Reapers keep struggling Irish down

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Sometimes football can be so unpredictable a Hollywood script could not encompass the drama.

Unfortunately for Seneca, Saturday afternoon in Plano could not produce such a storyline, but instead saw the Irish and Reapers continuing trends.

The 21-14 victory for Plano (5-2 overall, 4-0 Interstate Eight) continues a losing streak for the Fighting Irish and adds another heartbreaking loss to their 0-7 season.

While this game's results may not have been so unpredictable, it did have its fair share of twists and turns, the last of which came while the Reaper defense on was the field.

The roller coaster started for Plano's sophomore defensive lineman, Geraldo Garcia, on a 2nd-and-four in it's territory. Garcia had Seneca's quarterback, Joe Wichert, in his grasp for a huge loss when Wichert released the ball for a completion before going down and instead of a 3rd-and-long, it was 1st-and-10 and Seneca getting closer to the game tying score.

"If I would have tugged a little bit more he would have come down," said Garcia, "but I didn't let go."

With a seven-point lead and on the very next play, Plano forced a fumble and who was there to cover it up?

"I just automatically dove. I did not care if it was not a fumble, just in case it was, I dove at it," said Garcia. That was how Plano was able to gain possession of the ball and run out the final 1:52 for the victory. As for who caused the fumble, Garcia gave credit to junior linebacker, Nick Blasing.

"I just shot in the gap and made a mess of everything," said Blasing. He didn't get to see who recovered the fumble but relied on the crowd noise to know something good just happened, "I just heard everyone cheering and got up and was excited we got the ball back."

Getting to that point was a battle of the running games, with production ending in a draw between the two teams. Plano ended with 10 more rushing yards gaining 198 yards on the ground.

So if you could point to one difference, it had to be the key mistakes that were made and who capitalized on them. Plano scored on a short field thanks to a J.J. Cannon's (5-10 175-pound junior) fumble recovery. Plano quarterback, Johnny Mendez, took advantage of the field position by finishing the four-play, 22 -yard drive with a 10-yard run.

The common trend for Plano is to run the ball well and play defense and they did both of those things well enough for a victory.

One of the key players for the Reapers was Justin O'Hara who was filling in for Kevin Day. O'Hara responded with 108 yards on the ground, including 31 on the game-winning drive.

Oh, and don't forget the 2-yard touchdown that put Plano up 21-14. Ryan Reade, Seneca's coach, has a lot of respect for Plano's program and talked about why he thinks O'Hara could have had so much success, "You don't even look at numbers or names, they all look alike and work hard and do a great job."

As for Seneca's offense, it was kick started by a 61-yard run when Jared Walsh took the handoff as the second back through and tied the game up at seven in the first half.

Other than that play, it was nickel-and-diming for yards and to score the Irish had to sustain long drives.

As for the long touchdown, the Reapers coach, Jim Green was befuddled, "We didn't tackle the second back through, it's our bread and butter play." Added Green, "It's a credit to their execution."

Football: Plano 21, Seneca 14