UA, Granville, Bloom-carroll fall in semis
Upper Arlington, Granville and Bloom-carroll lost in the state football semifinals on Friday. Here are the game recaps:
Lakewood St. Edward 16, Upper Arlington 10
MANSFIELD — Video replays served only to reinforce what Upper Arlington coach Justin Buttermore saw firsthand.
“We were looking at the film (during the game) and it was just little things, little execution mistakes every play that cost us,” Buttermore said after the Division I loss that ended the Golden Bears’ quest for their first state championship since 2000.
“We had to execute at a really high level against a team that good. It wasn’t any one thing, really, but every time we looked, there were just one or two execution errors that cost us.”
Sam Cannon’s 94-yard kickoff return for a touchdown with 23 seconds left in the first quarter was UA’S only trip into the end zone and came within 37 yards of matching the Bears’ total offensive output against a stout Eagles defense that largely stifled UA’S running game.
Carson Gresock, who came into the game with 2,330 yards and 33 touchdowns on the ground, was held to 36 yards on 14 carries.
The Bears finished with seven first downs to St. Edward’s 15 and crossed the 50 only once.
“They mixed up coverages the entire game and made it hard to predict what they were going to be in,” said UA quarterback Simon Monnin, who completed 10 of 22 passes for 97 yards with an interception. “We just couldn’t get it done tonight.”
St. Edward (14-1) will play Springfield (13-1) in the state final on Friday in Canton.
— Dave Purpura
Hamilton Badin 14, Granville 0 LONDON — Badin put the clamps on Granville running back Devon Haley and rode Jack Walsh’s 43-carry, 226yard effort in a Division III showdown of unbeaten teams.
“We had a hard time getting the run game going,” coach Wes Schroeder said after Granville went 13-1 and won its first-ever regional championship. “They were the best team we’ve played all year. They were tough, physical and very talented.”
The Rams (14-0) limited Haley to 52 yards on 18 attempts and advanced to meet defending state champion Chardon (15-0) on Friday in Canton.
“They’re a final-four team, so you expect that,” Granville senior Conner Buerkel said of a Badin defense that had 10 tackles for loss, including five sacks, while holding the Blue Aces to 2 yards rushing and 178 total yards.
Granville senior quarterback Carsyn Crouch started and played on a torn ACL for the second time in the playoffs and nearly guided the Blue Aces to a pair of first-half scores.
Badin’s defense recorded its sixth shutout. The Rams have allowed only 109 points in 14 games.
“They kind of bullied us at times up front, and that hasn’t happened this season,” Schroeder said. “When you get to this point, it’s all about running the ball, and stopping the run.”
— Dave Weidig, Newark Advocate Clinton-massie 24, Bloom-carroll
21
PLAIN CITY — Trailing by 10 points,
Bloom-carroll scored on a 5-yard touchdown pass from KJ Benedict to Brandon Totten with 3:29 left, and then the defense was able to make a huge stop on a fake punt.
Beau Wisecarver carried the ball twice for 25 yards, giving the Bulldogs a first-and-goal at the 8. But thebulldogs fumbled at the 3-yard line and Clintonmassie ran out the clock for the Division IV win.
It marked the second year in a row the Bulldogs (14-1) lost in a state semifinal.
“I’m not a fate kind of guy,” Bloomcarroll coach Wade Bartholomew said. “I go back and look at the game and there were a lot of things we didn’t do great and some things we did well, but when you get to this level, small, minor mistakes are big things and we had we a few too many tonight.”
Clinton-massie (13-1) finished with 351 yards rushing on 65 attempts, but the Bulldogs forced four fumbles and had two goal line stands.
Bloom-carroll ran only four plays in Clinton-massie territory in the first half. The Bulldogs finished with just 207 total yards and had the ball for 13:28 compared with 34:32 for the Falcons, who face Youngstown Ursuline (11-3) for the championship on Friday in Canton.
“From the time these seniors walked in as freshman, they raised the level of our program,” Bartholomew said. “Seven of them were varsity starters as freshman and they competed day in and day out from the moment they walked in our locker room. They were looking to change the expectation of our program, and they had huge expectations from the get-go. They wanted to win a state title, and even though they came up short, they have put this program on the map.”
—Tom Wilson, Lancaster Eagle Gazette