By John Bassetti

bassetti@vindy.com

McDONALD

Dan Williams got soaked in celebration of McDonald’s 27-0 victory over Southern that put the Blue Devils in the playoffs, but the coach wasn’t shivering in the cold air.

After victories the last two weekends, Williams and his Blue Devils (8-2) are hot.

“Anytime you play 8-0 Western Reserve and 8-1 Southern Local, you get yourself ready for postseason play,” Williams said. “It couldn’t have worked out any better for us. We’re happy and we’re healthy. Our kids are going to regroup this weekend and wait to see what the draw looks like Sunday morning and refocus on a new season.”

With Friday’s victory McDonald (7-0) completed a string of 21-0 in the ITCL Tier Two over the last three seasons.

The three straight outright titles and a share of it four years ago makes Williams proud.

“They [24 seniors] were 1-2 to start the season, but they didn’t let that bother them. They came together, focused themselves and won seven in a row. My hat’s off to the senior leadership.”

Quarterback Matthias Tayala scored twice on runs of 4 and 22 yards, while Zach Tura and Nick Rota also tallied via run in a game in which offense was hard to manufacture before halftime.

Following Jake Boyle’s pass to Trey Griffith for a 12-yard gain, McDonald’s only appreciative offense was a 25-yard run by Tayala late in the first quarter.

“They stuffed our run early on a couple sweeps and they stopped some of our attempts up the middle,” Williams said. Then, his Blue Devils started running the ball at Southern.

“We ran right at them and our kids build confidence off of that and started believing in our run game. Our kids came alive in that one drive and I think that gave us a shot in the arm [to score to go up 7-0].”

The touchdown and Will Robison’s PAT came with 2:50 remaining in the first half.

“That opened up some things for us later in the game,” Williams said.

Southern’s closest attempt to score was early in the third quarter when the Indians (8-2) reached McDonald’s 33. Facing third and 8, Boyle threw an interception that Rota picked off.

“Stopping the run like we did forced them into doing some things they’re not real confident in doing,” Williams said. “Boyle was coming along toward the end of the year, but our down linemen [Nick Puntel, Chris Humphreys, Ryan Vernell, Destry Sangregorio] got good pressure on him and our linebackers [Rota and Austin Bucan] were blitzing at times and I think that caused him to make some errant throws.”

While Puntel, Chris Humphreys and Rota were registering sacks, McDonald’s secondary was making life difficult for Boyle.

Cornerback Stephen Mohamed had two interceptions after getting one against Western Reserve last week.