By Pete mollica

mollica@vindy.com

GIRARD

For just over 15 minutes Friday Girard High’s football team looked like the one everybody expected them to be.

The Indians jumped out to a two-touchdown against Akron Manchester before Landon Smith left the game with a concussion.

Without Smith the Indians never seemed to regain their edge and Manchester scored three unanswered second-half touchdowns for a 21-14 victory.

Smith (6-foot-1, 180 pounds), who has already committed to Youngstown State, suffered the concussion returning a punt early in the second quarter.

He stayed in the game and on the next play took a pass from quarterback Dan Graziano and raced 92 yards for the game’s first touchdown. But he came off the field complaining of dizziness.

“It’s tough when you lose a player of Landon Smith’s caliber,” said first-year Girard coach Nick Cochran. “But when those things happen somebody has to step up and tonight nobody stepped up.”

The Indians defense forced four first-half turnovers, two interceptions and two fumble recoveries. The second interception by A.J. DeVore set up Girard’s second touchdown, which came on a two-yard run by Ahmad Eggleston with 8:49 still left in the half, but that would be the last time the Indians really threatened the Panthers.

Girard turned around and gave up three turnovers in the second half which added considerably to their problems.

“They came out and made a good drive on us in the third quarter and we stopped them, but gave it right back on our first play,” Cochran said. “We had been moving the ball pretty good on the ground, but to give it right back like that really hurt.”

That fumble, which came on the Indians’ 9-yard line, led to the first Manchester touchdown, a 1-yard run by Mark Noble.

Girard followed that mistake with another on the next series as Graziano was intercepted by Manchester’s Jacob Miltner at the Girard 41 and five plays later the Panthers tied up the contest on a 10-yard pass from Nick Peyakov to Nick Miller.

Manchester took the lead for the first time after stopping the Indians quickly and drove 44 yards in four plays, the big play a 34 yard run by Cort Logan. Noble capped the drive with a 1-yard run.

The Indians still had plenty of time and Graziano started a drive from his own 7-yard line with two straight passes and then had a 10-yard run to get out to the 36-yard line, but his next pass was picked off by Kyle Dougherty at the 40 and the Panthers were able to run out the clock.

“We’re young and we’re going to get better, but we’ve got a lot of work ahead of us,” Cochran added.