Kenston comes full circle with title

CANTON — It would be fascinating if, somehow, they could be given a front-row seat at Tom Benson Hall of Fame Stadium to take it all in.

Seventy years ago, there was no Kenston.

The football talent was so sparse in southwest Geauga County, in fact, that six-man football was the sole option. Those trailblazers made do.

What we know today as Kenston comprised one-third of the Geauga County League – Auburn, Bainbridge, Burton, Chester, Russell and Thompson.

Forget consolidation – it was about your tiny hamlet.

You fought population density and your closest neighbors on the best patch of grass available.

Over time, those former hamlets grew.

It has now grown into a giant that rules with a mighty force over Ohio, similar to the revolutions of the commanding wind turbine in the front yard of the high school.

After so much state final heartbreak, with such a unique route to get there, Nov. 30 was a culmination.

Kenston hammered Kettering Alter, 42-6, in the Division III state final for its first state championship in football in school history.

With Kirtland’s D-VI title earlier in the day, it marked the first time in News-Herald coverage area history two football teams earned state crowns in the same campaign.

There was no need for frayed nerves.

There was no need to dream anymore.

There was need for reflection.

From six-man football to supremacy in the Buckeye State, from two losses in 1986 and 1995 in state title tilts by a combined four points to a 23-year wait for another chance, Kenston has arrived.

“We heard from alumni. We heard from players on the ‘86 and ‘95 teams,” Bombers coach Jeff Grubich said. “We’ve been bringing them in every week talking to the team on Thursdays. I just got flooded with just the one phrase, ‘Finish it.’ Finish it and bring it home.

“So that was our message to our team and our coaches, and I’m proud that we were able to get it done.”

Proud of the precision on offense.

The penetration and effectiveness on defense.

A girl kicking extra points in a state final. It had it all. Running back Jack Porter, who ran 116 yards and three touchdowns, including a massive 58-yard jaunt to daylight to start the second quarter, noted the name recognition difference coming into Canton.

“We’ve heard about Kettering Alter all week,” Porter said. “We were called Kingston a couple of times — just stuff like that.”

Ohio knows the name now, if it didn’t already, with a tale that included some unique chapters.

Bransen Stanley has a story to tell his grandchildren one day.

In a stretch of two plays in a state championship game as a senior, Stanley tipped a pass and stuck with it for a high-wire interception, then displayed his safe hands again on a 40-yard touchdown strike from Jon Tomcufcik as Kenston began to take control.

“This is what I dreamed of,” Stanley said. “This is what we all dreamed of since we were little kids.”

It was an easy night to get dinner reservations and run errands in the vicinity of Route 422, as seemingly the whole community make the trek to Canton.

“Last I heard, the middle school had 300-some kids out,” Grubich said. “The high school had 300some kids out. And all of Auburn and Bainbridge showed up, man. We’ve been saying, it’s been a train ride, and we’ve been picking people up along the way.

“I think you saw tonight: That’s one heck of a crowd to come down here from Auburn Township and Bainbridge. So I’m proud of this school and proud of this community. They really rallied behind these guys.”

And the girl who kicked her way into state lore as well, with Anna Sanders going 6-for-6 on extra points.

Moments after her first point-after split the uprights, it was warmly received as it was announced to the crowd and put on the scoreboard that Sanders was the first girl ever in Ohio to record a point in a state football final.

“It’s a credit to the kid and the coaches,” Grubich said. “Last year, when we had our kicker go down, she wasn’t even on our radar. We had the kicker go down, the backup kicker go down. And I try not to talk to the kickers at all. I mean, we had these knuckleheads all trying to make an extra point. It was the ‘Bad News Bears.’

“So our kicking coach said she was going to do it, and he’s done a great job getting her ready. I saw them tee off on her on that first extra point, so I told her she’d better toughen up a little bit. Yeah, I’m just proud, man.”

There’s so much for which to be proud.

The program of the breakthrough squad in 1981 that earned the first playoff berth. The close calls in 1986 and 1995.

The program of Judah Herman and Jack Rudnay, Andy Gurd and Tyson Walter, and so many more.

The program that had to scrap just to field sixman football amid humble beginnings because the numbers weren’t there.

It could have been different.

With a loss to Alter, Kenston would have become the 26th football program in Ohio to be state runner-up at least three times. Among the 25 members of that club, four have not won titles to complement it — Huber Heights Wayne, Massillon, Mentor and Uniontown Lake.

It was different this time.

There was no long bus ride north.

Kenston is returning to Geauga County reigning over a proverbial kingdom.

Hopefully, some of the original six-man gridiron heroes for that community, in their mid-to-late 80s, are still with us.

If they are, they would be blown away.

The pomp and circumstance. The size and scope of the moment.

Because their hamlets have officially arrived, and the point of view could not be more beautiful.

“We’ve had great support all year,” Porter said. “I was thinking about a tweet I saw: It said, ‘When you leave Bainbridge, make sure you turn on the front-porch light and lock the door. They’ve been supporting us all year and coming to our games.”

Added senior linebacker Matt Iklodi: “It’s everything we’ve all been dreaming of. We’ve all been playing together since second and third grade. We’ve all been tracking this into our life, saying we were going to do this and believing in it and working for it. And that’s what happened.”

Contact Lillstrung at clillstrung@news-herald. com; On Twitter: @CLillstrungNH