Manual’s football team defeated Ballard 13-7 in a defensive struggle on Friday night.

In a game in which both offenses could not move the ball downfield, Manual’s defense was critical.

“Our defense was just stellar,” head coach Oliver Lucas (Science) said. “We had some people that were stepping up for us while playing the game. Its just one of those things where the whole defense just stood up and played like they were supposed to play, so you can’t complain about that.”

With 2:39 left in the first quarter, Christopher Dyer (12,#33), stripped the ball from the Ballard quarterback. Derek Dorsey (11, #92) recovered the fumble and ran 19 yards for a touchdown to give Manual an early 7-0 lead.

“If it weren’t for my teammates to help make the play, [the touchdown] would not have happened,” Dorsey said. “The linebackers were getting pressure on the quarterback, and Chris Dyer stripped the ball, so it was a collective effort for the touchdown. It wasn’t just me.”

After Tim Comstock (11, #3) found Jalien Carter (10, #11) for a ten yard touchdown pass to put Manual up 13-0 with 1:31 left in the first half, the Crimson offense sputtered for the rest of the game.

“The offense needs to execute better. We made too many mistakes,” Lucas said. “We didn’t take advantage of the things that they gave us, so we’re going to play a little bit harder.”

“The offense did not do too good today,” said Giraud Drake (11, #13). “The defense really had to carry the team today and it came down to us at the very end to make a play to get the win,”

The Manual defense forced an incomplete pass on a fourth and six from the Crimson 23 yard line with only 1:06 left in the ballgame. Just three plays prior, the Manual defense had given up a 51 yard pass on a fourth and ten play.

“The defense stopped the offense when we needed to stop the momentum. They made the plays that they needed to make,” Lucas said. “Great players make great plays and good players make good plays.”

The win improves Manual’s season record thus far to 4-0.