By Eric Hamilton

Mark Pinter’s 32-yard field goal in the third overtime lifted Alliance, 23-20.

ALLIANCE — For the second straight week, the Canfield High football team returned home from a trip to Stark County without a victory.

Despite scoring twice in overtime against former Metro Athletic Conference rival Alliance, the Cardinals fell victim to a costly penalty and a 32-yard field goal by Mark Pinter in the third overtime as the Aviators prevailed 23-20 Friday night at Mount Union Stadium.

“Our kids gave a great effort tonight against a very good Alliance football team.” said Canfield coach Mike Pavlansky. “We played with a lot of passion and a lot of heart tonight, but we came up a little short.

“Our defense played lights out tonight and kept us in the game. You just have to give their kicker credit for making a play. We expect to win these types of games and we don’t believe in moral victories.”

After regulation ended with the score tied at 10, Canfield kicker Billy Fisher kicked a 29-yard field goal in the first overtime to put the pressure on the Aviators.

Pinter returned the favor with a 31-yard field goal to send the contest into the second OT tied at 13-13.

The Aviators (3-0) had the first possession in the second extra session and this time got into the end zone. J.J. Williams recovered a fumble in the end zone on second-and-goal. Pinter added the point after and gave Alliance a 20-13 advantage.

Canfield (1-2) rallied with a TD of its own, scoring on a 2-yard run by quarterback Adam Muth. Fisher’s extra point sent the game into the third overtime tied at 20.

The Cards failed to score on their next possession, with a 37-yard field goal sailing wide left.

That opened the door for Alliance. On fourth down, it appeared that the game would move into a fourth overtime, as Pinter’s 38-yard kick was off target. But Canfield was called for a roughing the kicker penalty, giving Alliance a first down.

Four plays later, Pinter converted a 32-yarder to lift Alliance to victory.

“Our kids gave great effort on that play, so you can’t fault them for that,” said Pavlansky. “We had the block on and we were just trying to make a play right there.

“We left a lot of points on the board in the first half when we had opportunities to score, so the game didn’t come down to that one play at the end.”

The Cards owned a 7-0 lead at the intermission, scoring in the first quarter on a 69-yard touchdown run by Kyle Vaclav.

But Canfield’s inability to take advantage of Alliance’s three first-half turnovers proved costly. The Cards started two drives inside the Aviators’ 30, but came away empty-handed.

Canfield was just 2-of-12 on third down, with the two conversions coming in overtime.

Alliance cut the deficit to 7-2 on Canfield’s first possession of the third quarter. The Aviators blocked a Cardinal punt and the ball rolled through the back of the end zone for a safety.

The Aviators held on to the momentum and took their first lead of the game, as Delonte Dunn rambled 52 yards for the score to put Alliance in front 10-7 with 22 seconds left in the third quarter.

Fisher answered with 6:30 left in regulation with a 37-yard field goal to tie the score at 10-10.