Spartans defeat state champs

Tom Zetts connected with wideout Nick Burnett for a touchdown passto beat St. Ignatius.
By JOE SCALZO
VINDICATOR SPORTS STAFF
BOARDMAN -- The Boardman High football team has likely been preparing for Cleveland St. Ignatius the whole offseason.
Senior quarterback Tom Zetts has been preparing for the Wildcats his whole life.
Growing up, he and his father, Tom, who was a receiver in high school, would go out to a field to practice throwing passes.
They ended every practice with the same play.
"It was always a go route to beat Ignatius," Zetts said. "We wouldn't leave until we completed it."
Fast forward several years and 43 minutes of high school football and you find Zetts rolling out to avoid the rush with 4:32 left in the fourth quarter.
Zetts hit senior wideout Nick Burnett on a go route -- beating Ignatius' all-Ohio defensive back Tony Gonzalez -- for a 34-yard touchdown pass to beat the defending Division I state champions 29-23 Friday night at Spartan Stadium.
The similarity was almost eerie.
Big night
"This is so significant," said Zetts, who hit 7 of 12 passes for 164 yards and two touchdowns. "We know they're a great team. We just played great."
Of course, the win wasn't that simple.
Boardman (2-0) forced the Wildcats to turn the ball over on downs, but Boardman running back Brad Beck -- who had an otherwise great game, rushing 27 times for 81 yards -- fumbled on the Ignatius 30.
Ignatius quarterback Brian Hoyer -- who had an otherwise lousy game -- then drove the Wildcats down to the Spartan 14.
On second and 10 with 22 seconds left, Hoyer dropped back to pass, scrambled to the middle and ran to the 4, where he fumbled the ball -- the Wildcats' fifth turnover of the game.
Boardman senior Mike Villagrana recovered the fumble and Zetts ran out the clock.
"I love playing in these kind of games," Villagrana, who also had two sacks and two catches for 42 yards, said. "You want to play in big games. Our crowd was unbelievable. Hopefully this will lead to a great season."
Early lead
The Spartans, who last beat Ignatius in 1999, struck first when Dan Ford intercepted Hoyer's pass on the opening series and cruised in untouched for a 27-yard touchdown.
Ignatius (1-1) answered late in the quarter when senior running back Carter Welo, who had 26 carries for 246 yards and three touchdowns, ran for a 45-yard touchdown.
Boardman senior wide receiver Robert Perryman then beat Gonzalez, who has verbally committed to Ohio State, for a 72-yard touchdown to give the Spartans a 14-7 lead.
Welo answered again, this time with a 22-yard touchdown to tie the game at halftime.
Then Perryman again answered, electrifying the sellout crowd with a 97-yard kickoff return on the first play of the second half.
"The first half seemed to last forever and we felt a little tired," Perryman, who also had an interception and a fumble recovery, said. "We just tried to suck it up. I got a wedge and my blocking was amazing."
Welo ran for an 11-yard touchdown later in the third, but Ignatius kicker Josiah Kedzior missed the extra point. Kedzior later hit a 30-yard field goal with 10:04 left in the game to give the Wildcats their only lead.
But Zetts went 3 for 4 for 59 yards on the game-winning drive as the Spartans went 85 yards in nine plays for the winning score. The Spartan defense did the rest.
"They're a very good football team and this was a playoff caliber game," Ignatius coach Chuck Kyle said. "We made some mistakes and they made some great plays when they had to. We're inexperienced and you'd like to play some easy teams early on to get experience.
"We don't get to do that at all."
scalzo@vindy.com