Penalties stymied Girard in the fourth quarter.

By DOUG CHAPIN

VINDICATOR CORRESPONDENT

CORTLAND — Lakeview clinched at least a tie for the final Trumbull Athletic Conference football championship with a 24-20 victory Friday night over Girard in a game that came down to the final play.

The Bulldogs (7-2) are 6-0 in TAC play with a home game remaining next week against LaBrae. Hubbard is 5-1 in conference play with one game left.

“How many teams, back during two-a-days, had as their goals to win their conference championship and make the playoffs,” Lakeview coach Tom Pavlansky said while cleaning whipped cream pie — courtesy of his son, Stephen — off his face. “We’re one of the fortunate ones, we can call ourselves champions now, we finally met that goal. It’s been awhile, not since 1996, but we did it, and now our next goal is the playoffs.”

The Bulldogs were ranked sixth in Division III, Region 9.

Friday’s contest was a tale of two halves. Lakeview opened a 24-7 lead when Ben Moody raced 58 yards for a score on the first play from scrimmage in the second half. After that, the Bulldogs garnered just two more first downs, but held off the Indians (5-4, 4-2 TAC) despite giving up 225 passing yards in the second half to sophomore quarterback Adam Charles.

“We’re playing in a championship game, if you aren’t ready to go ...,” Girard coach Bud McSuley said. “In the first half we weren’t ready, in the second half we came out and played like a champion. The kids played their butts off. It came down to the end, we had an opportunity to win a football game and we didn’t do it.”

The Indians closed to 24-20 with 11:21 remaining in the game on the third short touchdown run by Kyle Stadelmyer. The extra point attempt was wide left.

While the Girard defense clamped down on the Bulldog offense the rest of the way, Charles and the Indians had three more possessions, all of which penetrated the Lakeview 20.

The final possession started at the Girard 44 with 1:02 showing on the clock. Charles hit Marty Brinker for 22 yards on a post pattern to move to the Lakeview 34. On fourth-and-1, Stadelmyer ran seven yards for a first down at the 18 with 33 seconds left.

A 13-yard pass to Brett Cubellis put the ball at the five with 19 seconds to play. On second down, Charles was sacked for a 3-yard loss, but the Indians were able to get back to the line and, after Charles spiked the ball, the clock showed one second remaining.

A slant pass was incomplete, but drew flags and Lakeview was penalized for pass interference. With the ball at the 4, Girard tried to send Stadelmyer through the right side of the line but he was stopped by several Lakeview defenders.

“We played a hunch and said we think Stadelmyer’s getting the ball,” Pavlansky said. “We told our linebackers, don’t let number 4 get in the end zone.

About the final play, McSuley said, “We take what the defense gives us. They made the play on the goal line and we didn’t.”

Girard’s other two fourth-quarter possessions were stymied by penalties. An intentional grounding call came on a play which started at the Lakeview 24, and an illegal block flag flew on a well-developed screen pass from the Bulldog 25. Both possessions eventually ended on unsuccessful fourth-down plays.

Lakeview relied on big plays for its offense. Besides Moody’s long touchdown run, Vinnie Elias raced 44 yards for a score and quarterback Justin Clark (5-of-10, 102 yards) found Jarred Clark for a 36-yard scoring play.

After a 79-yard connection with Tallen Birmingham set up Stadelmyer’s first touchdown early in the game, Girard’s Charles went cold. At one point he missed on 10 of 13 passes, including an interception. But starting about midway through the third quarter, he heated up, connecting on nine straight passes and leading two impressive scoring drives.