Austintown Fitch Vs. Solon

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Austintown Fitch

Record	Div.	Conf.
6/4	Div. I	All-American Conference Gold Tier

By Jon Moffett

jmoffett@vindy.com

Warren

It took only six plays for the life to be sucked out of Mollenkopf Stadium.

The Austintown Fitch High football team opened Saturday’s Division I playoff game and was forced to punt after 20 yards on five plays.

The ensuing punt was blocked by Solon and taken to the Fitch 6 yard line. That one play squashed all the momentum for Fitch in its 41-0 loss to Solon in the Region 1 semifinal game.

“Everything just snowballed after that,” Fitch coach Phil Annarella said about the blocked punt. “They were the better football team; they totally outplayed us. I just never dreamt in million years that would happen.”

The block set up the first of six touchdown drives for the Comets (12-0). Quarterback Chris Humphrey pounded the ball in from five yards out to put the first points on the scoreboard.

Humphrey and running back Kyle Hammonds each scored three rushing touchdowns.

The Fitch offense was held without a point for the first time all season. The previous low was 24 in a Week 4 victory over Canton McKinley.

The Falcons (10-2) were at a disadvantage from the start.

Starting quarterback Demitrious Davis was idle for the game. The dynamic junior suffered a sprained knee ligament in last week’s overtime win over Willoughby South.

Annarella said he would have liked to have Davis in the lineup, but it may not have made much of a difference.

“After that blocked punt, they’ve revved up,” Annarella said. “I think that was as big a turning point as there was.

“They’d probably have been the better team anyway,” Annarella said. “But my God, that got them even more ramped up and put us in a hole we couldn’t dig out of.”

The Falcons generated only 138 yards of total offense. One hundred of those came on the arm of sophomore quarterback Matt Futkos.

“They were big, strong and physical and they outmanned us,” Annarella said.

While there were many upset Falcons after the game, many were still proud. The team finished the regular season 9-1 and won the Federal League in their last year as a member of the conference.

Davis, along with brother Chris at running back and linebacker Will Mahone, will be part of the core group for next year. And while Annarella hopes the team will continue the success, he knows there are no guarantees.

“We hope. This group achieved because they were overachievers,” he said. “They were very hard workers, and you can see we didn’t have the most talent in the world. We weren’t very big, but they were fighters. They had a good chemistry about them.

“Now, every team is different,” he said. “Whether we’ll have that same chemistry next year remains to be seen. But there’s a long way to go before we find out anything about that.”

On the other sideline, coach Jim McQuaide — a 1976 graduate of Warren JFK — lauded the Falcons on a great season and tough battle.

“They’re a good team, and we still think they’re a good team,” he said. “We thought their backs were tremendous. They’re athletic and they can run the ball. We wish [Davis] would have played, and I know they do, too.

“But we were still worried about them, there’s no doubt about it.”