The O’Dea Fighting Irish (4-0) took on the Eastside Catholic Crusaders (3-2) on Friday in a matchup that shifted the power in the Metro League this season.
Despite generally sluggish offensive showings, it was O’Dea’s 4-star running back Jason Brown Jr. who could not be stopped, as he galloped for 185 yards and 2 touchdowns on 24 attempts for an impressive 7.7 yards per carry. The Crusaders had no response to him, as they fell to the Irish 16-7.
With 3:03 left in the first quarter, Brown put the Irish on the scoreboard with a 5-yard run to make the game 7-0. After the defenses for both teams dominated the rest of the first half, Brown came out of the second half roaring with a 61-yard touchdown run on his first touch of the half to extend the Irish lead to 13-0.
The Crusaders offense started off very slow, but in the second half they heated up and were able to turn a short pass from Jake Tiryakioglu to Asa Thompson into a 44 yard touchdown with only a couple minutes left in the third quarter to bring EC within 1 score of the Irish. It appeared that the Crusaders may have had a chance to come back.
However, this was not the case. The O’Dea defense was able to shut down the Crusaders for the rest of the game with an interception of Tiryakioglu which led to a field goal for O’Dea with 5:27 left in the game. This was too much to overcome for the Crusaders, and the game ended with a 16-7 score in favor of O’Dea.
The Irish (5-0) will be staying at home and playing Lincoln (0-4), while the Crusaders (3-2) will play Garfield (4-1) in what will be their last home game of the year. This game also extends O’Dea’s all-time record in the series to 22-15.
Games between these two usually has major implications of who will play in the state championship, as one or both of the two teams have reached the state championship in 10 of the last 11 seasons. Eastside Catholic managed to beat O’Dea twice last year, once during the regular season, and once during the post-season in double overtime, 35-28.
Featured Image Credit: Hailey Palmer, HighSchool.SI.com
