11th of a Series...



It is the nature of football, as it is with almost any sport, that the guy who handles the ball the most gets the most credit and receives the most attention.

Many times, the guys that make the big plays possible go unobserved, or get the blame when something goes wrong. Often it’s left to the standout to give credit to those that helped them have success.

From the time they were youngsters in Geneva, Ed Pizzuto and Don Craine were pretty much linked. As they worked their way through high school football with the Eagles, Craine tended to get more notice as the feature back in coach Bob Herpy’s I-formation offense.

“I was the fullback and the blocker,” Pizzuto said without a trace of bitterness. “Don was the tailback and the feature runner.”

Actually, Pizzuto was far more than that. He was also an outstanding defensive back for the Eagles. He also became a fine kick returner for the Eagles.

But Pizzuto generally played a secondary role offensively. That is, until midway through his senior season, when Craine was injured in the Northeastern Conference game of the year against Harbor. It gave Pizzuto a chance to step into the spotlight, as Craine’s injury relegated him to defensive duty for much of the rest of season.

Pizzuto said he even heard Herpy questioned about why he didn’t utilize Pizzuto more offensively.

“Somebody asked him, ‘Why don’t you run Pizzuto?’” he said. “He said, ‘When you have a thoroughbred, you use him.’”

Pizzuto accepted that, then responded when he was called upon to share the load at tailback with Scott Spangler and helped Geneva stay on course to the 1972 NEC title and toward an undefeated season. Craine eventually came back to reclaim the tailback spot by the end of the season. A 7-6 loss to Chanel in the final game of the season cost the Eagles (9-1) a perfect season.

For his efforts, Pizzuto shared the team’s MVP award that season with Craine, who had won it by himself the previous season. Perhaps late Herpy attested best to Pizzuto’s value to the Eagles during that year in a booklet he handed out to team members detailing the events of the season.

“Ed was our, ‘Mr. Everything,’ this year,” it read. “He played flanker, tailback and safety. At flanker, Ed made some great catches that made big gains. At safety, Ed was a very aggressive tackler with 37 tackles and 27 assists.

“When he was called on to play tailback, he responded with three touchdowns against Harbor (in a 21-13 victory). Ed was selected for the second straight year as first-team All-Northeastern Conference (and Ashtabula County) defensive back. We will miss Eddie next football season.”

Pizzuto went on to take some time with football at the next level, playing for the late Lee Tressel for two seasons at Baldwin-Wallace College, before deciding on baseball as his true collegiate path. One of his football teammates was Jim Tressel, the current Ohio State football coach.

Now, Pizzuto is hooked up with Craine as they are inducted into the Ashtabula County Football Hall of Fame on Monday at the 39th annual Ashtabula County Touchdown Club Awards Banquet.

The 53-year-old has been connected to people with Hall of Fame stature throughout his life. He also played high school baseball for three years and basketball for two years with Ashtabula County Basketball Hall of Famer Bill Koval, then not only played for Lee Tressel, but Bob Fisher, B-W’s legendary baseball coach, who is still at the helm of the Yellow Jackets after more than 40 years of service.

To find himself in such company is quite amazing to Pizzuto. He was pleased to be informed of his induction by Herpy’s widow, Sue.

“I think I asked Sue if she was sure she’d called the right house,” he said. “I had to sit down when I was telling my wife, Cindy, about the call. I am truly amazed and truly honored.

“I’m in awe of this. To even be considered in the same class as the guys that are in there is unbelievable to me.”

Apparently, Pizzuto was an inspirational figure for a lot of younger Geneva athletes. Herpy made sure of that.

“What meant the most to me was always trying to help the team,” he said. “My younger brother, Greg, told me when he played something that was one of the greatest compliments ever given to me.

“Greg said Coach Herpy was having one of his locker room talks and he referenced me as the kind of player he hoped all of them might be. That really meant a lot to me.”



Connections

Like so many boys of his age, Pizzuto joined in football, basketball or baseball games in the side yard of the Craine home near the intersection of Routes 84 and 534 that is still inhabited by Kathy Craine, the only female child in her family. Ed Pizzuto also has a sister, Margie, who worked for some time at the Geneva Free Press, one of the sister papers of the Star Beacon.

“Dan and I used to play ball in his yard,” the son of Gabe Pizzuto, who still resides in Geneva, and his late wife, Isabel, said. “We used to play a lot with guys like Ernie Pasqualone, Louie DeJesus and Jeff Mohrmann. Don and my younger brothers also played.”

Pizzuto and Craine played for future Geneva athletic director Dick Hunt in junior high. As freshmen, they played for Dick Pierce, who is an assistant now for Tony Hassett.

“We were 6-0-1 when we were freshmen,” Pizzuto said. “I played quarterback and safety. We tied Harbor, 6-6.”

The arrival of Pizzuto and Craine with the Geneva varsity team in their sophomore seasons coincided with Herpy’s first as the Eagles’ head coach. Herpy had been a very fine back at Geneva during his playing days. Those players soaked up what Herpy had to say.

“When we were sophomores, he made it very clear that he was the boss,” Pizzuto said. “He had control.

“But, you know, in the three years we were with him, he taught us more about life than about football. I took the things he taught when I became a head coach myself (of the Edgewood baseball team) and used them.”

Pizzuto ended up on the JV team as a sophomore, spending some varsity time as the third-string punter. The varsity was 7-2-1 that year.

By his junior year, the coaching staff became aware of some of Pizzuto’s other skills, especially his deceptive speed.

“One of the assistants told Coach Herpy I should be running back kickoffs, so they had me doing that,” he said. “(Geneva Hall of Famer) Mark Debevc used to say I was sneaky fast.

“Mark was my hero. To me, he’s the greatest Geneva athlete ever.”

But Pizzuto also became a key defender that year. He was placed at safety and intercepted eight passes in just eight games, as well as seeing some time at receiver during the Eagles’ 7-3 season.

“I hurt my back against Edgewood,” he said.

The Eagles built some momentum at the end of the 1971 season that they hoped would carry into Pizzuto and Craine’s senior year.

“We won the last four games in a row,” Pizzuto said. “We thought we could be pretty good.”

Pizzuto isn’t sure Herpy was as confident as the players were.

“I think he knew we could score,” Pizzuto said. “I don’t think he was sure about our defense.”

Actually, his junior basketball season was probably just as productive for Pizzuto.

“I was the third guard on the team along with (Pasqualone) and (DeJesus),” he said. “We went to the regional that year.”



Proving themselves

Herpy changed offenses for the 1972 season. “I started out as either the flanker or the slot receiver,” Pizzuto said. “Randy Carter was the quarterback. Don was the tailback and Kim Vincent was the fullback.

“We had Wayne Lomas and Bob Perkins at the tackles, John Askew, who was the second-fastest guy on the team, at one guard and Don Shymske and Tim Watts as the messenger guards. Dave Thompson was the center and Tim Coy was the tight end.”

With runners like Craine, Vincent and Spangler and Pizzuto as change of pace runners, the Eagles rarely had to throw.

“I think we only threw it 76 times the whole season,” Pizzuto said. “Coy led us with 19 catches and I was second with 10.”

But the defense more than held up its end of the bargain. Because he had so many interceptions the previous year, opponents rarely threw Pizzuto’s way. Herpy also had a new defensive assignment for him, using him as the last line of the defense at what would now be classified free safety.

“I only had one interception that year,” he said. “I did finish fourth on the team in tackles.”

That was still good enough to earn all-county and all-conference first-team selection, as well as third-team All-Ohio recognition, following up on first-team all-state notice as a junior.

The Geneva defense did its part, pitching four shutouts, one in the opener and three straight in the fifth through seventh games against Jefferson, Conneaut and Edgewood.

“There were four other games where we gave up eight points or less,” Pizzuto said. “The only teams that got two scores off us were Harbor and Ashtabula.”

The Harbor game in Week 4 was the key event. That’s when Pizzuto’s skills were utilized on offense.

“Don was averaging about 200 yards a game, but he went down on the second series against Harbor and they had to carry him off,” he said. “I remember Coach Herpy said, ‘Pizzuto, you’re in at tailback.’ I got into the huddle and Coy said I’d better get the job done. I scored (all) three touchdowns (in the 21-13 win).”

There was another moment at halftime of that game that lit a fire under the Eagles.

“Randy Carter’s mother was very sick that year,” he said. “In fact, she was dying and she was in the hospital. He stood up at halftime and told us how much it would mean to her if we won that game. It meant a lot. We dedicated our season to her. ”

To cap it, Craine came back out to play the fourth quarter. Used as decoy on a line plunge, Carter faked out Harbor and hit Pizzuto with a 50-yard scoring pass for the victory.

“That win was big to us because our class had never beaten Harbor,” Pizzuto said.

In the minds of the Eagles, that win was probably the key to their run to an NEC title and a 9-1 season. But Pizzuto said nearly every game in the NEC that year was a battle.

“When we were seniors, almost every NEC game was played against an undefeated team,” he said. “Harbor, Ashtabula, St. John and Edgewood were all undefeated when we played them.”

It would seem his role in the Harbor game would have been the highlight, but Pizzuto points to the St. John game in Week 9 that clinched an outright title.

“They had Tom McGinnis (son of Hall of Famer Dan McGinnis) at quarterback and Steve Abraham, who went to Michigan State,” he said. “They were leading 7-0 at halftime, but I ran 78 yards for a touchdown in the second half and we won, 21-7.”

Pizzuto shared the tailback slot with Spangler while Craine was on the mend. He finished with 593 yards on 87 carries for 6.6 average. He also scored 72 points.

“I mostly played about a half at tailback,” Pizzuto said. “I think I played three quarters against St. John.”

The Eagles had high hopes of an undefeated season and a potential Class AAA state playoff berths entering the final game against Chanel. But the Firebird coaching staff took measures to make sure that didn’t happen.”

“I ended up playing in college with a couple guys from Chanel,” Pizzuto said. “They told me when their coaches saw our films and saw our speed, they ran hoses out on the field and ran them for three days straight to soak the field. We ended up playing in a quagmire and lost, 7-6.”



Off to B-W

Pizzuto went to Baldwin-Wallace strictly with the idea of playing baseball, but Lee Tressel got him to play football for a while.

“I went to talk to Coach Fisher and I ended up talking to Coach Tressel, too,” he said. “I got enough money from playing baseball, so I decided to play football, too.

“I played freshman football, then played for Coach Tressel on the varsity team as a defensive back. Jim Tressel was the quarterback my freshman and sophomore years.”

But baseball proved his destiny.

“I played for four years as a pitcher and outfielder,” Pizzuto said. “I had seven hits in a row my sophomore year, a record that (current SS. John and Paul athletic director) Dave Rozzo broke. I made All-American, too.”



After college

He finished his four years at B-W and went into the construction business, working for Day and Zimmerman MPS as a foreign materials coordinator at the Perry Nuclear Power Plant.

He is married to the former Cindy Cerbus, a classmate at Geneva. They’ve been married for 29 years.

“I didn’t start dating her until after we graduated from high school,” Pizzuto said.

They are the parents of Travis, a 2002 Geneva graduate who is a Cleveland State University alumnus and is an accountant for Sherwin Williams, and Ashley, a 2004 Geneva graduate who will finish her college work at Mercyhurst College in Erie in the spring and plans to work for the Erie County coroner’s office.

Pizzuto actually finished his degree at Cleveland State in 1999, then taught for three years at Kingsville Elementary in Buckeye Local Schools while also serving as baseball coach.

“I like working with kids,” he said.

But he got a chance to combine his work in construction with his time in education in 2002.

“I stayed in Local 310 while I was still teaching,” Pizzuto said. “I was offered a position in Cleveland instructing kids working on getting their GED or training for work in the construction trade.

“Joe Donatone was the superintendent at Buckeye when I told him about this opportunity, and he tried to talk me out of it. It’s worked out well, although I do miss the teaching and coaching. When I’m 57, I hope to retire and hope to get back into substitute teaching and maybe even coaching.”

Pizzuto said the lessons of football keep coming into play even now.

“Football teaches you about life,” he said. “You may not feel like going to practice, but you do it, anyway. You may not want to go to work, but you do it, anyway.

“You have certain responsibilities and you just do what you have to. When you get into life, you find out the things your coaches taught you are true.”