East vs Canfield

Gallery

By Chuck Housteau

East was unable to get good field position, which was key to the game for Canfield.

CANFIELD — Canfield High assistant coach Gary Hoelzel called Adam Muth a “warrior” on the way to the team’s celebratory singing of the school’s alma mater following the Cardinals’ 14-0 win over East on Friday night.

It was easy to understand why Hoelzel felt that strongly about Canfield’s senior quarterback and defensive back.

Muth, who has tutored behind such standout quarterbacks Sean Baker and Mark Carrocce the last two years, has been the Cardinals’ go-to player this season.

Muth came up big against the Panthers.

Muth completed 7-of-12 passes for 120 yards and tossed a beautiful 16-yard touchdown pass to Dom Rich in the first quarter for the Cardinals’ early 7-0 lead.

Muth also rushed a team high 20 times for 69 yards, caught a pass from running back-quarterback Kyle Vaclav for 7 yards and even played a little defense where he made a few big hits.

“Adam showed his senior leadership tonight,” said Canfield coach Mike Pavlansky. “He’s had the luxury of coming up and learning behind a couple of great quarterbacks and he got some spot play at the position last year.

“So far this year, he’s shown that he can be the man to run this team.”

Run was what Muth did the best against a quick and aggressive Panthers defense.

“I didn’t expect to run the ball so much,” said Muth with a smile. “They’re a very good team with great athletes but we were able to attack them on the ground with me and Kyle running the ball up the seems.”

Vaclav, a junior who plays tailback and sometimes takes direct snaps in Canfield’s spread offense, chipped in with 57 yards rushing on 13 carries.

Vaclav’s 10-yard touchdown run on an option pitch from Muth put the game away for Canfield with 10:15 left in the fourth quarter.

But it wasn’t easy.

East High (2-4) showed its is a much improved team with a lot of underclassmen playing significant time this season.

“Our guys fought hard,” said East coach Brian Shaner. “We’re young and a little inexperienced but we never gave up right up until the final play of the game.

“It’s a great group of kids we have here. I wish we had a better record to show for it. Tonight we just couldn’t get field position for anything.”

That was the key to the game for the Cardinals.

“We were able to keep them in the hole with our defense and our special teams play,” Pavlansky said. “We didn’t allow them to hit any home runs with big plays.”

East actually outgained the Cards on the ground behind some outstanding running by Anthony Robinson and Mike Starkey.

Starkey, a first-year junior player was electrifying with 71 yards on just seven carries but could not break any runs all the way.

Robinson added 59 yards on the ground.

But a blocked punt and several more great rushes on punt attempts by East by Canfield defenders kept the football on the Canfield side of the 50 most of the game.

Canfield was able to eat clock and keep East deep in its own territory with ball control running by Muth and Vaclav.

The Cards’ best and only long drive came on their first possession when they marched 68 yards on 11 plays before the touchdown pass from Muth to Rich.

Canfield’s second and final score came after a 23-yard punt by East that gave the Cards the ball at the Panthers’ 34 yard line.

Five plays later, Vaclav found the end zone to give Canfield a 14-0 lead.

Canfield’s defense was led by Tom Cheslik, Luke Franken and Gary Ditullio.