the Saint Ignatius offense inside the Valley Forge 30 yard line, but the Wildcats were not able to capitalize on the opportunity. That play was the big one that stood out in the fourth quarter, as the offensive production slowed greatly and the Wildcats get a nice bounce back victory over the Valley Forge Patriots 41-0.
The Wildcats will travel to Colonial Field at Plymouth-Whitemarsh High School next week as they face the Philadelphia (PA) St. Joseph’s Prep Hawks, in what will be a great game.
The final score from Byers Field: St. Ignatius – 41 Valley Forge – 0.
