By BRANDON JUDEH

sports@vindy.com

POLAND

Inexperience ended up being a great experience for the Youngstown Christian football team who defeated Mogadore, 20-17, on Saturday in the Eagles’ first playoff game.

“It’s awesome, we praise God for everything, this school system, team and everything, but we still have work to do, next week is here,” Youngstown Christian head coach Brian Marrow said.

“We aren’t happy with just making the playoffs, like a lot of teams are, no one gave us a chance to beat Mogadore,” Marrow said. “But our team, fans and school believed in us.”

It was a ground war between both teams as the Eagles rushed the ball 33 times and the Wildcats 34.

The Eagles’ (10-1) first drive was evidence of this as they rushed the ball seven times on as many plays and scored on a 11-yard touchdown run by Ryan Grier.

Mogadore (7-4) answered when running back Gary Strain returned a kickoff 97-yards for the game-tying touchdown.

Strain wasn’t finished as he rushed for 183-yards rushing on 25 carries and added two touchdowns.

“Gary Strain is an awesome runner,” Marrow said.’We have been watching him on film and saw how big, fast and strong he is.

“But our kids are tough and they did a great job against him,” Marrow said.

Leading the way for the Eagles was senior running back Anthony Abeid who had 118 yards on 19 carries.

“It’s amazing to go from 1-9 last year to 10-1 this year,” Abeid said. “What an unbelievable turnaround.”

Toward the end of the first quarter Mogadore missed a 45-yard field goal, a miss that proved costly in the end. The Wildcats did connect on a 32-yard field goal by Alex Roebken in the begging of the second quarter to make it a 10-7 game.

On the following drive, DeVaun Adams showed some nifty moves in a 40-yard touchdown.

“I’m thankful I had the chance to make a big play,” Adams said.

Darrien Townsend clinched the game for the Eagles with a 10-yard touchdown run for a 20-10 lead in the fourth quarter.