State football roundup

DIVISION I

Cle. St. Ignatius 34, Pickerington Central 13

CANTON

Eric Williams passed for 297 yards and two touchdowns to lead Ignatius to a record 11th Division I state championship. One week after advancing past Toledo Whitmer 17-6 with the help of five turnovers, the Wildcats (13-2) scooped up two fumbles and intercepted a pass to beat the Tigers (11-3) for their first title since 2008. St. Ignatius, after missing the playoffs in 2010 for the first time in 23 years, rolled to a 20-0 lead. Central’s Nic JensenClegg then threw two second-quarter TD passes, including a 75 yarder to Sabastian Smith, to get within 20-13.

DIVISION IV

Creston Norwayne 48, Kenton 42

MASSILLON

Maty Mauk may have Ohio’s Mr. Football, title, yet he doesn’t have Adam Wallace’s state championship. Wallace ran for three touchdowns and passed for four, including the winner with 31 seconds left, as unranked Creston Norwayne outlasted No. 1 Kenton to win its first Division IV football championship. “We did it,” a jubilant Wallace said after the Bobcats (14-1) celebrated wildly at midfield. “Every one of us on this team has been wanting this since we first started to play the game.” Wallace found Kaleb Harris for the winning score, capping an 80-yard, nine-play drive to reclaim the lead after Mauk engineered an even more improbable comeback from a 13-point deficit with 4:21 left. Mauk threw for five touchdowns and 421 yards for the Wildcats (14-1). He hit Brice Fackler for a pair of 65-yard touchdowns, a 14-yarder and a 28-yard score with 2:51 to play that put Kenton ahead 42-41. “I thought we had a chance every time we touched the ball,” Mauk said — and he was just about right. His final last-ditch pass, in an attempt to replicate a desperation toss that resulted in a 50-yard score on the final play of the first half, was intercepted. “They had one more play than we did,” said Wildcats coach Mike Mauk, father of the senior quarterback who set so many state records this season on the way to winning the state’s coveted prep award that his brother Ben claimed in 2002. “You saw the best of high school football,” coach Mauk continued. “What an exciting game, and I’m proud of my team in a very, very tough loss.”

DIVISION VI

Maria Stein Marion Local 61, New Wash. Buckeye Central 21

CANTON

It’s time for Maria Stein Marion Local football players to take another tradition ride on town fire engines following a fifth state football championship. Adam Bertke passed for 278 yards and four touchdowns as the Flyers (13-2) rolled to their fifth title. “First, we’re going to go home and ride around for a while,” senior Logan Albers explained. “It’s going to be wild, fire trucks honking, everybody acting crazy.” It’s a scene Mercer County residents have not experienced since winning back-to-back titles in two different divisions in 2006-07. This year’s players were kids then, dreaming of the day they would get their chance. Football is big at the school, which has 111 boys enrolled — 54 on this year’s team. “Everybody in town knows who is on the team,” senior Jack Homan said. “You go into any gas station, they know you, they ask about the latest game. It’s a great feeling.” Bertke, a 6-foot-4 sophomore, may get a chance to do it again with the powerhouse program. He completed 14 of 18 passes including three TDs to Lee Pierron. “He’s the real deal,” Buckeye Central coach Jason Ratliff said. “We were a little nervous early, then settled down and played better.”

Associated Press