ACE quarterbacks struggle on the road in 48-3 loss to Dublin Fighting Irish

FOR THE DUBLIN COURIER HERALD

DUBLIN — The game’s first play was, in large part, a preview of the night ahead for ACE on Friday’s visit to the Shamrock Bowl.

Intent on establishing a passing threat early, the Gryphons took a shot right out of the gate, and Dublin came down with it for an interception.

A theme of passes falling into Irish hands would become a broken record by the end of the game, if not the end of the first quarter, by which point the home team had picked off passes to end each of ACE’s first three drives.

Dublin wound up picking off the same number — five — as the Gryphons’ pair of quarterbacks had completions, in a dominant two-way performance to win 48-3, and run the Fighting Irish’s record to 6-0.

“Our secondary stepped up huge tonight, and we felt like we’d have to,” Irish head coach Roger Holmes said. “I really felt like if they ran 60 plays, if this game was close, they were going to throw it 40 of them, because they like to throw the football. That was a big question mark a lot of people, I think, had about our football team. And they continue to get better as the year’s gone on.”

A question mark no more.

The shutdown performance by Dublin defensive backs turned all but the highest percentage of throws into a project for starting quarterback Ace Hatcher, who was 4 of 13 on the night, and backup Brady Balkcom, who was 1 for 2 after entering the game late in the second half. The pair were held to only 36 combined passing yards.

Hatcher was extended an unpleasant greeting by the Irish, who picked off three of his first four attempts for the game.

Holmes, a soothsayer, had his defense prepared for exactly what he figured he’d see from the Gryphons to start out, after their choice to receive the opening kick.

“I told ’em in the locker room before we came out, you’d better stay deep on the first one, because I’ve got this gut feeling they’re gonna try to jump on us early,” he said.

ACE, sure enough, went deep on its first play, but with the deception of a reverse flea-flicker to conceal its true intent of a shot over the middle for Jaylon Davis.

Dublin’s D.J. Woodard was not fooled, and made the leaping play to steal it.

Sirius Tobridge, who’d lead the Irish secondary with two interceptions, confirmed his head coach’s pregame instructions while reflecting on the start that proceeded just as expected.

“He told us they were gonna throw the ball on us like 40 times, so stay on a hat, do our job, and go get the ball,” Tobridge said. “Every ball that’s in the air’s ours.”

He was right.

Hatcher didn’t put much air under his first completion of the night on a short screen that went for a first down on ACE’s next chance. But after a couple more plays, he lifted another ball high above a doubled-up Bryce Whitley near the right sideline. Tobridge was waiting on it, and reeled it in.

A next time around, the Gryphons stuck with a few short runs. And similar to the previous possession, made some progress and picked up a couple of first downs.

But following a short pause for an ACE injury it was back to the air, this time on a different kind of 50-50 ball which split the difference between two potential receivers, Whitley on a deep in and Jake McLendon running a short hitch on the left side.

Hatcher’s quick shooter flew past both, and found a third man in green, the safety Micah O’Neal, who ran it back 70 yards for an apparent touchdown. A block in the back penalty nullified the return, but a third consecutive takeaway had the momentum going entirely the way of the Irish.

Tobridge would catch a fourth one off a deflection late in the third quarter to set up Dublin’s final touchdown of the night. Sophomore Kye Young came down with Hatcher’s last throw to snag a fifth, before ACE’s Balkcom came on to handle the final two drives, a few moments later.

“It was a different kind of quarterback tonight,” Holmes said of Hatcher’s contrast to the mostly on-the-go passers the Irish have seen through six games. “Some of these quarterbacks are running all over the place and scrambling, and they’ve done a good job of finding people. He was a little bit different in that scheme, so I was very pleased with (our secondary)… We did a great job of defending the deep ball.”

The Irish keep rolling

Dublin’s varsity offense converted takeaways to touchdowns at a 1-to-1 rate in the first half, going to the end zone shortly after all three changes of possession, and on two more of its three opportunities in the second quarter to solidify an already commanding lead.

The Irish ran it for 269 of their 351 total yards, with Willie Batts carrying for a touchdowns on his 10 carries for a team-leading 107. Trav Bostic scored twice, and finished with 74. The quarterback O’Neal had short keepers for three of the remaining four.

It was Bostic shedding tackles on a 27-yard run to draw first blood on a roughly five-play, 60-yard drive off of Woodard’s early interception. O’Neal plunged four yards for the second to conclude a three-play scoring series after the pick of Tobridge, and return inside the ACE 20. Azontae Walker covered the four remaining yards of about 38 that were left after O’Neal’s penalized runback for a third.

ACE’s Gavin Beamon blocked the Urick Andrews PAT following the second touchdown, forcing the Irish to go for two, and an O’Neal pass fell incomplete. That left their lead at 19-0 as the first quarter wrapped up shortly after the Gryphons ended a possession on their own terms for the first time, with a punt to follow the third-down sack of Jalen Dardy.

Batts carried four yards around the left side to punch in a fourth Dublin score moments into the second, and O’Neal walked over the middle for two to stretch the lead to 27-0.

ACE would respond with a 65-yard hike to put up its only points of the night. The Gryphons reached the red zone as Hatcher found McLendon on a 17-yard completion to get goal to go.

But they couldn’t find six. Dublin stuffed a first-down run, Hatcher’s second-down throw sailed out the back of the end zone and his pass on third was batted away by a pack of three Irish DBs.

Henry Carter came on to split the uprights from 25 yards, trimming the deficit to 27-3.

Running the ball wasn’t too much more successful a proposition than throwing it for ACE, which was limited to 88 rushing yards on 26 carries, and a mere 10 first downs. Hatcher finished with the team high of 27 yards on seven attempts.

O’Neal ducked in for a second time from a few yards (and Xavier Bostic plowed in for two points) to round out the first-half scoring at 35 just above the three-minute mark.

The Irish weren’t content, calling two timeouts to force a punt despite an ACE first down on the ensuing possession. But Waylon Allen sacked O’Neal as Dublin attempted a throw off play action after taking over with half a minute left, and that all but ruled out an extension of the lead.

ACE elected a running clock in both quarters of the second half.

A third O’Neal touchdown carry, and Bostic’s second, bookended interception No. 2 of the game for Tobridge late in the third.

The Gryphons (3-3, 2-3 region) return home to face East Laurens in their next game Friday, Oct. 11. Dublin welcomes to the Bowl fellow region front-runner Northeast.

In contrast to Friday’s test of his secondary, Holmes expects the marquee matchup to gauge his team’s tenacity in the trenches against a ground attack that’s among the the best in the class.

“It’s going to be a tremendously physical football game,” he said. “They’re one of the better teams in the whole state, so it’s a measuring stick to find out where we are. We’ll find out next week.”