Perfect night for football

McDonald proves too tough for Wellsville, 50-12

By JOE SCALZO

Vindicator sports staff

McDONALD — In a scene straight out of the movie “Remember the Titans,” the McDonald High football team gathered inside the locker room after Friday’s game shouting along with the song “Ain’t No Mountain High Enough” as it blared from the speakers.

A few feet away, senior Devin Bansberg sat on a weight bench untaping his shoes, as he was asked about the significance of a 50-12 win over Inter Tri-County League Tier Two rival Wellsville.

“That’s a real big win,” said Bansberg. “I think we opened a lot of eyes. There were a lot of people who thought they’d beat us.

“This sets the tone for the rest of the year.”

The Blue Devils (5-0, 2-0) hold the longest current winning streak in the Mahoning Valley, having won 15 straight regular season games (their last loss was in Week 10, 2007, against Wellsville) and 21 of 22.

So while Western Reserve and Leetonia are contenders, McDonald is once again the team to beat in its conference.

“Our kids came ready and they came hungry tonight,” said Blue Devils coach Dan Williams.

Although McDonald’s offense was almost unstoppable for three quarters, it was the defense that played the biggest part in the win. The Blue Devils shut down dynamic senior running back Jeremy Carter (he had just 34 yards on 11 carries), forced two turnovers, blocked a punt and blocked an extra point.

Bansberg caught three passes for 118 yards and a touchdown but it was his work at the safety position that got the most attention. He knocked two Wellsville receivers out of the game (one for good) with vicious hits to break up passes.

“That’s what I try to do,” said Bansberg, who also had the blocked extra point. “I don’t go for interceptions.”

Added Williams, “We’re a physical football team. We showed it against Mineral Ridge and we’ve showed it all year, to be honest with you.

“If we continue to do that week in and week out, we’re going to win a lot of football games because of it.”

Williams set the tone for the game on the first drive when, facing a fourth-and-3 at the Wellsville 44, he ordered senior Nicola Accordino to the line for a quarterback sneak that gained 5 yards.

“We’re going to go after teams,” he said. “We’re going to be aggressive and you catch people off guard at times when you do that. Sometimes it backfires, but we didn’t hesitate. We said, ‘Here’s what we’re going to do’ and we went up to the line and executed.”

On the next play, junior Zach Tura took a simple toss sweep to the right and turned it into a 39-yard touchdown. Wellsville (4-1, 1-1) came back with a nine-play, 78-yard drive capped by an 18-yard TD pass from Bubba Dowling to Nunzio Lombardozzi. But McDonald responded immediately, as junior Nick Rota bobbled the kickoff, scooped it up at his own 8 and took it 92 yards down the right sideline for the score.

By the time the Tigers scored again, they were down 44-6.

“Our front six, front eight really played well tonight,” said Williams, referring to his defense. “If you contain Carter, you win against this football team. Their coach made a great point in [the newspaper] when he said, ‘Carter’s what we have.’”

Dowling led the Tigers with 56 yards on 12 carries and completed 5 of 12 passes for 78 yards and an interception. Carter did have three catches for 56 yards and returned a punt 80 yards for a TD.

Accordino and Zach Puntel combined to go 5 of 5 for 125 yards and Nick Cupan led the rushing attack with 135 yards on 19 carries.

“Cupan’s a good player, no question about it,” Williams said. “Cupan can run the football.”

The game got so out of hand in the fourth quarter, Wellsville coach Dave Skinner sent in his reserves, lined them up in the stacked-I formation and had his quarterback wait for the 5-second play clock signal from the official before snapping the ball.

When approached after the game, Skinner asked reporters to wait for a few minutes so he could talk to his players.

Then, when a reporter approached the locker room a few minutes later, someone with the team said, “You’re not going to get a quote out of him. There’s gonna be a lot of bleeps.”

scalzo@vindy.com