The Morning Journal (Lorain, OH)
’Dogs hold off Middies, boost playoff hopes
Odd call on potential turnover takes the steam out of Midview comeback
Olmsted Falls held off a second-half Midview comeback to beat the Middies, 41-27, on the road Oct. 13, taking sole possession of second place in the Southwestern Conference.
The win helps the playoff hopes of Olmsted Falls, which was ranked No. 6 in Division
II, Region 6. The Middies were ranked No. 3 in the same region before the game.
The Bulldogs took a 27-13 lead to the locker room at halftime, having scored on four of seven first-half possessions, but Midview came out strong in the third quarter, scoring 14 straight points to tie the game, and despite trailing, 34-27, heading into the fourth quarter, the Middies were poised for a comeback.
Unfortunately, a strange call by the officials put Midview out of whack.
Olmsted Falls had the ball first-and-10 from the Midview 43-yard line when it appeared the Bulldogs’ Luke Lombardo fumbled on a nine-yard run. The officials signaled a turnover after a brief discussion before reconvening to discuss the play further. After a lengthy deliberation in which both sidelines grew increasingly frustrated, the officials placed the ball back on the 43-yard line, citing an inadvertent whistle and a replay of
first down.
After that, the air was all but let out of a disheartened Midview team.
“I felt like we forced a turnover there ... but they took it away from us. That was tough,” Midview coach D.J. Shaw said.
“I’m not going to put the game on the officials at all, we just needed to make key stops and key plays and we didn’t make them. But that was a huge turning point in
the game. At that point we were down seven and felt really good. We were getting ready to get our offense back on the field and then all of sudden it was taken away from us.”
Lombardo, who’s nineyard run was ultimately negated when all was said and done, had to take a pause to calm down and refocus after getting upset at the call. He capped the 12-play, 44-yard drive with a oneyard touchdown — the final score of the night.
“My coaches pulled me aside and got me back into it because I kind of lost it
for a bit. But our coaches are telling everybody, ‘We’re in this, we got this game, just stay focused,’ and we pulled through,” Lombardo said.
“(Midview) started to crawl back but we came together as a team and we really showed them what we’re about and so I’m just really proud of us as a team for not falling apart when things didn’t go our way and we pushed through and just showed them what the Bulldogs are about.”
Inadvertent whistle aside, the Middies struggled mightily to stop a potent
Olmsted Falls rushing attack. The Bulldogs racked up 405 yards on the ground between seven players including Lombardo, who had 98 yards and three touchdowns, and Jack Spellacy with 100 yards and a touchdown.
Quarterback Teddy Grendzynski was 2-of-4 with 104 yards and a touchdown for Olmsted Falls (71, 6-1), both completions to Braden Galaska, and coach Tom DeLuca had nothing but praise for his team’s offensive effort.
“When (Grendzynski) reads it right, it’s really
hard to stop. I like to say it’s impossible to stop,” Olmsted Falls coach Tom DeLuca said. “Luke Lombardo ran the ball really hard tonight. So did Jack Spellacy. Those guys share time and those two have been our workhorses inside ... on offense, those guys really played well.”
The win puts Olmsted Falls right behind firstplace Avon in the SWC and will certainly help as the Bulldogs make a play for the postseason, something DeLuca said loomed in the minds of both players and coaches alike.
“Our kids are going to get up. This is Midview. They’re a really good program,” DeLuca added. “It’s a big game for us, but you also have those things in the back of your mind. You’re silly if you say no one thinks about it.”
Olmsted Falls travels to Avon Lake Oct. 20.
Midview drops to 6-2 (52) and falls to third place in the SWC, and the last time Midview lost a regular season game to an opponent other than SWC-rival Avon was a 49-46 loss at Elyria Catholic Oct. 18, 2013. The Middies travel to Lakewood Oct. 20.