Mineral Ridge rallied
from a 13-point deficit
to defeat Crestview.

By TOM WILLIAMS

VINDICATOR SPORTS STAFF

COLUMBIANA — Jumping out to a 13-point first-quarter lead, the Crestview High football team was poised to keep its Division V playoff berth dreams alive.

But in Friday’s fourth quarter, Mineral Ridge shattered those dreams by engineering a 61-yard scoring march capped in the game’s final seconds by quarterback Joey Miller’s 1-yard touchdown run.

With 19 seconds remaining, Phil Ciavarella’s extra point kick was the margin of difference as the Rams edged the Rebels, 14-13.

“This win is huge — it might put us in the playoffs,” said Miller who wasn’t supposed to carry the ball on the critical second-and-goal play. With no timeouts, the plan was for Miller to hand off to tailback A.J. Zitello who already had 161 yards on 34 carries.

Instead, Miller took the snap then dropped the ball.

“My hands were soaked and it fell right through,” Miller said. “If I had gotten the ball to A.J., he would have walked into the end zone. The line had made a huge hole, no one was there.”

Miller didn’t panic as the ball lay exposed.

“As soon as it hit the ground, I picked it up and ran,” the senior quarterback said. “I knew I had to run because there wasn’t time to get it to A.J.”

He made it with ease.

On the Rams’ final drive, Miller’s arm was just as crucial as Zitello’s legs. Miller completed four passes for 26 yards to move the Rams into scoring position.

“We’re a running team, but if we have to pass, we have some guys who can make some plays,” Mineral Ridge coach Dom Leone said.

That the Rams (6-1, 3-1 Inter Tri-County League Tier One) were even in the game showed an impressive turnaround for a horrible start.

The Rebels (4-3, 2-2) marched their opening possession 62 yards for a 7-0 lead. Quarterback Tony Britton, who rushed for 92 yards and passed for 59 more, hit Corey Hill with a 4-yard touchdown pass.

After the Rams ran three plays, Hill’s long punt return gave the Rebels the ball at the Rams’ 36. Seven plays later, Britton faked a handoff and rushed 7 yards for a 13-0 lead.

“We couldn’t have scripted that any better,” Crestview coach Paul Cusick said. “Our kids were playing with confidence, then kind of went flat. You’ve got to be able to keep that momentum going.”

A bad snap on the extra point kick attempt that resulted in a failed run proved to be crucial.

“We missed opportunities,” Cusick said. “We dropped a first-down pass, we dropped an interception. We fumbled a snap on an extra point, we had a field goal blocked. [Do] those kinds of things in these games, you lose.

“We just gave them too many chances and they are too good of a team to give [extra] chances,” Cusick said.

Leone said the bad start shouldn’t have been a surprise.

“Last year, they went up 18-0 first quarter so it was kind of the same type of deal,” Leone said. “We just had to settle down. Pretty much after the second quarter, we basically shut them down.”

The Rams responded with a 72-yard drive capped by Zitello’s 1-yard touchdown run.

In the third quarter, the Rebels threatened to make it a two-score game when Cusick sent Aaron Stewart out to try a 27-yard field goal. Rams linebacker Jason Ferguson leaped to bat the ball with his right arm.

“I saw them line up tilted a little bit, so I tried to jump where my body would be aimed at the ball,” said Ferguson, who also blocked a field goal by Springfield.

williams@vindy.com