The Morning Journal (Lorain, OH)
Titans playing team from Canada
Lorain goes international, hosting football team from Canada
Athletic success at Lorain High has been measured in a lot of different ways.
From Division I recruits to state playoff appearances and conference crowns, the Titans have celebrated their fair share of success over the past year.
Becoming too big not to be noticed, Lorain and coach Dave McFarland will take the notoriety
of Titans football to the international stage on Sept. 22 as they welcome Clarkson Academy from Ontario, Canada.
“No. 1, it’s another home game, and No. 2, our young people and our community are going to have an international team come in. So, it’s pretty cool,” McFarland said. “They play great football and they’ve got guys who are going there to try to earn football scholarships. They’ve got to come down to Pennsylvania, Ohio and play the best schools to market their kids.
“You’re going to see, their nose guard is 6-foot-7, 345 pounds. Their offensive tackle
is 6-foot-8. I mean they are big.”
Welcoming an international team and coming off a big win last Friday against Garfield Heights, the Titans players are excited to show off Lorain football to the world.
“I thought this would be great exposure for our program,” running back Daylin Dower said. “It will be a great opportunity for our kids and our program just to go against somebody different. We see the same teams all year round for the past years and this year is different. So it’ll be great exposure for our program and our team as a whole.”
While the Titans are hoping to have Dower back this week after he was injured midway through last week’s game, stepping into his shoes and looking to make another impact this week is senior Dakota Mincy.
A team captain, Mincy has been a go-to guy for McFarland since he joined the varsity, but he is a new face in the running game.
“Dakota, he’s a tough kid. He’s been wanting to carry the ball. He carried the ball on the freshman team four years and he got his shot when Daylin went down,” McFarland. “He singlehandedly carried us at the end of that game Friday night. He was getting first downs and big chunks plays and I’m real proud of him for his perseverance. Right now Daylin is the starter,
but, boy, when he (Mincy) got his chance, he did well.”
Game planning for a number of different situations, Mincy is ready for whatever role his team needs him to fill against an unfamiliar opponent.
“Just need to stay focused and work on the same things as last week,” Mincy said. “It’s a new team we haven’t seen. So we have to focus up more and it’s a bigger team, so we have to stay competitive and stay in the game with them.”
The Titans will be relying on their defense to keep Clarkson Academy’s offense off the field.
“It starts off with our defense and staying hyped up on D and making sure we’re in the right place,” Mincy said. “This would be a big one for us, for sure. It will definitely put us on the map because it’s a team that’s out of the United States. We don’t have the knowledge we normally do on a team, so if we beat them, it’s going to be a big one for us.”
McFarland and company have focused this week on tweaking their normal game plan and have something new in store for new friends north of the border.
But when it comes down to it, McFarland said, the game will be won or lost with his guys up front who will face big Clarkson linemen.
“We’re fast and we have good skill, but we’ve got to do our best to try and neutralize them and control the line of scrimmage against their size,” McFarland said.