A Don McCormack column: What’s the point? You’ll read Tuesday

DON McCORMACK

Paying a Monday morning visit to the variety store...



Points aplenty

The 67-point explosion by Joe Kearney’s Edgewood Warriors prompted us to delve into our records.

Our own Slingin’ Steve Goldman tells you elsewhere on these pages in our popular Monday Morning QB feature that the 67 points by the 3-1 Warriors in taking apart homestanding Richmond Heights on Friday night are the most by any of the 10 current area teams dating back to 2001.

However, we have dug a bit deeper and in our Tuesday edition, we will reveal just where those 67 points rank — in terms of Ashtabula County schools who have fielded high school football teams in the last quarter of a century.

That means we will be including former teams Ashtabula and Harbor, who consolidated to form Lakeside in the fall of 2001, and St. John/SS. John and Paul, which is not fielding a team this fall because of a lack of players.

So, if it’s numbers you want, it’s numbers you will get.

But you have to wait until Tuesday.

OK, here’s a taste — Ashtabula County teams have scored 40 points or more 160 times in the last 25 seasons (1984 to present). On 106 of those occasions, they scored from 40 and 49 points and in 41 games, they scored from 50 to 59 points.

County teams have scored 60 or more points 13 times in the last quarter of a century.

Stay tuned, Loyal Readers.



Mighty Megan

Megan Dragon, one of the most dominant softball pitchers in area history during her high school days as a star at Edgewood, signed with Division II Gannon University.

Perhaps Division I Cleveland State University should have paid some attention and made an effort to recruit her, though.

Dragon, the daughter of George and Renee Dragon and the 2009 Star Beacon Ashtabula County Player of the Year, hurled the Knights past Cleveland State on Saturday during fall ball play, 5-1.

Dragon and the rest of coach Tom Jakubowski’s Knights will play three more tournaments this fall, starting with next weekend at Kent State University.



Trivia time

When was the last time any of the current area high school football teams played in a game that ended with a final score of 2-0?

Answer below.



Playoff talk

We’re only 40 percent through the 2009 high school football season, but the Ohio High School Athletic Association will release its first rendition of computer-point ratings this week.

But thanks to the great Joe Eitel, we already know that if the playoffs started this week, only one area team — the Perry Pirates — would qualify for postseason play.

The OHSAA splits the football teams into six divisions based on enrollment figures for boys in grades 10-12, then carves each division into four regions based on geography. The top eight teams in each region qualify for the playoffs, with the higher seed being awarded a home game in each first-round encounter.

Here’s how Eitel sees the 10 area teams standing through Week 4 of the 2009 season:

n Division I, Region 1 (30 teams) — T27, Riverside (0-4), with three other teams.

n Division II, Region 5 (30 teams) — 12, Geneva (3-1); 13, Lakeside (2-2); T27, Madison (0-4), with three other squads.

n Division III, Region 9 (31 teams) — 13, Edgewood (3-1); 17, Jefferson (2-2); 24, Conneaut (1-3).

n Division IV, Region 13 (31 teams) — 4, Perry (4-0); T29, Pymatuning Valley (0-4), with two other teams.

n Division V, Region 21 (30 teams) — 15, Grand Valley (3-1).

According to Eitel’s numerology, coach Matt Rosati’s unbeaten Pirates would host Garrettsville Garfield (4-0) in a first-round affair at Alumni Stadium if the playoffs were beginning this week.

Our own computer-point guru — Slingin’ Steve — will take you more indepth about the chances of the area’s 10 teams in our Friday edition, as he does each and every week through the course of the season.

To view all of Eitel’s information yourself, visit his Web site at www.joeeitel.com.



What a rush

It was a good night for area running backs last week as even surpassed the 100-yard mark:

n 202 — Miles Iverson, Madison, on 41 carries. He scored on touchdown runs of 1, 28 and 5 yards in the Blue Streaks’ crushing 34-30 loss to visiting and undefeated Padua on Friday night.

n 196 — Tommy Padavick, Geneva, on 31 carries. He reached the end zone four times, on runs of 4, 4, 63 and 5 yards, in the Eagles’ 40-27 triumph at Riverside on Friday night.

n 159 — Devon Anderson, Edgewood, on 15 carries. He scored touchdowns on runs of 3, 11 and 20 yards in the Warriors’ whacking of Richmond Heights on Friday night.

n 156 — Jacob Susman, Grand Valley, on but 12 attempts. He crossed the goal line on runs of 11 and 40 yards in the Mustangs’ 42-7 mauling of visiting Mathews at Grand Valley Stadium on Friday night.

n 147 — Ben Perko, Perry, on 21 rushes, in the Pirates’ 27-7 Chagrin Valley Conference triumph at Orange on Thursday night.

n 116 — Tyler Erb, Geneva, on 13 rushes. He joined teammates Padavick in topping the century mark, in the Eagles’ win at Riverside Stadium on Friday night, Geneva’s first win in the series since 1997.

n 103 — Derrell McCaleb, Lakeside, on 20 carries. His effort, which included a 41-yard touchdown scamper, was not enough to prevent the Dragons’ 28-14 loss at Notre Dame-Cathedral Latin on Friday night.



Passing fancy

With seven area running backs accumulating more than 100 yards on the ground in Week 4, it limited the passing opportunities for area quarterbacks, three of whom hurled the pigskin for more than 100 yards through the air:

n 267 — Zack Kuzma, Riverside. With the Beavers being stuffed on the ground by Geneva — to the tune of minus one yard on but 16 attempts as a team — it meant for a busy night for Kuzma, who completed 18 of 35 attempts and fired touchdown strikes of 6 and 66 yards in the 40-27 loss to the Eagles on Friday night.

n 113 — Kyle George, Lakeside. He completed 8 of 17 passes in the Dragons’ 28-14 loss at NDCL on Friday night.

n 112 — Jake Simek, Conneaut. He made good on 10 of 19 aerials in the Spartans’ 28-13 defeat at Beachwood on Thursday night.

n 100 — Colin Cicon, Jefferson. The Falcons’ man under center made it back-to-back 100-yard plus games, completing 5 of 11 passes in Jefferson’s 35-14 loss to Warren JFK at Harding’s Mollenkopf Stadium on Friday night.

Interestingly, all four quarterbacks who reached the 100-yard mark with their right arms saw their teams come out on the short end of the scoreboard.



Gift of grab?

Not in Week 4, as no area receiver caught enough passes for enough yardage to reach the century mark.



Pilin’ up the points

Three area teams reached the 40-point mark in Week 4, led by Edgewood racking 67 in its big win at Richmond Heights.

Grand Valley — 42, against visiting Mathews — and Geneva — 40, at Riverside — also hit the 40-point mark.



MIA

A couple members of our own team have been out of commission recently.

The familiar faces of Bruce McClimans and Rich Kelly haven’t been seen the past couple of weeks as they’ve been placed on our disabled list.

Brucey, unfortunately, is out for the rest of the season, while we hope to activate Rich from the DL in time for next weekend’s contests.



Get well soon

Best wishes go out to the better half of The Legend himself, Rod Holmes, Denise Holmes, who has been laid up for a bit.

Get well soon, Mrs. Ledge.



Trivia answer

In their season finale in the fall of 2002, then-coach A.J. Calderone’s Grand Valley Mustangs claimed a rare 2-0 triumph at Berkshire on Oct. 25 at Dr. William A. Reed Field in Burton.

According to the game story by our own Jon “Little Red Man” Hall, that contest was played in terrible muck-and-yuck field conditions.

Late in the second quarter, the Mustangs drove deep into Berkshire territory, setting up and first-and-goal from the six. On a fourth-down play from the two, the awful field conditions would not allow Calderone two have the Mustangs attempt a field goal, even though it was from extra-point distance.

Mustangs running back Josh Scribben was stopped one short of the goal line on the play and the Badgers took over on downs with 1:49 to go in the first half.

On the ensuing play, Berkshire running back Andy Miller was gang-tackled in the end zone by a host of Mustang tacklers, giving GV a 2-0 lead that held up the rest of the way.

That contest represents the only 2-0 contest played in the area our research — to this point — has found.



McCormack is the sports editor of the Star Beacon. Reach him at donmac@suite224.net.

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