Perkins gets a big lift from QB

Perkins quarterback Matt Schweinfurth went from potential goat to hometown hero awfully quickly.

After fumbling and losing the ball on the first play of the game, Schweinfurth came up with an interception and two rushing touchdowns in the second half to help the Pirates stun the Associated Press poll Division III No. 2 ranked Clyde Fliers, 26-21.

“It was a good one to win,” Perkins coach Jason Ziegler said. “We had too many turnovers in the first half, but the kids had an attitude of ‘We’re going to continue to fight.’ That’s what they did.”

The Pirates turned the ball over three times in the first half — two lost fumbles and an interception — and the Fliers capitalized on all of them to score their 21 points.

Things looked bad until Schweinfurth connected with Sam Printy on an 11-yard pass with less than a minute remaining in the first half to allow the Pirates to enter the second half trailing, 21-12.

It was the first of three unanswered touchdowns that gave the Pirates the win.

“The touchdown before halftime was huge,” Ziegler said.

“It was a big confidence booster. We had three turnovers that Clyde turned into points, but we were still only down by nine at halftime.”

Schweinfurth made up for his early miscues in the first half quickly in the second.

He picked off a pass from Clyde quarterback Austin Baker inside the Perkins 25-yard line late in the third quarter.

On the next play, Schweinfurth ran 83 yards behind some great blocking to pull the Pirates within one at 21-20.

“Matt is one of our captains,” Ziegler said. “We like to tell him that players make plays. That’s what he did. That run was incredible, and his teammates made some great blocks to get him there.” Schweinfurth wasn’t done. With 11 seconds remaining, Schweinfurth plunged into the end zone on an 11-yard carry to put Perkins in front for the first time all night, 26-21.

“We had some big plays in the second half,” Ziegler said. “We continued to fight. This was a huge win.” Unsung heroes

With all of the attention on Demario McCall — and rightly so — it has gone a bit unnoticed that North Ridgeville has put together one of the better defenses in Lorain County.

Through six weeks, the Rangers have given up an average of 23 points per week.

The Rangers’ six opponents have combined to score 28.3 points on average per week. That may not sound great, but when put in context it is a phenomenal stat.

The Rangers kept Midview (45.2 ppg) to 28 points and Rocky River (37.3) to 21 points. Those are two of the highest-powered offenses in Northeast Ohio.

The schedule does not get any easier for the Rangers. North Ridgeville has Avon (41.7 ppg), Bay (29.7) Elyria Catholic (35.3) and Lakewood (16.7) on tap.

Playoffs?

Week 6 was good for area teams looking for a playoff berth.

Computer point rankings guru Joe Eitel has 13 area teams projected to make the playoffs if the postseason were to begin next week, up from 10 last week. New to the list this week are Rocky River, Keystone and Elyria Catholic. The full list includes:

• No. 15 Lorain, Division I, Region 1

• No. 5 North Olmsted, Division II, Region 3

• No. 1 Midview, Division II, Region 4

• No. 7 Avon, Division II, Region 4

• No. 8 North Ridgeville, Division II, Region 4

• No. 2 Norwalk, Division III, Region 8

• No. 4 Perkins, Division III, Region 8

• No. 8 Rocky River, Division III, Region 8

• No. 5 Bay, Division IV, Region 11

• No. 7 Keystone, Division IV, Region 12

• No. 6 Huron, Division V, Region 16

• No. 8 Elyria Catholic, Division V, Region 16

• No. 1 St. Paul, Division VII, Region 23

Undefeated roundup

Two area teams entered Week 6 unblemished and both emerged unscathed. Midview managed to contain North Ridgeville in a 28-14 win, while Norwalk handed Sandusky its fifth loss of the season, 27-3.