Poland mistakes, Alliance passing run score to 29-3



The Bulldogs turned the ball over five times in a MAC setback.
By GREG GULAS
VINDICATOR CORRESPONDENT
POLAND -- Charles Babb threw three touchdown passes and the Alliance High defense forced five Poland turnovers, as the Aviators prevailed 29-3 in the Metro Athletic Conference football opener Friday at Poland High stadium.
Alliance (1-1, 1-0), in its second and final season in the MAC before joining the Northeastern Buckeye Conference next year, also got 144 yards rushing and a touchdown from heralded running back Kendall Davis and three interceptions (a fourth was called back due to a penalty) from defensive back Steve Love.
"This is my most satisfying win at Alliance," second-year coach Ron Kuceyeski said. "Credit our staff, especially defensive coordinator Marty Cvelbar, as we had a 51-point swing from last week. This was a total team effort for us tonight."
The Aviators, 54-27 losers to Minerva in their season opener a week ago, welcomed the return of four players who were held out of the line-up last week due to a violation of team rules. A total of 11 players were unable to play the final quarter last week due to injury.
Costly turnovers
Poland coach Paul Hulea, whose team managed just 154 yards of total offense, noted that turnovers were costly.
"We had a chance to score on our first series, but missed a field goal," he said. "Turnovers hurt us tonight. Alliance is an excellent team and despite giving up four touchdowns, I thought we played well defensively. Offensively, we played well in spurts. We just have to keep working hard and improve."
The Aviators got on the board first when Babb found Chris Banks from 52 yards out for a 7-0 lead midway through the opening stanza.
Poland, which struggled with just 58 offensive yards in the first half, got a 40-yard field goal from Fred Romeo with three seconds remaining before intermission as the Bulldogs cut the Alliance lead to 7-3.
Build 14-3 margin
On Alliance's second possession of the second half, Babb hooked up with Banks once again, this time from 20 yards out as the Aviators built a 14-3 margin.
Coty Bates then caught a 15-yard strike from Babb, and after DaRon Taylor connected with Love for the two-point conversion, Alliance increased its lead to 22-3 with 2:57 left in the third period.
Davis, who gained just 60 yards on his first 19 carries, then dashed into the end zone on his final carry from 84 yards away at the 2:36 mark to round out the scoring for the Aviators.
Alliance had 327 total offensive yards, 193 on the ground and 134 though the air, as Babb completed seven of 12 passes for 134 yards. Banks had three catches for 77 yards to top all receivers on the night.
The Bulldogs (0-2, 0-1) will now play host to Ursuline next Friday night in their annual Hall of Fame game.

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