The Morning Journal (Lorain, OH)
COMETS SOARING
Amherst gets ready to take the field against Berea-Midpark on Sept. 21. The Comets won, 45-38, to improve to 5-0 on the season. More on this game and other area action is in Sports,
Online: Find more photos from Week 5 of the high school football season at
The Comets are the real deal, and proved it with a gutsy 45-38 win over Berea-Midpark on Sept. 21.
The win keeps Amherst unblemished on the season.
Led by the rushing attack of Khennedy Scagliozzo (33 carries, 235 yards and a touchdown) and Dan Makruski (12 carries, 127 yards, three touchdowns), the
Comets racked up 393 ground yards in the win.
“Khennedy did a great job of getting chunk yards and they started keying in on him, and Danny he kicked it into another gear and they both made some really big plays and get some really big first downs,” Amherst coach Mike Passerrello said. “Everybody knows that we are a runfirst team. We want to be as balanced as we can, but you know with Berea’s high-powered offense we had to do the best we could with controlling the clock and keep the offense off the field. And that’s part of why we ran the ball so much.”
The Titans, on the other hand, had two offensive weapons of their own in senior quarterback Trevor Bycznski (23-for-35, 418 yards, two interceptions) and Garrett Waite (14 catches, 270 yards).
“They both play phenomenal, those two kids are probably the best players in their position in the conference, and all the receivers played well,” BereaMidpark coach Jon Hunek said. “Trevor is the best quarterback in the state of Ohio in my opinion especially Northeast Ohio. He can sling it he knows what we are doing, and I trust him a lot.”
The Titans threw two bombs of 38- and 52-yards each to tie the game up at 38-38 in the fourth quarter. Amherst, though, grinded down the pace of the game and took valuable time off the clock. Eventually, the Comets got back on top via a 48-yard burst up the sidelines by Markuski.
The Titans would not back down though as they pushed the ball through the air down the field effectively and efficiently getting all the way down to the 4-yard line only to get a costly penalty pushing them back 15 yards.
With the game on the line on 4th-and-15, the Titans chucked the football and were stuffed on the goal line by senior linebacker Joey Tomaro inches short of the end zone.
With one timeout the Titans still had a chance. With 3:02 left on the clock they needed a stop and they would get the football right back.
After back to back short gains, Amherst needed something big and that is what they got from Makruski with a huge 28-yard dash down the sidelines, wisely staying in bound
“I was nervous, but I had a lot of trust and faith in our guys to get the play down and execute to finish the game out,” Makriski said.