The News Herald (Willoughby, OH)
John Carroll getting back to work
Blue Streaks had been on break for cancelation, open date
After three straight weeks of spring games in March, the John Carroll football team has since been in a holding pattern.
What remains — at least on its schedule — is a crossover Ohio Athletic Conference April 16 road game against the loser of the April 9 Ohio Northern Heidelberg game.
In an unprecedented spring college football season, nothing should surprise anyone, and that includes JCU coach Rick Finotti.
The Blue Streaks’ scheduled game April 2 at Muskingum was canceled because of COVID-19 issues with the Muskies’ program. The week of April 9 was a scheduled off week for JCU with an OAC crossover game set for April 16.
With no games on the docket for two weeks, Finotti gave his players what he called a “much-needed break” from April 2 to April 6.
“The guys got some rest, some sleep and a bunch of the guys got vaccinated,” said Finotti, whose team hasn’t played since a 34-10 win over Marietta on March 26. “They got recharged.”
The football program has been in go-mode since the start of the new year. With JCU’s campus essentially shut down last fall, offseason conditioning and workouts for the school’s sports programs were not an option. So when the green light for all of that was given at the start of 2021, the Blue Streaks have been in practice mode since early January.
With the three games — two of them victories over Baldwin Wallace and Marietta, the other a loss at Mount Union — in the books, Finotti saw enough of his team to know what it’s all about.
“The one thing they needed was a break,” he said.
So the timing of the canceled game with Muskingum and the scheduled off week wasn’t the worst thing for JCU.
“We’re thin at a lot of position because of injuries,” said Finotti. “There were some games where if we had one guy go down, we would have been like, ‘What are we gonna do at this spot?’ “
For the spring football season, the OAC was split into East and West divisions. The Blue Streaks’ earlier loss to the Purple Raiders has Mount in first place at 3-0 in the OAC’s East Division.
By beating BW and Marietta, 2-1 JCU will be the second-place team. Heidelberg and Ohio Northern are each 3-0 and tied for first in the OAC West.
The Heidelberg-ONU winner will travel to play Mount on April 16 in the spring OAC championship game. The Blue Streaks will play the loser of that game on the road in a de facto thirdplace game.
“No matter who we play it will be a great game against a great team with great tradition,” said Finotti.
JCU practices through April 9, and after an off day April 10, begins its game week April 11.
Offensively, the Blue Streaks have found nice production in the spring. They are averaging 30 points per game and have been balanced on offense. Quarterback Jake Floriea of Mentor has thrown for 523 yards and seven touchdowns in the three games. Five different receivers have a caught a TD.
The running backs have shown promise as replacements for two-year starter and Mayfield grad Michael Canganelli, who had to retire from the sport following a back injury. Morgan State transfer Demerius Goodwin has 202 yards on 47 carries and three TDs. Teammate Matthew Buser has gained 200 yards on 43 attempts with a TD.
“We’ve had a lot of new guys really step up,” said Finotti. “Sometimes with those new guys, you really don’t know what you have until you see them play.”
“We’ve had a lot of new guys really step up. Sometimes with those new guys, you really don’t know what you have until you see them play.” — John Carroll football coach Rick Finotti