MAC Poland rebounds to top Quakers

The Bulldogs battled bad weather in a 21-10 win over Salem.
By GARY HOUSTEAU
VINDICATOR CORRESPONDENT
SALEM -- It wasn't very pretty, weather conditions aside, but Poland played well enough when it needed to against Salem, pulling out a Metro Athletic Conference victory in front of a rain-drenched crowd, 21-10.
The Quakers played inspired football from the outset, as sophomore quarterback Landen Heath connected on a pass to Garrett Sevek down the middle of the field for 44 yards to set the pace for the entire game.
Salem (1-6, 0-3) drove 80 yards on 12 plays on the opening drive as Ken Buckley ran it in from 1 yard out to earn a 7-0 advantage.
Battling back: Poland (6-1, 2-0), coming off its lone loss of the season to the Chaney Cowboys, shook off that initial blow from the Quakers by driving 78 yards on 11 plays, which was culminated on a 1-yard plunge from Lou DaVanzo to tie the score at 7-7.
"Salem's a good team, they've had some bad luck," said Poland coach Paul Hulea. "They played real hard and they made a couple of plays in the first quarter and we made a couple of plays, too, so we're proud of our kids for that."
However, it didn't get a whole lot easier for Poland throughout the contest, especially when it was on offense, as Salem played aggressive and stifling defense against the Bulldogs for most of the game.
DaVanzo still managed to lead all rushers in the game with 113 yards on 20 carries, but most of that total came late in the game when Poland controlled the ball on the ground and added a late score by DaVanzo from 20 yards out to seal the win.
"Obviously, there is a lot of things that we need to work on as a football team," Hulea said. "But you've got to be proud of the team for how hard they play. They play so hard every down, they give great effort so it's really hard to get upset with them. We just have to keep playing hard."
Stingy 'D': The Poland defense played hard as usual despite giving up that early touchdown. Salem was only able to add a second-quarter field goal to its total when sophomore Brian Schwartz connected from 28 yards.
That kick did give the Quakers a 10-7 lead that they looked like they might take into the locker room. But a Rob Chance interception right before halftime that he advanced 40 yards to the 5-yard line gave the Bulldogs an opportunity to retake the lead.
Three plays later, quarterback Sean Clayton hit Jim Mitolo with a 3-yard touchdown pass in the back of the end zone to take a 14-10 lead.
"We would have loved to have gone into halftime at 10-7, but in the same case, we're 1-5 and we have nothing to lose," Salem coach Doug Phillips said.
"If there is time on that clock, we're going to run the offense that we worked all week on. It was a wet ball, and he threw it a little bit behind him and 56 made a great play."
It was mainly a defensive battle in continuous rain throughout the second half. That's expected of Poland, which has four shutouts to its credit already this season, but it was measurable progress for Salem's previous porous unit.
Nice sign: "It was tremendous," Phillips said. "Being able to see three-and-outs, being able to defend the run, being able to defend the perimeter; we haven't defended the perimeter too well this year. I always believed we can be a great defense and I think we took a step forward tonight."
The weather conditions didn't really affect the outcome of the game according to Hulea, but Poland did scrap the no-huddle offense that took it right down the field on its first possession.
"The way the weather conditions were and we had a slim lead, we just wanted to get some first and 10's," he said. "But I think we played the way we normally played. I didn't see anything different in our play. I do think the field conditions kept the score down, both ways."
Clayton was 6-of-13 in the air tonight for 102 yards for the Bulldogs, while Heath was just 8-of-28 for 86 yards and five interceptions.