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Bishop McNamara football coach Bryce Bevill said his team would need to play a perfect game in order to defeat No. 1 seed Good Counsel Friday in the Washington Catholic Athletic Conference semifinals.

His fourth-seeded Mustangs fell short of that lofty goal. In a 45-6 Good Counsel win, they committed five turnovers, three resulting in defensive touchdowns. The Falcons will now face second-seeded DeMatha (9-2), which defeated St. John's in the other semifinal, Saturday at the United States Naval Academy in Annapolis for the WCAC championship.

"Against a very good team like that, you can't make turnovers," said Bevill. "Us turning the ball over, giving them scores, giving them a short field, you can't do that. You can't beat yourself, and we helped them out. We helped them beat us tonight."

Although it's hard to tell by looking at the score, Good Counsel didn't have its best game of the season, either. Numerous penalties and struggles on the offensive line plagued the Falcons throughout much of Friday's contest. But one big play after another helped them overcome that lack of quality execution.

"Give them a lot of credit," Good Counsel coach Bob Milloy said. "They played hard and made us look kind of bad. They did a lot of good things, and we've got a lot of work to do."

The first of those big plays came with 7 minutes, 18 seconds left in the first quarter. Good Counsel defensive back Mike Wallace grabbed a tipped pass out of the air and rambled 34 yards for a touchdown and a 7-0 lead. McNamara (5-6) wideout Jerome Couplin III successfully got under a low pass from quarterback Kevin Clark, but in doing so flipped the ball up in the air, and Wallace swooped in for the interception.

"I had a rocky start, but then I redeemed myself," said Wallace, who played most of the game with a dislocated thumb suffered early in the second quarter. "I've been waiting on that [an interception for a touchdown] all year long. He bounced it back and I got it in the air. Nothing was going to stop me at that point."

The Falcons, who have scored 40-plus points against every WCAC opponent this fall, pushed the lead to 14-0 five seconds into the second period. A 2-yard run by Jelani Jenkins capped Good Counsel's best drive of the game, spanning 10 plays and 95 yards.

Mark Hamilton added a 25-yard field goal 9:13 remaining in the first half on a drive fueled by two McNamara penalties.

The University of Maryland-bound halfback Caleb Porzel (9 carries, 133 yards) then made the score 24-0 on an electrifying 76-yard punt return with 5:30 to go in the half. He started down the visiting sideline and then cut back past McNamara defenders.

"It was a miserable day, but we can't let the weather affect us," said Porzel. "We just had to play our football. We did have trouble getting out but once we started getting used to the weather, we kind of settled down."

The Mustangs got on the board with 4:22 left on an 83-yard pass from James Joseph, who spelled Clark at quarterback, to Brandon Coleman (142 yards, touchdown), making the score 24-6 at halftime.

The Falcons had their first drive of the second half stall quickly, but on first down from the McNamara 26-yard line, Jenkins stepped in front of a James pass and returned it 32 yards for a 31-6 lead three minutes into the second half. Porzel struck again on his team's next possession, turning a draw into a 62-yard scoring jaunt.

"I couldn't ask for better blockers," Porzel said. "They were opening up holes left and right. I love them all."

Good Counsel linebacker Chris Pitsenberger finished the game's scoring on McNamara's next possession, recovering a fumble by James in the end zone after 6-foot-5 sophomore defensive tackle Vincent Croce recorded his third sack of the game.