DePaul football moves on to Non-Public B final after hard-fought win over Holy Spirit
WAYNE — Marshawn Ferguson has been patiently waiting for his moment.
The senior wide receiver has been steady all season, but when his football team needed it the most, he put together a memorable breakout performance.
Ferguson scored twice in the fourth quarter as DePaul overcame a one-point halftime deficit to pull away to a 28-14 victory over Holy Spirit. DePaul will play Red Bank Catholic in the Non-Public B championship game next weekend.
Ferguson turned a third-and-20 catch on a slant into a 64-yard touchdown, then added the two-point conversion just inside the right pylon to give DePaul a 21-14 lead with 10:10 left in the game. He later iced the win with a 43-yard touchdown on a third-and-8 bench route, dodging a pair of tackles in front of the DePaul bench and outracing the defense with 2:15 remaining.
Holy Spirit gave DePaul all it could handle in the battle of the Spartans, opening the game with a 16-play, 75-yard drive that ate up more than 10 minutes of clock. With Trevor Cohen and Gavin Roman doing the running chores, Holy Spirit converted three fourth downs in the march.
The last of those conversions was a 23-yard touchdown pass from Cohen to Elijah Steward, who went up between two defenders and made the end zone grab. It foreshadowed things to come, but first DePaul put a pair of scores on the board.
De’zie Jones evened the score at 7 with an 18-yard scoring catch from A.J. Rodriguez, who scrambled left to buy him time to cross over the middle and into space. Rodriguez them found Ferguson on the slant on the next series and he turned on the jets for a 51-yard touchdown and a 13-7 lead.
On the final play of the first half, Holy Spirit went for the Hail Mary and Steward again went up over a defender and made the catch at the 15. He turned and beat another defender to the goal line, and the extra point sent them off with a 14-13 lead.
What it means
DePaul will head to MetLife Stadium next weekend to face Red Bank Catholic, a 21-10 winner over St. Joseph Academy, for the Non-Public B title. The Caseys are 9-2 on the season.
Holy Spirit dropped to 4-6, though the record is not indicative of the play this season. The schedule was a gauntlet and the team more than showed it deserved to be in the semis with the effort against DePaul.
Inside the game
Not only did Holy Spirit steal the momentum on the Hail Mary, it also pulled off an onside kick to open the second half.
It was a perfectly placed kick, so good that DePaul could not recover. But DePaul forced Holy Spirit to turn the ball over on downs and not seize any further momentum.
The DePaul defense found its groove in the second half, stopping three fourth downs, recovering a fumble and making an interception in the final minute to seal the win.
Holy Spirit switched up its offense a bit in the second half, moving Cohen to running back, putting Sean Burns at quarterback.
DePaul did a much better job in the secondary after the intermission, as Steward did not have a catch over the final 18 minutes after catching four passes for 99 yards in the first two-plus quarters.
Stats
DePaul finished with a 281-227 edge in total yards, with Ferguson the main contributor with 5 catches for 184 yards. Rodriguez was 9-of-14 passing for 223 yards and Jones had the other four catches for 39 yards.
They struggled with the run, with 25 team carries for 76 yards. Jadin Johnson had 10 carries for 55 yards and Tyler Brown ran 10 times for 14 yards. Qyaeir Price was the defensive leader, picking up the lone DePaul sack and forcing two fumbles while making seven tackles, two for losses.
Holy Spirit ran 60 plays to DePaul’s 40, but it could not break off the big run after the opening drive. The Spartans ran it 40 times for 132 yards, led by Cohen with 23 carries for 81 yards and Roman with 14 carries for 43 yards. Cohen was 6-of-18 passing for 108 yards. Michael Weaver and JaShon Teller each had a sack and a fumble recovery.
They said it
“We knew they had some man coverages, and we thought if we could get inside on them, we’d have some opportunities and we were able to capitalize on them.” – DePaul coach Nick Campanile
“We were looking to get some isolation on the linebackers and I knew if we could do that we could break some. Coach has been telling me all year, just be patient and your time will come and that’s what happened.” – Ferguson
“To go from leading to all of a sudden trailing at halftime, that’s a really big swing. I think it showed a lot of character on our part that wee were able to overcome that in the second half. That’s a testament to this team’s closeness. When you’re fighting for a common goal, you get close, and this is the closest team I’ve ever been around.” – Campanile
“We just had to play better. We made some adjustments at halftime and I made some myself, moving a gap. There were times where I was able to come straight in. We just had to be a better team in the second half. Now we’ve got one more.” – Price
This article originally appeared on NorthJersey.com: DePaul NJ football on to Non-Public B final after hard-fought win
