The Morning Journal (Lorain, OH)
Crawford, defense lead Firelands to historic win
About 40 minutes before Firelands Division IV, Region 14 playoff game against Upper Sandusky, Falcons running back Donald Crawford had a proclamation.
“Let’s make some history tonight,” Crawford said to his fellow running backs as they ran through pregame drills. As he repeated it, his teammates began to nod in agreement.
Once the game kicked off, Crawford helped bulldoze the Falcons towards history, as the senior running back tallied 148 yards and three touchdowns rushing in the Falcons 59-20 decimation of Upper Sandusky. The win is the Falcons’ first playoff win in school history.
“The goal all season has been to punch them in the
mouth on defense, get good field position, score and then repeat,” Crawford said. “We did that tonight.”
Crawford and the Falcons followed that mantra from the jump against Upper Sandusky. Two plays into the game, the Firelands defense forced a fumble that was recovered by Jack Valerius. Two plays after that, Crawford scampered into the end zone from 15 yards out for the game’s opening touchdown. After a Valerius sack on third down ended the next Rams drive, the Falcons offense marched down the field and scored on a four-yard touchdown run from Crawford.
“Our defense is really fast and really pinned Upper Sandusky’s ears back from the beginning,” Firelands coach Ryan O’Rourke said. “We always preach that we want get takeaways on defense and big plays on offense.”
The Falcons tallied two more scores in the first quarter, with the first coming on a 30-yard reverse from Caden Bomback and the second on a 61-yard touchdown run from Corey Newark.
“He runs really hard for his size, O’Rouke said of Newark. “He’s an
aggressive runner, that touchdown was really impressive.”
The second quarter was more of the same, as Firelands quarter Kyle Ransom through t wo touch downs passes — one to Casey Kelly and one to Alex Angle — while Crawford added a 40 yard touchdown on the ground. Crawford also recorded an interception of Rams quarterback Alex Broderdrop.
While the Rams scored on a touchdown pass before the end of the half, Broderdrop spent most of the first half running for his life. The Rams running game stood no chance against Firelands front seven, and with al-
most every play being a pass, O’Rourke and his staff were able to dial up the pressure. Both Kelly and Valerius recorded four sacks each in the first half while the Falcons forced five fumbles, three of which were recovered.
“We’re always trying to control the line of scrimmage,” Valerius said. “We always look to stop the run game and make them go to the pass game because we have a strong secondary.”
The Falcons points in the second half came in rapid succession, as it took the Falcons 12 seconds to tally nine points. After a Broder drop fell on a fumble in the end
zone for a safety, Caden Bomback took the ensuing safety kick 70 yards for the Falcons f i nal score of the night.
As the f inal buzzer sounded, O’Rourke was drenched in the customary Gatorade shower while his players ran to the south end zone in celebration.
“Our goal all season has been to get a playoff win,” Crawford said. “Since May we’ve been saying we’re out here to make history. We wanted to go 10- 0 but they only gave us six games and we went 5-1. It’s great for the program.”
The Falcons move on to face Napoleon on Oct. 17 at 7 p.m.