LINESVILLE, Pa. —
You have to do the little things well in the game of football to succeed.
Conneaut Area did everything right as it manhandled the Conneaut Spartans, 51-12, sending the Spartans to their sixth straight defeat.
First-year head coach Pat Gould and his Eagles are now 2-3 overall and have a very good diverse group of players. Conneaut Area is a unification of three local school districts (Linesville, Conneaut Lakeland and Conneaut Valley) have combined to field a football team.
By their play against the Spartans, they were a well-oiled machine.
Conneaut coach Rocco Dobran’s team turned it over four times with a blocked punt, two interceptions, and a fumble. Turnovers have been an issue all year long for the Spartans.
“We knew they had a good quarterback and tailback,” Dobran said. “We knew on film they do a lot of reads. Our guys were biting on the fakes and it was a little different than the stuff they had seen. We had to play a little better assignment football. This week was to play smart football and do the little things and not throw the ball away, tuck the ball on contact — we’ve still got to get a lot better at it.
“(Conneaut Area) has good skilled athletes and their line is huge. They are a very good football team. We prepared well but they definitely were the better team.”
Conneaut Area outgained the Spartans, 413 to 235 in total offense. The dynamic Eagles’ offense was carried by freshmen Hunter Merritt (six carries, team-high 155 yards) who had touchdown runs of 70 and 51, on consecutive carries in the second quarter to make it 31-0. Merritt, from his Wildcat position, also threw for a score in the fourth quarter hitting tight end Chris Richardson for 21 yards.
Tyler Bartlett had an interception, blocked a punt and scored from 15 yards out for the Eagles on a shovel pass from starting quarterback Jon Onderko (seven carries, 64 yards, and 54 yards passing) with 9:15 left in the first quarter. It was Onderko who, on the third play of the game, went 50 yards to paydirt to start the night.
Bartlett also added to his evening catching the two point conversion pass from Onderko after his touchdown.
The Eagles led, 14-0, after one quarter and then scored 17 more points in the second to lead 31-0 at halftime.
“We tried to put in our no-huddle offense and it went very well,” Gould said. “We did what we wanted to do and wish we would have done some better things. We mixed it up on offense and did what we wanted to do.”
The Spartans tallied their points in the third and fourth quarter.
Troy Colucci accounted for the first score on the first play from scrimmage when he hit Aslan Shearer on a 67-yard bomb just 19 seconds into the second half. Colucci (14 carries, 98 yards, 4 of 6 passing, 97 yards) also scored on a 4-yard run in the fourth at the 11:55 mark as the Spartans trailed 44-12 at that point.
Elijah Anderson (22 attempts, 86 yards) and Tyler Bartlett (three catches, 29 yards) both tallied for the Eagles in the third quarter as Anderson had an 18-yard touchdown run while Bartlett went in from the 6.
“(In the second half) we had gotten a big sack at the end of the first half and an interception and the kids got excited about that. They finally could see what they could do if they had some confidence and excitement. They got their heads up and it carried into the second half and a lot of good plays happened,” Dobran concluded.
Hall is a freelance writer from Ashtabula.
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