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From the CHRONICLE TELEGRAM by Jerry Rombach, Staff Writer
EATON TWP. — Josiah Holt made up for one little slip on the turf with plenty of solid footing, especially on an 11-yard run in overtime that gave Grafton Midview an exciting 18-15 non-conference win over Buckeye on Friday at wet Adelsburg Stadium.
The turf was damp after an evening of light rain, so Holt had a good excuse when he slipped and fell for a 3-yard loss on his first carry of OT. But two plays later, he was in the end zone behind some great blocks from Andrew Myers and Garrett Kleister. “I’ve never played in an overtime game,” Holt said. “This is crazy. My line did a great job opening up a hole and I went through.” Holt, a 170-pound junior, was sensational all evening, as was Middies quarterback Brett Whitesel. Midview piled up 398 yards of total offense, with Holt rushing for 156 and Whitesel passing for 204 on a 10-of-15 effort.
Whitesel had two touchdown passes, including one sensational bomb to Mike Schmittle, who caught the pass at the 50 and rumbled to the end zone to complete an 89-yard play. Buckeye (0-3), which ran 22 plays in the fourth quarter to Midview’s four, had its chances. With 20 seconds left in regulation, the Bucks’ Ryan McCormick barely missed connecting on a 36yard field goal. The ball had the distance but was just to the right. He did better on his next chance, hitting a 27-yarder that gave Buckeye a temporary 15-12 lead in overtime.
The teams combined for nearly 700 yards, but the second half was scoreless until overtime. “I wasn’t pleased with our defense the first half,” Midview coach Bill Albright said. “But we made some adjustments at halftime and played a lot better in the second. I hope this is a sign our guys are growing up.
“Buckeye has a winning tradition and I knew this would be a tough game. They are well-coached and have some great athletes. “ It was Midview’s first OT game since Oct. 28, 2005, when it lost 21-20 at North Ridgeville. “Our penalties killed us,” said Buckeye coach Billy Burke, whose team had eight infractions for 80 yards. “It was a lot of little things that went wrong tonight, but our kids are never going to be accused of not playing hard.”
Midview scored on its first possession, driving 76 yards in 11 plays, with Whitesel hitting Mike Dodson for the touchdown on a 17-yard pass. Buckeye came right back with an 80-yard drive, capped by Cory Reisner’s 1yard plunge. Rombach may be reached at sports@ohio.net
From the GAZETTE by Albert Grindle, Staff Writer.
While Buckeye’s football team ran out of gas Friday in a 29-7 loss to Highland, the Bucks need to be commended for how well they played in the first half. From the opening kickoff until halftime, the underdog completely outhustled, outhit and flat-out outplayed the preseason Suburban League favorite Hornets en route to 7-6 lead at the break. The spread running game, a copycat of Brunswick’s, had no problem consistently picking up 5 yards a pop against a Highland defense that ate up Rocky River. Cory Reisner was tough softening up the middle and signal caller Mike Kelly was slipperier than a pig covered in bacon grease. The biggest showing, however, came out of Ryan McCormick’s dynamite running out of the slot back position. The junior exploded for a pair of scampers over 40 yards and finished with a game-high 119 yards on the ground. Even wideout Darren Boulton got in on the act by juking his way to decent gains. The end came quickly, though, as Highland woke up played much better in the second half and Buckeye ended up draining itself mentally and physically. Without sophomore quarterback Austin Friel lost to a shoulder injury, it appeared the Bucks had no vertical passing game, but otherwise they looked a billion times better offensively than Week 1 against Cloverleaf.
If somehow Buckeye can weather the storm of having close to no depth and play like it did last Friday, the “P” word might not be out of the question if the Bucks run the table in the Patriot Athletic Conference Stars Division. As one anonymous Highland player said after the game, “I don’t care what anyone says. They’re a good team.”
Move ’em back No one knows for sure, but there seems to be a new method football referees are implementing this fall. There’s no other way to explain why games are taking forever and a day the number of penalties called have skyrocketed. Out of nowhere, the zebras are finding their yellow beanbags more and more useful than a swiss army knife. As a result, penalties and accompanying yardage are up a whopping 47 percent in Medina County from last season.
Through the first two weeks last year (12 games), 113 penalties were assessed for 881 yards. That’s an average of 4.7 violations and 36.7 yards per team. This season the numbers are borderline staggering. Through 10 games, 129 penalites for 1,080 yards have been compiled. That’s a 6.3 and 54.0 ratio per team. It’s amazing how the flags are coming in bunches, too. Twenty-five penalties were called for a jaw-dropping 238 yards in a single game last Friday. If games keep on rolling along at such a sloth’s pace, many fans will certainly miss the beginning of Scrubs reruns on WGN SportsCenter. Now that would be a tragedy.
Gridiron tidbits Highland might have has some competition over its nickname. Thanks to the ultra-humid night last Friday and incoming storms, gnats reportedly invaded Highland Hornets Stadium’s field level.
Come to think of it, gnats burrowing in ears and eyes making a pitstop at Highland is not surprising. Just a few years ago, orange lady bugs decided the press box was a cozy place to attack Gazette reporters call home. Now you see why I refer to the Hornets as “The Bugs,” because you never know what’s going to show up in Granger Township.… Just like you never know what size deer will prance across Black River School Road on a dark night.…And just like you never know how many men wearing hunter’s orange are chasing that deer with four-wheelers.…(Anyone else thinking of SportsCenter anchor John Anderson’s, “I like big Bucks and I can not lie” one-liner when he does highlights from a Milwaukee Bucks game?)
Anyways.…Hate to say it, but if Medina can’t beat Barberton the season might turn into one to forget. The last time the Bees went winless was 1959 (0-9).…But hey, at least they get to play on FSN tonight.…
Speaking of the Magics, I don’t care if Barberton quarterback Kyle Snyder is 5-foot-9, 4-9 or 6-9. He can lead my team any time, any place against any opponent. The kid is legit.…If a football team is really, really bad, there should be a universal rule it shouldn’t be able to let fans waste their money completely embarrass itself by running the spread offense.…
Let’s say Brunswick running back Brit Musal played eight quarters this season instead of four. That puts him at 88 points, which is more than 35 of the 36 teams in The Gazette’s coverage area. Actually, it would be 36, but Garfield Heights, like Ohio State, hasn’t squared off against a varsity team yet.…Let’s hope Black River’s athletic trainer gets overtime for all the injuries he/she has to deal with. The Pirates’ football team is a walking (or not) injury report.…Grindle Casino and Resort has Cloverleaf -31 Friday against Lorain Southview. Any takers? …
Where’s 146-time award winner Rick Noland when you need him? Grindle may be reached at agrindle@ohio.net or 330.721.4043.
From the GAZETTE By Rick Noland, Assistant Sports Editor
GRANGER TWP. — Some members of Highland’s football team felt like all they had to do was show up Friday night. It can be argued that the Hornets didn’t for a half, but much better focus, intensity and execution over the final two periods still resulted in a 29-7 non-league victory over Buckeye. Highland (2-0), which trounced the Bucks (0-2) 31-0 a year ago and was coming off an impressive opening-week win over Rocky River, found itself down 7-6 at intermission, but put up 23 unanswered points in a dominating second- half performance.
“We didn’t come out ready,” senior quarterback Nick Knerem said. “We kind of took them for granted. I think some of us felt like we were going to be able to steamroll them.” The Hornets were the ones getting steamrolled at halftime, at which time Buckeye held a 203-106 edge in total offense — 75 of Highland’s yards came on three plays — and a 3717 advantage in plays, the latter helping the Bucks control the ball for almost 18 of the game’s first 24 minutes.
“That’s the way we’re capable of playing,” Buckeye coach Billy Burke said. “That’s our game: Grind the ball and try to keep possession. That’s what we did in the first half. It’s too bad the game wasn’t called at halftime.” The second half was all Highland, particularly the third period, when the Hornets scored two touchdowns and recorded a 32yard Eric Duale field goal on their three possessions. “It was more of a mindset,” said Knerem, who completed 6-of-12 passes for 168 yards, including a beautiful 57-yard scoring strike to Jarrod Swick that put Highland up 20-7 midway through the third period.
In that pivotal quarter, the Hornets ran 20 plays to Buckeye’s 10, held a 201-71 edge in total offense — 56 of the Bucks’ yards came on their last two plays of the period — and racked up a 92 edge in first downs. “Buckeye came out and played a real good half. It was more what they did,” said Highland coach Tom Lombardo, who disagreed with Knerem’s belief that the Hornets took their foe lightly. “We put it to our kids at halftime: ‘We’re a seniorladen team. What are you guys made of? Show us.’” The Hornets showed plenty by the time the night was done.
Chris Snook, a 6-foot-3, 230-pound running back, finished the night with 10 carries for 71 yards and two touchdowns, while Swick caught three passes for 110 yards and tight end Tyler Houska grabbed two for 46. When Snook cramped up and was limited to mostly defense in the second half, Ben Brown (8 carries, 66 yards, TD) and Aaron Maslowski (8-56) stepped up in fine fashion for Highland, which blanked the Bucks over the final two periods behind a defense led by Snook, Houska and defensive end Tyler Phillips.
“Once we went up, they might not have had the firepower to come back from a couple scores down,” Lombardo said. That was more than evident, as the Bucks’ spread offense is designed mainly to create running lanes for guys like Cory Reisner (23 carries, 104 yards, TD), Ryan McCormick (12-119) and quarterback Mike Kelly (12-42). Kelly attempted just 12 passes on the night, completing five for a paltry 48 yards.
“We’re thin,” said Burke, whose team starts the game with nine guys playing both ways before beginning to substitute. “Our ones are as tough as they come. We’ve just got guys who aren’t old enough or don’t have enough experience or aren’t strong enough backing them up.”
UP NEXT: Highland (2-0) is home against Brookside; Buckeye (0-2) travels to Grafton Midview. Noland may be reached at rickn@ohio.net or 330.721.4061
From The GAZETTE by Brad Bournival, Staff Writer
Coach Billy Burke plans on getting All-Gazette running back Cory Reisner back in the game, but last week wasn’t the time for the senior to shine on offense.
Reisner’s 11 carries and 47 yards against Cloverleaf were the fewest of his career since Highland held him to 4 yards on three carries in Week 2 of the 2006 season.
“We had a lot of kids that hadn’t seen the Friday night spotlights,” Burke said. “I felt more comfortable playing him at safety than some of the others we have. The general rule is if they don’t score, you win. They scored 10 points. We should have been able to score that much.”
When Reisner, who rushed for 1,454 yards and 23 touchdowns last year, did touch the ball, the Bucks marched. The 5-foot-11, 166-pound back carried eight times on the opening drive of the second half, picking up 39 of Buckeye’s 52 yards to set up third-and-6 before Mike Kelly threw an interception from the Colts’ 16. Reisner touched the ball just twice after that.
“You run into a timing issue the first week,” Burke said. “We’re developing depth. It’s easy to say, ‘Cory, Cory, Cory,’ but you become a better team if you get other kids involved to come up and contribute.
Burke even buzzing over Hornets
BUCKEYE (0-1): Highland’s 40-15 win over Rocky River last week impressed Buckeye’s Burke a lot. And it was on both sides of the ball. The Hornets piled up 238 yards on the ground and held the Pirates to five yards rushing. “They’re probably the most aggressive team I’ve seen on film since I’ve been here,” he said. “They certainly play hard. When you play hard, you’ll get your game going.” … The M*A*S*H unit at Buckeye is getting extensive work this season. The Bucks had already lost linebacker/tight end Tucker Gregor for the season and now will be without the services of quarterback Austin Friel the rest of the way. The sophomore separated his shoulder in the first half against Cloverleaf. Two-way lineman Cody Muhek is back this week, following an infection, but Austin Dorer is still a game-time decision. … The Hornets seem to have Reisner’s number. In two previous games, the Buckeye senior hasn’t found the end zone and has managed just 58 yards rushing on 17 carries. LW: L, 10-6 Cloverleaf. TW: at Highland (10). NW: at Grafton Midview (1-0).
