Skiba brothers help Ridge rally past Springfield, 26-19

By Joe Scalzo

MINERAL RIDGE — At 5 p.m. on Friday, Mineral Ridge High football coach Joe Stevens got a call from Dan Skiba’s mother. She had just been to the doctor, where they discovered her son had a mild case of appendicitis.

The good news was, he was OK to play. The bad news was, he was limited, which is not a good diagnosis for your top rushing threat.

That was Challenge No. 1.

Challenge No. 2 came in the game’s first six minutes, as the Rams fell behind to Springfield 13-0 due to poor punt coverage (Springfield senior Jimmy Zubick scored on a 59-yard return) and poor pass coverage (leading to a wide-open 34-yard TD from Brad Ferraro to Joe Ohlin).

After the Rams cut it to 13-6 at halftime, they faced Challenge No. 3 when Springfield promptly drove straight down the field to take a 19-6 lead just over a minute into the third quarter.

Question was, How would the Rams respond?

“It took a slap in the face for our guys to wake up in the second half,” said Stevens. “Our defense has been what has given us something extra every week.

“When we need something, our defense seems to rise to the occasion and get our team going.”

It happened again Friday, as the Rams’ defense shut down Springfield the rest of the way to rally for a 26-19 win in a key Inter Tri-County League Tier One game.

“This is huge,” said senior fullback Kyle Skiba, Dan’s older brother. “We’re 3-0 in the league, tied for the top. We have a great chance of winning it now.

“We’ve set ourselves up in a great position.”

After the Rams tied the game at 19 on a 4-yard TD run by junior Jesse Garland late in the third quarter, Ridge’s defense forced a Springfield punt, thanks in large part to an illegal formation penalty that wiped out the Tigers’ conversion on third-and-18.

On the ensuing drive, Kyle Skiba scored the game-winning touchdown — his second of the night — on a 50-yard run that you only see in high school football. He started left, broke several tackles, weaved his way back to the right side of the field and, finally, broke free down the sideline for the score.

“That was just flat-out determination on his part,” said Stevens, whose team improved to 4-2 overall. “He is a true senior leader for us and, just like his brother, when it’s time for big plays, if it’s not Danny, it’s Kyle.”

Kyle Skiba finished with 122 yards on 12 carries, while Dan had just six carries, but ran for 84 yards, including a 29-yard TD early in the third quarter.

“He was cleared to play but we worried about him taking a hit, so we played him mostly on defense,” Stevens said of Dan. “Through that first half and halftime, he said he felt better and in big games, big-time players want to play.

“He said, ‘Coach, put me in on some offense’ and we did.”

Garland ran nine times for 47 yards and junior tailback Mike Keleman, who filled in for Dan Skiba for much of the night, had 47 yards on 13 carries.

Springfield (4-2, 2-1) had one last chance to tie the game, taking over on downs with 45 seconds left and the ball on its own 18. Three passes got the Tigers down to Ridge’s 33 with less than 10 seconds remaining, but Ferraro’s final pass was intercepted by Jared Wert to end the game.

“What’s positive is our kids never gave up,” said Springfield coach Sean Guerriero. “We were fighting our tails off with 10 seconds left to go. If we keep doing that, obviously, I think we’ll be able to make plays.”

Ferraro hit 7 of 15 passes for 129 yards and an interception and rushed 18 times for 55 yards. Zubick finished with 36 yards rushing on 14 carries, caught five passes for 74 yards, played well at safety and even filled in at punter when Springfield’s starter went down.

But as the game wore on, the Rams had an answer for every Springfield challenge.

“We needed to get power football going with the run game,” said Kyle Skiba, whose team operated from the stacked-I for much of the game. “We needed to just push the ball down the field.

“We thought we were more physical than them on the offense line and we were.”

scalzo@vindy.com