Red Bank limited Notre Dame to four plays in the first quarter of Friday night’s high school football game at Notre Dame, and one of those was an interception by the Lions’ Mike Clark. Yet the Fighting Irish led by a touchdown at quarter’s end.
That was the first bad sign for Red Bank, which watched a running clock most of the second half as Notre Dame rolled to a 43-7 victory and the No. 2 state playoff seeding from Region 3-3A.
Actually, the first bad sign for the Lions may have been when Mike Porter caught the opening kickoff and slipped and fell at the 1. Red Bank controlled the ball for 15 plays but ended up having to punt.
“I had confidence that our defensive staff was going to figure out what was going on,” Notre Dame coach Charles Fant said. “The greatest thing was that they had to start on their own 1-yard line.”
On the third play afterward, Akil Sledge took an inside handoff and danced his way 41 yards for a touchdown.
On the first play of the second quarter, which turned out to be a 29-point period for the Irish, tackle Tommy Kulik tipped a screen pass that linebacker Tyler Enos intercepted and returned 15 yards for a touchdown.
Enos contributed an 18-yard scoring run in the second quarter on a quick opener from fullback, and another TD in that span was Patrick Johnson’s 33-yard interception return.
Fant said it’s tempting to pass often with a quarterback like Alex Darras (5-of-8 for 59 yards) but added that “pounding the rock” is something his team is going to have to do to be successful in the state playoffs. Ricky Ballard led the rushing attack for Notre Dame (7-3, 4-1) with 89 yards and two touchdowns on seven carries.
East Ridge (10-0, 5-0) won the region title. The Irish’s only region loss was 14-9 to the Pioneers on Oct. 2.
“We really had some chemistry issues in the East Ridge game,” Fant said. “We were trying to find the best positions with a lot of new players. That loss really taught us something and got us on the right track.”
The Irish will be home when the playoffs begin next week.
“I’m excited,” Enos said. “Earlier in the year we were doing all right, but we just weren’t connecting. The past two weeks we’ve put it all together. And it’s a good time to be putting it all together.”
The touchdown for Red Bank (3-7, 2-3) came on an 82-yard bomb from quarterback Caleb Tate to Clark.
“We started out doing some great things, but then we started shooting ourselves in the foot both on offense and defense,” said Red Bank coach Chad Grabowski, who started eight underclassmen on both sides of the ball, including three freshmen on each side. “It’s kind of been that way all year.”
Contact Kelley Smiddie at sports@timesfreepress.com. Follow him at twitter.com/KelleySmiddie.