The News Herald (Willoughby, OH)
Kirtland sharp in scrimmage
Hornets impress after shaking off rust; North shows off new offense
The Kirtland football team developed some rust on its game since last November, when the Hornets won their third state championship in a row.
You wouldn’t have been able to tell it if you watched the Hornets’ quadrangular scrimmage on Aug. 7 against West Lafayette Ridgewood, Strongsville and North at North’s Nick Carter Stadium. But senior Mason Rus swears the rust was there.
At least until the Hornets chiseled it off.
The Hornets, who will enter the season riding the crest of a 41-game winning streak, looked solid against three formidable opponents in their first scrimmage of the year.
“We’re just getting back into it,” said Rus, a returning All-Ohio linebacker from a year ago. “We’ve got a lot of work to do still. There are a lot of young guys. Today was a good day to get the rust off.”
Doing it against a Division I team (Strongsville), a Division II team (North) and a Division V team (Ridgewood) that lost the last two regional championship games to Ironton was a good measuring stick.
Kirtland beat Ironton in each of the past two state championship games, and Ridgewood lost its backto-back regional finals to Ironton by a total of 17 points.
“Man, Ridgewood is the real deal,” marveled North coach Shawn Dodd of the Generals, who drove more than two hours to get into the scrimmage with North, Strongsville and Kirtland. “That quarterback is impressive.” Ridgewood QB Gabe Tingle is a two-time, first-team Division V AllOhioan. He had three touchdown passes against Kirtland in the scrimmage. Kirtland, which was playing without starting linebacker Phil LaVerde (back injury), got a running touchdown from Rus in the head-to-head with Ridgewood.
As the day wore on, Kirtland got better.
“Once we got a little of the rust off, everybody got back into it,” Rus said. “We were taking on blocks better and making tackles at the line of scrimmage instead of five yards down the field.”
Pierce Boyd got the lion’s share of the quarterback snaps for Kirtland, which for the first time in four years doesn’t have a Powers (Tommy and then Liam) at quarterback. Ramon Lescano also got some reps there.
As usual, Kirtland’s ground game was solid and prevalent. Rus scored a handful of touchdowns and speedy Tommy Gogolin got into the end zone as well. MacGuire Boyd had some ground-moving blocks at fullback, and also scored against North.
“It was great to have three teams in today and get some different looks.” — North coach Shawn Dodd
The offensive line was anchored by All-Ohioan George Prusock and Jonathan Withrow.
“It was fun to get out there today,” Rus said. “We’ve got a ways to go, but I thought we did well.”
Kirtland travels to Division III powerhouse Poland for its second and final scrimmage on Aug. 11, which leads the Hornets into the season opener Aug. 20 against Harvey.
North has a different look to it this year, as it has scrapped the Flexbone offense it ran the last few years and replaced it with a multiple-spread type of offense.
“We saw some good things today,” Coach Shawn Dodd said. “We had mistakes, but those are correctable. The nice thing is the talent and effort is there. We just have to clean up the mistakes.”
The Rangers were missing a few offensive linemen due to injuries, including center Kyle Hall. That put senior Ryan Baer, a recent Pitt commit, at center and shifted some other things around. Baer (6-foot-7, 320) also played some defensive line and showed good speed and athleticism in tracking down ball-carriers.
“We’ll move Ryan around a little on defense this year,” Dodd said. “He played center today. But I don’t think he’ll be playing there for us this year.” Dodd said he was happy with his defensive front for its play in the scrimmage. Skill-wise, he singled out Curtis Thomas for making plays in space and running the ball effectively.
“Some of the guys got 60 plays in today,” Dodd said. “That’s what they’re going to get in games. We are in pretty good shape. It was great to have three teams in today and get some different looks.”
North’s second scrimmage is Aug. 12 at home against NDCL. The Rangers open the regular season Aug. 20 against visiting Garfield Heights.