The Conneaut defense more than held up its end of the bargain in a 14-0 win over Lakeside on Friday night at Municipal Stadium.

The Spartans’ held the Dragons offense to just 65 yards. More impressively, Lakeside totaled only 20 yards on the ground in the shutout.

“That’s Al Carrino, our 82-year-old coach,” Ken Parise said. “He came up with the game plan. He knew how to take away their best stuff. (Lakeside) had some miscues, like bad snaps and penalties, but I give a lot of credit to all of our coaches. They were in the zone and that really helped us.”

The defense’s success carried over to the other side of the ball.

“(The defense) stepped up and made big plays,” senior running back Chris Poore said. “That was important. They helped us get the ball back and get on offense.”

“The defense was just amazing tonight,” senior running back Andrew Goudge said. “They stopped the bal and gave us a chance to do what we had to do.”

— Bob Ettinger



In memory

n Friday’s Grand Valley-at-Fairport game was dedicated to the memory of Pam Locotosh, also known as “Loco” to those around the Skipper program. Locotosh not only had two children go through Fairport, Meghan and Tim Knotts, but was as much a devoted booster as she was a devoted mother. Locotosh passed away Wednesday.

A moment of silence was held before the game in her honor.

— Adam Raeder



Public-address humor

n Being a public-address announcer can be a tough job. It also requires a sense of humor.

Thus is the case at Perry High School on Friday night. The PA announcer mistakenly announced the ball being on the “52-yard line.” After a moment’s pause, he corrected himself by saying, “Correction, the ball is on the 48-yard-line. It isn’t like this is Canadian football here.”

— David Negin



More woes for Geneva

n The Geneva Eagles, already “decimated” by injuries, according to coach Tony Hassett, suffered another loss during their 42-6 defeat by Madison. Cornerback-backup quarterback Tim Kirk was taken off the field by ambulance. The nature and severity of the injury were not known immediately after the game.

Tailback Tommy Padavick was unable to play because of a shoulder injury. The condition has been bothering Padavick for a while, but he tried to play through it.

“We were missing a kid who is arguably one of the best running backs in the area,” Hassett said. “He’s week-to-week. He’s not at full strength yet, but he kept trying to play.”

“We knew (Geneva) had good football players, some of the ones who beat us last year,” Madison coach Tim Wilis said. “Padavick was injured, but one player doesn’t make or break a football team.”

— Chris Larick



Same old, same old

n Kirtland’s 22-14 victory over Jefferson was deja vu for both, as the result was similar to the Week 1 result for each side.

The Falcons, who dropped a 20-12 decision at Grand Valley in the opener, thus lost their second straight game by exactly eight points. The Hornets’ 14-8 triumph over Geneva wasn’t by the same differential, but like their Week 2 result, they basically won by a touchdown.

— Steve Goldman



Connections

n A local and longtime eye doctor was a spectator for the Riverside Beavers and its band, the Riverside Regiment. Dr. Jean Wrightnour, a Harbor graduate, watched her son, 16-year old Andrew Lee, play trumpet in the 190-member contingent. Also in the stands was younger brother, Matt, who runs cross country at John R. Williams Junior High.

Although Wrightnour, who just started her 23rd-year in her profession resides in Concord, she is an aunt to former Edgewood stars, Pam and Trisha Dreslinski.

— Jon Hall



Chain gang

n Edgewood head coach Dom Iarocci should be smiling all week as his Warriors completely dismantled the Berkshire Badgers, 41-21.

Sometimes you find out the mettle of your team under the most diverse situations and although maybe the majority of Warrior fans thought the worst when both senior starters and team leaders, Drew Severino and Peter Mackey, were lost last week Iarocci knew he had a diamond in the rough in sophomore Lou Wisnyai.

He didn’t know how Wisnyai would react to being put in charge of the offense, but if he wasn’t sure then he certainly is sure now as Wisnyai took control like a wily old veteran and has put his team in the position to become a real powerhouse in the area.

Wisnyai threw the ball just enough to win and his line was superb in giving him protection all night. He also was smart enough to realize he has a stable of runners in Matt Anderson, Devin McCaleb, himself and up and coming speedster Riis Smith. And he used them well.

It will be interesting to see when Iarocci unveils Smith to the rest of the teams in the area, because if someone goes down he can rest assured he’s got a bird in hand that can outrun even the stiffest of competition.

— Bruce McClimans



Grinding it out

n The Pymatuning Valley Lakers wasted no time in getting a powerful running game featuring Nick Marshall and Josh Kirby into the offense at Richard A. Moss Stadium in Middlefield. A host of Lakers surrounded a fumble by the Cardinal Huskies on the third play of the game, and PV took nine plays to drive the 35 yards to paydirt.

That’s pretty much how things went throughout the first half for PV, as the Laker duo totaled 27 carries between them for 123 yards, a good amount of production and a good notice to other Laker foes this season of what is to come.

Though not blessed with blazing speed, the duo is able to pound away inside or outrun foes to the outside, but most of the damage against Cardinal was done between the tackles.

— Rich Kelly



Big victory

n Conneaut’s win ended a 10-game losing streak that dated back to exactly a year ago Friday night. On Sept. 3 of last season, Lakeside downed the Spartans, 54-15, to start the skid.

The win also stopped a four-game losing skein to Lakeside.

But most importantly, the victory opened a completely refurbished Municipal Stadium.

— Bob Ettinger



Shank

n Fairport punter J.C. Griffin started the game out with a resounding punt after the Skippers’ first drive stalled – a 43-yard boot with the wind at his back. His next boot, into the wind, went all of 5 yards. Yikes.

Michael Hogya would replace Griffin after that and, despite the one bad boot, the Skippers would average over 30 yards per punt.

Griffin’s five-yard punt didn’t hurt the Skippers, though, as Grand Valley’s A.J. Henson was picked off on the next play.

— Adam Raeder



Building a program

n Harvey coach Marwin Walling knows his team is facing a numbers crunch this year. Of the 46 players on his varsity team, 22 are freshmen and just eight are seniors. He can take pride in the fact his team is playing disciplined football, committing just two penalties against Perry on Friday.

“We’re doing our best to build a program,” he said. “We don’t want to just build for seasons.”

— David Negin



Looking ahead

n Next on Madison’s schedule is the Perry Pirates, a team that, like Geneva, beat the Blue Streaks last year.

“Next week is very important to this football team and to the Madison community,” Willis said.

“We’re looking forward to it,” Blue Streak tailback Josh March said.

 Willis was pleased that, because of the 35-0 lead his team had at halftime, he was able to get most of  his players into the game.That also gave him a chance to rest some of his first-teamers, including March and Billy Skerkavich.

“We’ve got a lot of young guys who want to play football,” Willis said.

— Chris Larick



Against the wind

n The wind was blowing from the west, and seemed to pick up in the second half at Kirtland.

The only two kickoffs with the wind both resulted in touchbacks, even though both occurred from the 35-yard line because of offside penalties. Each side also had a long punt go into the end zone.

In fact, between the two teams, the three punts with the wind averaged 45.7 yards, while the two against the wind, both by Jefferson, totaled 22 yards.

To be fair, though, both of Greg Hamper’s shorter boots came against a heavy rush by Adam Bork, who came close to blocking both.

Kirtland’s only punt was a 50-yarder by Paul Guhde in the third quarter. Guhde had lined up to punt in the first period, but the snap went over his head, causing a 24-yard loss.

The Hornets’ seven other possessions resulted in the three touchdowns, two times when they turned the ball over on downs and two when the half ran out.

— Steve Goldman



Feature band

n The RHS band was highlighted and featured by “(Bill) Wills and (Mike) Snyder in the Morning,” on WTAM (AM-1100), as the Featured Band of the Week in the Friday morning-drive time slot from 5-9 a.m. this past Friday prior to the WG and Riverside football game.

Led by director David Schwartz since 1996, he is helped by Aaron Draime, Joel Wolf, and Jeff Wolf. The auxiliaries are led by Gina Cireddu, Jaclyn Romano, and Kristina Trifiletti.

The field commanders for this season are seniors Liz Daily and Dillon Knop, and sophomores Kassie Gibson and Kayla Miller.

Early in the season the band is featuring Alternative Rock music by Fall Out Boy “Thanks for the Memories,” Off Spring’s, ”Whadoyathink,” Green Day’s “Holiday” and Lady GaGa’s “Poker Face” to name a few artists. The loud band and entertaining group will also perform later in the year in Aurora, Lakewood, and the Lake County Band Festival. With the voice of Mike Vaccariello informing the large crows on hand, their performance was a winner even though the football team took one on the chin to West Geauga 42-0.

— Jon Hall



Erasing the past

n That 54-15 drubbing at the hands of the Dragons was not far from the minds of the coaches or the players on Friday. In fact, Parise made sure his troops knew exactly how far they’d come in a year at halftime.

“Three turnovers in a half will worry a coach,” Parise said. “At the half, the kids saw we had lost to them, 54-13, last year. I had written it on the chalkboard. Then we told them it was 0-0 at the half and that now was their chance.”

— Bob Ettinger



Early rush

n When the Mustangs were at their best early in their game against Fairport, the defensive line was controlling play. Not only were the Skippers struggling to run the ball early in the game, but quarterback Russ Harless was sacked three times in the first half. Sean Smith and Jeremy Steen picked up sacks on Fairport’s first drive, then Adam Moodt put Harless on his back on Fairport’s second drive, forcing a fumble to boot.

Josh Rigg recovered the fumble at the Fairport 21-yard line, setting up a score.

— Adam Raeder



Punt-block stars

n When Perry senior Michael Lutes blocked a punt in the second quarter of Friday’s 42-10 win over Harvey, it marked the third time the Pirates have blocked one this season.

“We call ourselves the ‘Bash team’,” Lutes said. “Basically, we designate a free-runner on each play who has the job of blocking the punt.”

“We expect to block a punt everytime we go out there,” senior Mickey Parker said.

— David Negin



Could’ve been

n Guhde, who had seven completions for 185 yards and a touchdown, also carried the ball 20 times for 21 yards. Those numbers would have been much more impressive, had it not been for two errant snaps, including the one in punt formation, that cost him a total of 49 yards.

Nevertheless, Kirtland did not turn the ball over during the contest.

“That’s a concern of mine; we want to create turnovers, and we didn’t do that tonight,” Jefferson coach Jimmy Henson said.

— Steve Goldman



Where are we?

n The Lakeside defensive line had a bit of trouble lining up against the Spartans. The Dragons were called for encroachment on five occasions.

“Most of the time, we lined up that way,” Lakeside coach Bill Lipps said. “They wanted to argue with what the referee was saying, that they were not offsides. But the stands, the coaches and the players were all telling them they were offsides. We played undisciplined and that showed it.”

All told, the Dragons were flagged 13 times for 82 yards.

— Bob Ettinger



Power outage

n Grand Valley’s high-flying offense was grounded in Fairport, in large part to their inability to get a passing attack going. Henson completed just six passes for 54 yards, throwing one interception, a pass that sailed well wide of its intended target and to Fairport defensive back Bruce Oberg.

Henson missed a wide-open Moodt on a would-be touchdown early in the game, and a drop by Jeromy Rockafellow on fourth down ended a Grand Valley drive.

Not fearing the Mustangs’ passing attack, Fairport stacked their safeties in the box in the second half, shutting down Grand Valley’s rushing attack, and with it, the Grand Valley offense.

— Adam Raeder



Weird punt

n Parker was involved in a very odd punt sequence in the fourth quarter. On fourth down and the ball on the Perry 33-yard line, the snap sailed by Parker and headed into the Pirate end zone. Parker raced back, picked up the ball, scrambled right, and then punted it. Harvey’s Corey Phillips surprised everyone by running up and catching it at full speed at the Perry 28 (a minus-five yard punt) and ran it to the 12-yard line.

Sophomore quarterback Kaleb Coffee found DeVante Ward for a 12-yard touchdown pass on the next play with just more than a minute remaining in the game. It was the only pass Harvey had completed on the night.

— David Negin



Chain gang

n Jefferson had four first downs in the second half, all coming on its 80-yard scoring drive. Scott Davidson’s 37-yard scoring run that capped the march came on third and one.

The Falcons had the pigskin three other times after the break. Two resulted on three-and-outs and the other on Michael Brettrager’s interception that set up the deciding score.

— Steve Goldman



Choices

n After starting the season 0-2, the Dragons are facing a turning point. Do they put their noses to the grindstone and try and turn the season around, or do they pack it in?

Lipps knows exactly what the coaching staff will do. He can only hope the players follow suit.

“We’ve got a long way to go,” Lipps said. “We have eight football games. We will coach our butts off and give them every opportunity to win. It’s up to them. They have to come and and practice and play like they practice.

“So far, we’ve played like we have practiced. We want to pick it up in practice. I’ve been leaving the facility upset in the evenings.”

— Bob Ettinger

 

I love this song!

n Fans at Grieg Field got their fair share of the band Journey on Friday as both Grand Valley’s and Fairport’s marching bands opted to play the ’80s staple “Don’t Stop Believing.”

Grand Valley played the tune with three soloists: Amanda Vandervort on trumpet, Josh Stagl on trombone and Nick Benton on saxophone.

Fairport used just one soloist, freshman trumpet player Zach Janovskovic.

Fairport’s band announcer stated the tune was “made popular again by the hit TV show Glee,” but the Star Beacon reporter at the game feels that Family Guy is more responsible for the song’s sprint back into pop culture, though it was also famously featured in the final episode of The Sopranos.

— Adam Raeder

 

What happened?

Jefferson’s first possession of the second half featured an odd play. On third and six from his own 49, Colin Cicon dropped back to pass, but was sacked and the ball popped loose. A Falcon player picked up the live ball, but apparently thought the play was dead, and stood with it momentarily.

After the player realized that the play had not ended, he lateraled to guard Andy Santiago, who advanced the ball a few yards to his own 29, where he was tackled. But a five-yard facemask penalty kept it at third down, with 21 yards to go.

The Falcons almost converted it, but Cicon’s pass to Connor Cleveland came up four yards short.

Davidson, a sophomore who had 17 carries for 180 yards against GV, added 95 more on 17 attempts, and now has 275 rushing yards on the young season.

— Steve Goldman



Numbers crunch

n With school funding in such a quandry in most districts again this year, paying to play is something most people don’t want to encounter, but must, if their children are to be involved with extra programs. Sports is the biggest loser in this derby, and the Cardinal system sees their young men paying $400 to play football, something coach Eric Cardinal does not use as an excuse when his team falls, but does use to keep his team in a mode of working to improve every day.

“It sometimes is tough to get enough kids to come out for the team when you ask parents to put up $400 for their kids’ efforts, but we just have to deal with the players who do come out and try to get them to give us their best efforts. It’s not easy, and you don’t always get the best athletes on the team, so you work hard and try to keep improving with what you have.

“Five different times tonight we made big mistakes that hurt us, and you can’t shoot yourselves in the foot four or five times a game like we did and expect to win. Coach Mangini can’t do it with the pros, and people need to realize, and remember, that these are just 15-, 16- and 17-year-old kids we have playing here. They try their best, but it doesn’t always work out like we draw it up.”

— Rich Kelly