The Morning Journal (Lorain, OH)
Resilient Sailors clip Clippers
Vermilion withstands Clearview’s fast start, listens to coach’s halftime talk about perseverance and shows that work pays off
Vermilion rallied from a 13-point deficit to spoil Clearview’s home opener as the Sailors topped the Clippers, 28-20, to build on the storied rivalry.
As much as Vermilion struggled in the first half, the young Sailors stayed the course for coach Rob Duray for a 28-0 run that gave them an exclamation
point to kickoff the 2016 football season.
“It says our young Sailors grew up quickly,” Duray said about the turnaround win. “We were resilient and we told the kids, this happens every single year we play Clearview. They punch us in the mouth and then we’ve got to really focus upon this. We take pride that we are better conditioned than they are. Once we make our adjustments, once we get acclimated to the game, our kids were resilient, they kept their heads up, they kept fighting and only good things are going to happen.”
After Clearview’s hot start to the game, which featured a 12play, 72-yard touchdown drive, the young Sailors took what Duray said to heart and tried to show they were the better conditioned team. Holding onto the ball for
did show signs of wear as several drives stalled out and Vermilion gotback into the game.
Coming off the first big momentum swing in which Clearview punted the ball away that bounced off a Vermilion player and into the waiting hands of a Clipper, Clearview could not put the ball in the end zone, despite getting down to the Vermilion 12.
A drive later Vermilion got on the board, thanks to a 44-yard touchdown pass from sophomore Seth Hurd to sophomore Jonah Pfeil with 1:51 left in the first half.
“It was (surprising to see the defense wear down). We had a couple interior linemen playing both sides of the ball,” Clearview coach Mike Collier said. “We tried to rotate them and keep them fresh, but it played a factor tonight and I thought they looked like the fresher team interior-wise down the stretch.”
Going into half with the Clippers in charge 13-7, Duray sent a message to his team about the second half that really resonated with his players.
“We told our kids in the locker room, if we look back to the last five years we played Clearview, it’s 1413, 13-7, 14-0 for five straight years,” Duray said. “I told our kids in the locker room deja vu, men. OK, we got the ball, 13-7, that’s obviously where I wanted to be after going down 13-nothing to give us a chance. That first drive, we came out, we tempo-ed them, we did a good job of going uptempo. I thought we wore them down a little bit and we punched it in, we punched it in, we punched it in.”
Doing the punching was a lethal combo of Hurd and junior running back Caine Zannoni. Filling in for an early injury to starter Zach Anderson, Zannoni was the man for the Sailors when they called his number.
Helping to orchestrate some long drives, Zannoni was Mr. Efficient when it came to Vermilion’s success going up the field. Compiling 106 yards on the ground on 19 carries, Zannoni punched in the go-ahead score in the third quarter to put the Sailors up, 21-13.
“I give it all to (my offensive line) tonight. That was awesome,” Zannoni said. “That was one of our tests going into this week was coach preaching to us (that) the more conditioned team is going to win and we came into this game, especially at halftime, knowing that we are going to play our butts off until the final whistle. We came out here and did that.”
Zannoni was just as big on defense, thanks to a correction he and his coaches made after two big plays had the Clippers knocking at the door to bring them within a score late.
After misreading a play earlier in the drive that led to a big gain for Clearview, Zannoni made an adjustment and made good on his teammates coming up with a pick at the goal line to halt the Clippers.
“Caine Zannoni, he’s our backup outside linebacker, starting inside linebacker, when Zach (Anderson) went down and Caine had to step in and play outside backer and what I love about Caine is we told him the first play before it, he was too far under on their flood concept and they hit us on the second level intermediate flood,” Duray said. “We told him real quick, ‘Hey, stay deep to short.’ Came back next play, he robbed it, got a pick and obviously that was a huge play in the game so hats off to Caine for that adjustment.”
Hurd was the other key playmaker for the Vermilion offense. As only a sophomore, Hurd carried poise and excitement beyond his years to help lead the Sailors to victory.
Tossing for 179 yards in the air and a long score to Pfeil, Hurd added 103 yards on the ground and punched in another score to really showcase his young talent.
“It was amazing, they came out and punched us in the mouth. They did that