The News Herald (Willoughby, OH)
Riverside grad guides team to 28-point comeback
Loth’s goal: Get Western Connecticut State into the Division III playoffs
Joe Loth was born in Painesville, prepped at Riverside High School and attended and played football at Otterbein near Columbus.
When he graduated college, he became a football coach.
The game has been Loth’s life ever since.
Loth is 50, so he’s been around. The coach has never seen anything like what his team accomplished on Sept. 2.
Loth’s Western Connecticut State football team trailed in its opener, 280, in the second quarter at Hartwick.
Hopes were high entering the 2017 season, but when a coach looks up in the second quarter and sees a 28-0 score not in his advantage, it can be deflating.
“But what’s unique about this team is the senior leadership we have,” said Loth.
That leadership was needed in the worst way, and it delivered in stunning fashion.
Loth’s Colonials scored just before halftime to make it 28-7, then scored on every second-half possession to post a 48-47 win.
Six second-half possessions produced six touchdowns, including the gamewinner from running back Kyle McKinnon with 1 minute, 46 seconds remaining.
“That was the most remarkable thing about the comeback,” said Loth. “Touchdowns on every possession in the second half. You don’t see that happen all time. Incredible.”
McKinnon and quarterback Quinn Fleeting are two of Loth’s senior leaders, and they came through for the coach.
McKinnon rushed for 116 yards and two TDs, and Fleeting was 32 of 49 passing for 375 yards and five TDs.
The closest comparison in Loth’s career to the Sept. 2 comeback occurred when he was a defensive back at Otterbein. In 1990, the team rallied from a 21-0 halftime deficit and tied Baldwin Wallace, 24-24.
Loth played college football in the 1980s, when ties were still a part of the college game. The rally against BW was great on that day, said Loth, but the next week Otterbein lost its regularseason finale to cap a 3-5-2 season.
“It didn’t have the effect we thought it might,” said Loth.
The coach is hoping the opposite happens with Western Connecticut State, a Division III school.
Loth took over at the school in 2012, when he left Otterbein, where he had great success taking over at his alma mater.
He helped build the Ohio Athletic Conference team into a contender. His best season was in 2008, when the school went 9-2 and made the NCAA D-III playoffs for the first time in school history.
That’s what Loth wants to bring to Western Connecticut State.
When he arrived in 2012, the football program was 0-20 the previous two seasons, and the Colonials were a combined 4-36 since 2008.
A quick turnaround occurred as the program went 8-2 by Loth’s second year. A 7-4 campaign followed the next season.
In 2017, he’s hoping for more, and the team’s memorable comeback to start the season might be the kickstart needed to do just that.
“Without question we have high expectations this year,” said Loth. “Our first senior class went 25-15. We’re a solid program right now, but we want more. We want to be a (NCAA) playoff team.”