Girard’s defense shuts down Niles in 54-6 victory

By Pete Mollica

GIRARD — Girard High coach Bud McSuley challenged his defensive unit going into Friday night’s neighborhood battle with Niles McKinley.

His defense answered with a performance that even surprised McSuley as the Indians (6-0) held the Red Dragons to minus yardage through nearly three quarters while rolling to a 54-6 rout.

The Girard offense didn’t do a bad job either, rolling up over 500 total yards behind the running of senior tailback Tallen Birmingham, who had 22 carries for 106 yards and four touchdowns, and the passing of senior quarterback Adam Charles, who added 212 yards on 8 completions in 19 attempts and two more TDs.

“We watched the last two films of Niles and we saw that they like to come off the ball very quickly, so we challenged our defense to shut them down early and they came up with an outstanding effort tonight,” said McSuley, whose Indians are ranked No. 5 in the Associated Press poll in Division IV and are No. 2 in Region 13 of the OHSAA computer ratings.

“We were also able to come up with the big plays offensively and we didn’t turn the football over and took advantage of every opportunity that our defense gave us,” he added.

The Indians scored on eight out of nine possessions and never punted, while the defense gave Niles just two first downs in the first half and one of those came on a penalty. Niles had minus-18 yards of total offense in the half.

Girard continued its dominance on both sides of the ball in the third quarter as the Red Dragons never got into plus yardage until the end of the third quarter when McSuley started putting in his reserves.

The Indians scored off their first possession when Charles connected on a 40-yard bomb to a wide open Landon Smith and were driving for their second score on the next series reaching the Niles 8-yard line before penalties and three incomplete passes killed the drive.

They pinned Niles deep in its own territory and then forced a fumble with Jake Reddinger recovering at the Niles 4-yard line. Two plays later Birmingham score his first TD from the 1.

Girard scored three touchdowns more in the second quarter, two on runs by Birmingham of 2 and 12 yards and the third on a 4-yard pass from Charles to Dominic Morgan, which came with seven seconds left in the half and was set up by two passes by Charles, one to Gino Mariano of 41 yards and the other to Michael Floravit for 22 yards.

The Indians scored two TDs more in the third quarter one on a 1-yard run by Birmingham, which was set up by a fourth-down pass from Charles to Floravit of 20 yards and then the reserves took over and scored another with Raymond Byrd leading the way scoring on a 3-yard run.

Niles started its lone touchdown drive at the end of the third quarter behind the running of senior Chris Brogdon, who carried the ball 11 times for 63 yards in the drive, but the score came on an 8-yard pass from quarterback Bryceton Baker to Cory Floyd.

Girard’s final score was set up by a 67-yard run from Brandon Byrd, who then scored on a 3-yard run.

Niles finished the game with 42 yards rushing and 17 passing. The Red Dragons had seven first downs, five of them coming in the touchdown drive and two of those were by penalties as the Indians were hit with nine infractions for 95 yards on the night.

mollica@vindy.com