Staff photo / Neel Madhavan. Ursuline quarterback DC Ferrell (0) finds running room in the first half of a Division III regional semifinal against Aurora Friday at North Canton Hoover.

CANTON — Heading into the fourth quarter on Friday, Ursuline found itself in an unfamiliar position.

The Irish trailed Aurora by a single point through three quarters. But in the playoffs, great moments are born from great opportunities, and Ursuline rose to the occasion.

The Irish ended the game by scoring three straight unanswered touchdowns in the final quarter to fend off the Greenmen 29-10 and advance to the Division III regional final for the second straight season.

“We found a couple of things formationally that we thought would help us, and our kids executed it,” Ursuline head coach Dan Reardon said. “We had a couple turnovers, but you gotta overcome that stuff in the playoffs. To have a couple turnovers and still find a way to win when our backs are against the wall and all those things, it showed a lot of heart. So I’m proud of that.”

A 50-yard touchdown pass from DC Ferrell to Devonte Taylor early in the fourth quarter helped the Irish get the lead back.

But it was a pivotal game-changing 12-play, 91-yard drive on Ursuline’s next possession that proved the Irish’s championship mettle. That drive was capped by a 31-yard touchdown run by Joe Balog that gave Ursuline a two-possession lead with under six minutes to go that effectively helped put the game out of reach.

“That drive showed a ton of heart, a ton of grit — all the things that football coaches hope to see out of a football team,” Reardon said. “It was a championship-caliber drive. If you can put a drive together like that, when you know the season is on the line, all those things, seniors potentially turning in equipment on Monday, if we don’t get a score there. It was just huge. At the end of the day, we’re advancing, and that’s the goal in the playoffs.”

The first half between the two teams was an ugly, mistake-filled affair.

Ursuline blocked an Aurora punt and Ray Javey returned a (Greenmen quarterback) Ryan Dwyer interception 80 yards. Each time the Irish found themselves in the red zone, but each time they came up with zero points.

“Offensively, we’re inside the 10-yard line several times and don’t come away with points. That’s uncharacteristic,” Reardon said. “You have to give (Aurora) credit there.”

Those two turnovers-on-downs, plus a couple fourth-down conversions by Aurora’s offense put Ursuline’s defense on its heels in precarious positions. But they still found a way to keep the Greenmen out of the end zone in the first half. Aurora ran 37 plays in the first half, compared to just 22 for the Irish.

For the game, Ursuline may have given up 317 total yards, but the Irish defense held the Greenmen to 10 points and forced three turnovers.

“Outside of game No. 1, we’ve played really good defense this year,” Reardon said. “When we force someone to drive the field, I think our kids have big confidence that at some point, someone’s going to make a play — we did more often than not. We always tell our kids, if they get a first down, it’s okay, get a three-and-out on that new set of downs. … At the end of the day, it’s complementary football. Our defense gave up 10 points and it wasn’t perfect, but we played good defense against a team that’s won an awful lot of football games this year. We just showed some grit in the fourth quarter in sealing and putting the game away.”

Ursuline led 6-0 at halftime thanks to Javey’s 21-yard touchdown reception from Ferrell and got the ball to start the second half. The Irish drove down the field into the red zone again, but Ferrell was picked off at the goal line.

Aurora then used that momentum to drive down and score on a 5-yard touchdown pass from Dwyer to Ben Lukasik.

A long kickoff return from Jy’Quise Liason helped set up Anthony Tabak’s 20-yard field goal. But Aurora drove down and answered with a field goal of its own to retake the lead.

That set the stage for Ursuline’s fourth quarter explosion.

Ferrell finished 12-for-21 for 147 yards with two touchdowns and an interception. On the ground, he added 125 rushing yards on 14 carries. He capped off the game with a 55-yard punt return for a touchdown in the final minutes to put the exclamation point on Ursuline’s victory.

The Irish now move on to face No. 2 seed Gates Mills Gilmour Academy in the regional final next week. The Lancers beat No. 3 seed Cuyahoga Valley Christian Academy 35-28 on Friday night to advance.

“I don’t know who won the other game, but whoever it is, it’s going to be a good football team,” Reardon said. “It’s going to be a team that expects to win and knows how to win. And so do we, but we gotta execute.”