Powerhouse Hiland beats McDonald in D-4 final

March 19, 2011 at 12:10a.m.

Canton

Is it possible to be considered one of the greatest ever even though the ultimate goal never came?

Dan Marino did it.

So did Ken Griffey Jr.

Allen Iverson, too.

High school sports might be different. But if there is an upper echelon, the McDonald High boys team has to got be up there. Three undefeated regular seasons gives you that kind of honor.

But like the other greats, the Blue Devils fell short of the main prize. This time it was a 58-27 loss to Berlin Hiland on Friday night in the Division IV regional championship game at the Canton Fieldhouse.

Coach Jeff Rasile, however, is a glass-half-full guy. Forget about what the team didn’t do, he said. Instead, concentrate on what they’ve done.

“There’s so much to be proud of. One game is not going to define us,” he said. “It’s a disappointing night, but it’s not a disappointing season.”

The Blue Devils (24-1) just, as Rasile bluntly put it, ran into the better team. The Hawks (25-1) are the cream of the crop in Div. IV, and are the popular pick to win the state championship.

They’re tall, they’re big, they’re fast and they’re smart. Oh, and they can play basketball pretty well, too.

Maybe the best example was junior Dylan Kaufman. Listed at 6-foot-5, Kaufman plays defense like Kevin Garnett. On offense he plays like Paul Pierce — and he shoots like Ray Allen.

A couple other players towered in at 6-7, and yet another was listed at 6-6. Rasile said his team, whose tallest player is senior Matthias Tayala at 6-3, just came up, well, short.

“Clearly the better basketball team won tonight. They’re a buzzsaw,” he said. “Everything I’m hearing is they’re the favorite to win the state championship. They’ve got size and they can shoot the ball.”

He continued, “The better team won. Make no mistake about that. I’m not going to pretend we’re better. I thought maybe on one night, you know, it falls our way.”

Senior Justin Rota, who led the team with 10 points, said the Blue Devils had nothing to hang their heads about.

“We played our hearts out, man. That’s what we do,” he said. “We go into every game like we’re going to win. I don’t care that people say that we’re underdogs, that they don’t believe in us and that we’re not going to win. We go out and give everything we’ve got. And that’s what we did tonight.

“I’m proud of every single one of my teammates and if we’re going down, we’re going down fighting,” he added. “We’re not pointing fingers at anybody because we had a great season. Unfortunately, there has to be a winner and loser in every game. We just happened to be the losers in this one.”

While it may not have shown on the scoreboard, the Blue Devils never quit. The team embodied the grit Rasile preached. He said there were several games the team won this year on effort alone.

And with all five starters and reserves Tony Ingalls and Jared Reckard graduating, the team may have another pair of shoes to fill.

Loafers. Not sneakers.

There was speculation last season that Rasile would move on. He returned and took the team farther than it had ever gone.

But Rasile, who has two young children, said he will continue to evaluate his future.

Rota said the past four years will be unforgettable and no loss will ever take that away.

“We’ve been playing together since we were little kids; the same group of kids since maybe fifth grade,” he said. “We’ve been winning ever since. When we lose, it hurts. But a couple of days from now, we’ll take away from this how much fun it was.”