Ironwood Ridge held on to beat Seton Catholic 28-20 at home Thursday night in a game where both teams felt they deserved the victory and it really could have gone either way. The Nighthawks built a 28-7 lead with 8:15 left only to see the Sentinels take control of the game from there before coming up short.

A blocked punt put the Sentinels in excellent field position and Luc Aquilar ripped of a 34-yard run to cut the lead down to 28-14 with 7:32 left. The Nighthawks gave the ball back on downs after a few dropped passes and Chase Dickson responded by leading his team down the field, capped by a 16-yard pass to Aguilar to cut the lead down to 28-20 with 2:55 left. The Sentinels went for a two-point conversion after the score but Aguilar was stopped short.

“It was a lot closer than I was hoping for,” Ironwood Ridge head coach Dale Stott said. Yeah, “It was typical for a first game with mistakes, miscues, dropped balls. Our own errors, interceptions, turnovers, made it a lot like tighter.”

The Nighthawks were able to take some clock off but the Sentinels managed to get the ball back for one more drive with 32.2 seconds left but four straight incompletions ended the game.

“I'm really proud of them,” Sentinels head coach Pete Wahlheim said. “But we're a better football team, we just left a bunch of points out there. I knew it was probably going to come back to bite us. They battled. They came back. Got us in the game.”

The game started out sluggish but Seton Catholic stopped Ironwood Ridge on downs and a sack forced a punt before both teams traded interceptions. The Sentinels broke through in the second quarter on a 29-yard pass from Dickson to Joseph Ferrance to put the team up 7-0 but a 77-yard strike from Jaiden Martinez to Matthew Kroner tied the game up 7-7 with 10:14 left in the half. The momentum switch was magnified when the Sentinels fumbled a few minutes later and then Kroner returned a punt 67 yards with 4:47 left to put the Nighthawks up 13-7 on the missed extra point.

Luc Aguilar. (Andy Morales/AZPreps365)

 

The Sentinels drove down to the 36 put gave the ball back on downs with 1:37 left which gave Martinez too much time to work with. He hit Kroner for 13 yards before tucking the ball himself on a 44-yard gain to the six where he hit David Baba on a short TD pass to put the Nighthawks up 21-7 with 23.7 seconds left with a two-point play from Martinez to Grant Dooling added into the score. The last five minutes of the first half proved to be the difference.

“We gave up a touchdown,” Wahlheim added. “Those are the things that are frustrating but it was a good football game. I'm proud of my kids effort, but we need to clean the little things up.”

Martinez hit Kroner on an 8-yard score to put the Nighthawks up 28-7 with 8:10 left in the third quarter but the shift to the Sentinels began too late. Aguilar finished with 192 yards rushing on 19 carries and he added 71 yards receiving on six more touches. His performance cannot be overlooked based on the loss.

On the other side, Martinex threw for 181 yards with three TDs and Kroner had 149 yards receiving with two TDs.

“Hats off to them because they battled and didn't fold, that was a good Seton team,” Stott added. “They came ready to play.”

Both coaches want their squads to clean up a few things before the Nighthawks travel to Buena next week and the Sentinels host St. Mary’s. Buena and St. Mary’s open their seasons Friday night which gives Ironwood Ridge and Seton Catholic the rare opportunity to scout their opponents in person if they wish.