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Photo by: Robert K. Yosay

Donnie Bolton and his Western Reserve teammates won’t be stuffing their faces or watching the annual NFL games hosted by the Detroit Lions and Dallas Cowboys on Thanksgiving Day. The Blue Devils, as well as the Cardinal Mooney football team, will be out on the practice field getting ready for their respective state semifinal contests against Buckeye Central and Chagrin Falls this weekend.

Western Reserve Regional Champs

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Western Reserve 13-0 wins 49-7

Mooney vs Dover

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By Matthew Peaslee

mpeaslee@vindy.com

What really defines Thanksgiving Day?

Extra helpings of turkey and pumpkin pie, yes. The Macy’s Parade, of course. Watching the annual NFL games, surely.

The Cardinal Mooney and Western Reserve football teams won’t be stuffing their faces, checking out the Snoopy balloon or paying attention to the Lions and Cowboys.

They’ll be on the field practicing.

“It’s a unique experience to have,” Mooney coach P.J. Fecko said. “We’ve had the opportunity before and it’s nice to have the players and coaches together as a football family on a special day.”

Getting to their first state semifinal, ever, the Blue Devils stormed past Villa Angela-St. Joseph 33-6, came back from 14 down to top Malvern 29-20 and destroyed Shadyside 49-7.

In those three wins, Reserve has tallied an average of 403.6 total yards of offense. To blow past VASJ and Malvern, it needed a powerful running game.

Not a problem.

Running back Donnie Bolton has been the go-to offensive threat this year and for much of his career. While he neared the 2,000 yard mark during the regular season of his senior campaign, he surpassed it by totaling 492 yards in the playoffs on 65 carries. Fullback Tommy Marlowe knows how to come through in the clutch, too. While he’s had less than five carries in each game of the postseason, he’s ran for at least 35 yards in each respective contest.

Against the reigning Division VI Region 21 champion Tigers, though, the Devils brought in an air raid.

Quarterback Jeff Clegg had already thrown for 1,550 yards entering the game against Shadyside, but he added another 229 by completing 9-of-17 passes. Five different Reserve receivers caught a pass in the game. Tim Cooper led the WRs with three catches for 82 yards and a touchdown.

“[Clegg] is dynamic,” Reserve coach Andy Hake said. “We showed more spread than we have earlier in the tournament. We can do that because our quarterback can make those plays.”

Reserve got a little tricky with wide receiver Thomas Benyo grabbing a pitch off an end-around before launching a 33-yard pass, himself. It fell into the hands of Danny Rosati setting up the Devil’s 49th and final point of the night.

To earn its fifth regional championship under Fecko, Mooney scored six second half touchdowns rallying from three down at half time in upending Dover 70-44. It was the second most points registered by a Cardinals team. On September 29, 1967 they beat Youngstown East 76-14.

From their combo of running backs, the Cards got 229 yards from Roosevelt Griffin with Justus Ellis Moore adding 85. The tandem scored three and four times, respectively. QB P.J. Quinn toted the ball for 86 yards on the ground with a pair of TDs.

Don’t just think the game was defined by an offensive explosion. It’s hard not to when both the Cardinals and Tornadoes combined for 1,030 yards. But the Mooney defense buckled down in the second half, too, holding powerful Dover QB Derik Swinderman to under 200 yards after he threw for 290 in the first half. The unit also picked Swinderman off three times.

“The last thing I was worried about was the score [at halftime],” Fecko said. “I knew it’d be a matter of staying in our routine and that came with our defense making plays.”