Canfield closes out a strong December

The Cardinals beat Mooney 55-48 and
are 6-1.

By CHUCK HOUSTEAU

VINDICATOR CORRESPONDENT

YOUNGSTOWN — With no returning starters, Canfield High boys basketball coach John Cullen wasn’t sure what to expect from the Cardinals this year.

But after another hard-fought 55-48 victory on the road over Cardinal Mooney the veteran coach is pleasantly surprised to see his team off to a winning record.

“If you would have told me we were going to be 6-1 by New Year’s I would have said you were crazy,” Cullen said. “We have a lot of young guys with a mixture of inexperienced seniors who are growing and getting tested by fire.

“This was a good game for us to grow on.”

Canfield’s only loss came at the hands of the Boardman Spartans.

The Canfield-Mooney game was a physical contest that saw both teams go to the free throw line 55 times.

“We knew it would be a physical game,” Cullen said. “Our objective was to pressure without fouling but that didn’t work out too good.”

Canfield led only 25-21 at the half but seemed to take control of the game by the end of the third quarter after they outscored Mooney 13-7 to open up a 10-point lead.

Senior Andrew Kuchmaner and Adam Muth and sophomore Mike Podolski led the Cardinals with a couple of baskets each to fuel the rally.

Cardinal Mooney (3-3) kept chipping away early in the fourth behind the hot shooting of Randall Thomas who made two 3-pointers and a free throw in the period.

Randall’s second 3-pointer cut the Canfield lead to 42-39 with 4:50 left in the game. Randall finished with a game-high 13 points.

Canfield though regained control of the game on a basket by Matt Keating who led the Cards with 13 points.

Canfield pushed the lead to seven points on a basket by Brian Fox and then put the game away by hitting 8-of-13 free throws down the stretch.

Canfield connected on 17-of-31 free throws for the game while Mooney was 18-of-24.

Neither team shot the ball well from the field.

“It probably wasn’t one of our better games in our last three games but Mooney had a lot to do with that,” Cullen said. “They were well prepared but our kids were able to answer the bell down the stretch.”

Mooney coach Steve Leslie said that his team didn’t play well.

“We were horrible offensively,” said Leslie. “We didn’t pass well and we just stood around. Canfield’s good enough to make you look bad when you’re just not playing good offense.”

Leslie said that despite the loss, he believes his team will get better.

“We are right there in every game and that makes you want to come back out and work hard to play better the next game.

“We enjoy playing against a John Cullen-coached Canfield team because they are so fundamentally strong and they make you better by playing against them.”