Two Super Bowl titles for Little Cardinals

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Neighbors | Submitted.The 120-pound Canfield Little Cards won the 2010 Super Bowl title last weekend at Canfield High School.

The Canfield Little Cards youth football organization apparently has quite a bit of talent at the 120-pound level. There are two Super Bowl titles to prove it.

Both the 120-pound varsity and JV teams earned 2010 championships after winning their respective Trumbull Youth Football League Super Bowls on Sunday. The varsity squad beat Niles 13-6 for the title, while the JV team earned an 8-6 victory over LaBrae.

VARSITY

The varsity team finished the season 10-1 and avenged its only regular season loss against the Little Red Dragons.

Things didn’t start well for Canfield, as Niles scored on the second play of the game. Nazzeerion Battee went 62 yards for a touchdown to gives the Red Dragons a quick 6-0 lead.

As it turned out though, that was the only highlight of the game for Niles. The Little Cards’ defense did not surrender another first down until only three minutes left in the game.

The Canfield offense started clicking on its second possession. Vincent Fiorenza followed the lead block of Angelo Petracci and outran the Niles defense for a 62-yard score. Paul Brienz rolled right and raced to the pylon for the conversion to put Canfield ahead 7-6 after one quarter.

Canfield’s defense, led by the front four of Daniel Kapalko, Tyler Stein, Vince Giordano and Anthony Carano forced three and outs on each of Niles’ second quarter possessions.

The third quarter featured several defensive stops by both teams. But Fiorenza hooked up with Velasquez on a 14-yard pass to the one and Petracci blasted up the middle for a touchdown to increase Canfield’s advantage to 13-6 and seal the win.

Fiorenza led all rushers 95 yards on 13 carries. Petracci added 27 yards on six attempts and Brienz contributed 24 yards on six carries. The offensive line was led by Victor Labra, Ian McGraw, Nicky Bonamase, Glenn Griswold and Andy Murphy.

Defensively, coach Tom Donadee cited string play from linebackers Petracci, Brienz, Carter Myers and Jake Whittenberger and the secondary of Paul French, Nick Crawford and Velasquez.

Coach Donadee praised the contributions of assistant coaches Dave Crawford, Dave Bonamase, Doug Stein, Jim Murphy, Steve Hruska, and Dan Kapalko this season.

JUNIOR VARSITY

Michael Johns rushed for 100 yards and the defense gave up only one score as the 120-pound JV squad finished the season 7-1 by defeating LaBrae 8-6 to win the JV Super Bowl.

After a scoreless first half, Canfield took advantage of a fumble recovery to get on the scoreboard. An errant snap by LaBrae was recovered by Andy Garr near midfield.

Canfield drove to the LaBrae 22 when Johns took the ball over right tackle, cut back left and galloped to paydirt for a 6-0 Cards lead.

On the conversion, Nick Ieraci rolled right and Cole Morrell made a diving catch to make it 8-0.

LaBrae answered with a 65-yard scoring drive. The effort was capped by a 50-yard pass reception to tie the game at 6-all in the fourth quarter.

But LaBrae’s two-point conversion pass attempt was broken up by Anthony Pacifico and Garr to secure the Cards’ champiomship.

Defensively, Micheal Chaplow, Paris Bumgardner, Dominic Joseph, Riley Miller, Bailey Flanagan, Zach Smith and Richie Hofus were standouts.

Coach Tom Donadee lauded the play of offensive linemen Jacob Donadee, BJ Parker, Ricky Maalouf, Alexander Plant and Luigi Rohrbaugh.