Bears defeat the Rangers in Game 1

The North Ridgeville Rangers opened their season against the North Royalton Bears and fell, 40-20. Chris Voloschuk was there and has the details.

All of a sudden, the North Royalton football team was rolling.

The first quarter-anda-half played against host North Ridgeville on Aug. 30 was dead-even, with both teams tied at 7 and the Rangers starting to settle in on both sides of the ball.

But the Bears, an explosive offensive team with a four-year starter at quarterback in senior Joey Marousek, didn’t need a lot of time to take control. Marousek threw three touchdown passes (74 yards, 96, 27) in the last nine minutes of the half, senior Simon Antonio added an 8-yard rushing score, and the Bears cruised to a season-opening win, 40-20.

Marousek, a University of Akron commit, finished 5-for-15 passing for 237 yards and a first-quarter NORTH ROYALTON 40, NORTH RIDGEVILLE 20

interception, all coming in that fateful first half. All four of the team’s secondquarter touchdowns came in four plays, a holding call serving as the lone blemish during that stretch.

Senior wideout Riley Knurek gouged the Rangers (0-1) for 136 yards and a score before heading to the locker room.

“We were jittery at first, just trying to get a feel (for the game),” Bears coach Nick Ciulli said.

“The offense wasn’t clicking, then Joey happened. He’s a great player. Then we settled down. At first, there was some tension, but the defense played great, then the offense got clicking and we were back to our old selves.”

Antonio finished with 71 yards on 11 carries, and the Bears’ defense did its part to help build the lead, intercepting Rangers senior quarterback Caden Masterson three times, forcing a fumble and sacking him four times.

Masterson finished 10-19 for 98 yards as the Ranger offense struggled to fend off the Bears’ pressure.

North Royalton (1-0) amassed 369 yards of offense, but it was anybody’s game before their breakout. After taking a 7-0 lead with 1:53 to go in the first quarter, the Rangers answered with a 10-play drive and tied the game. Swindig (20 carries, 70 yards) capped the drive with an 11-yard run to the right corner of the end zone.

On the first play of the ensuing drive, Marousek uncorked a 74-yard strike to Nick Evanko down the visitors sideline to take the lead for good.

“They scored on four consecutive plays. (Marousek) is outstanding, probably the best quarterback we’ll see on our schedule,” Rangers coach Luke Durbin said. “It’s tough to defend that in Week 1. We made plays, but that eight-minute stretch (in the second quarter), it was a good game before and a good game after, but for that eight minutes we got totally outplayed.”

“We couldn’t make enough plays offensively to gain momentum in that stretch,” he said. “Then we went from being right there in a dogfight to them stretching the lead. It was tough.”

The Rangers didn’t score again until Masterson found senior wideout Tyler Richmond from 15 yards out to help make it 38-14 with 11:44 left in regulation. The starters exited with around five minutes left, and sophomore Jacob Madis threw a 34-yard touchdown strike to Aden Vanover to provide the final margin.