Canfield rebounds with rout of Niles

The Cardinals rushed for 369 yards in a 49-14 victory over the Red Dragons.

By CHUCK HOUSTEAU

VINDICATOR CORRESPONDENT

CANFIELD — Niles coach Tim Johnson could only shake his head after the Red Dragons dropped a 49-14 decision to Canfield in a key Metro Athletic Conference game Friday night.

“We couldn’t stop them,” Johnson said. “That’s where it starts, we couldn’t stop them. That’s the whole game right there.”

“Them” were the Cardinals’ backs Dan Banna, Pat Fenning and Mark Carrocce.

The trio combined for 369 yards rushing and six touchdowns to lead the Cardinals to an unexpected rout of the previously undefeated Red Dragons.

Coming off tough loss

The Cardinals (4-1, 1-1) were coming off a tough 14-9 loss at the hands of the Howland Tigers last week on the road and needed a win badly to stay in the hunt for the MAC title chase.

“I’m so proud of our guys and how they competed after bouncing back from a tough loss to a very good Howland team,” said Canfield coach Mike Pavlansky. “We knew our backs were against the wall and obviously our kids responded in a manner were just so proud of.

“We just got on a roll and it started snowballin’ down hill on [Niles] and we just kept playing.”

Banna’s early running efforts got the cards rolling as he keyed the first drive of the game that resulted in a nine-play, 80-yard drive.

Banna had runs of 6, 20, 8 and 4 before scoring on a 12-yard run to give the Cardinals their first points of the game.

Canfield never looked back.

Banna leads way

Banna led the Cardinals with 142 yards rushing on 17 carries. He also scored another touchdown in the third quarter.

Although Niles got to within 14-7 in the second quarter and 21-14 early in the third quarter, Canfield put the game away with 21 points in the third quarter on runs by Carrocce (27 yards), Fenning (7 yards) and Banna (1 yard).

Carrocce finished with 116 yards and Fenning added 111. Fenning and Carrocce also tallied touchdowns in the second quarter.

Christian Smith scored the final touchdown and had 85 yards rushing in two carries.

Canfield didn’t throw a pass the whole game and averaged over 10-yards per carry for the entire contest on the ground.

“Give credit where credit is due. Banna’s tough,” Johnson said. “He’s a little fireplug and if you tackle him around his shoulders you won’t tackle him and we didn’t.

“He set the table for everybody else.”

Banna didn’t see it that way.

“We’re a team,” the junior fullback said. “I think all our backs are great and our line was blocking well.

“The line was unbelievable. I’m going to have to buy them Burger King or something because the holes were there all night.”

Niles only scores

Niles got scores from quarterback Vince Melillo on a 2-yard run in the second quarter and on a 5-yard pass play from Melillo to Chris Lykins in the third quarter.

Canfield’s defense did a good job of holding Niles’ standout tailback, Nathan Ganyard, somewhat in check.

Ganyard, who had 717 yards rushing entering the contest, finished with 108 yards on 28 carries.

“Our guys had a sense of urgency about them that tonight was a do-or-die game for our league [aspirations],” Pavlansky said. “We know that we are still in with one loss.

“If we keep playing like this we can build upon it and maybe some good things will still happen for us.”