Canfield loses non-league game to Northwest 26-17

October 15, 2011 at 12:00a.m.

By John Rozum

Canfield

It was a game of numerous big plays and big hits, but in the end the Northwest Indians defeated the Canfield Cardinals 26-17 at Cardinal Stadium.

While teetering on a potential postseason bid, it’s the last thing on Canfield’s mind. In fact, coach Mike Pavlanksy sent a clear message to his squad, now 6-2.

“Don’t worry about the playoffs,” he said. “We haven’t qualified for Week 11 and we got one game on our home field for our seniors. We’ll see where that puts us after Week 10, but there’s no talk of playoffs in our lockerroom.”

The Cardinals may have just played a future playoff team in Northwest, as the Indians were in contention prior to making the Week 8 trip to Canfield.

“When you play a playoff team, you can’t give three and four big plays away in a game,” Pavlansky said. “You’re going to be in trouble and that’s exactly where we found ourselves tonight.”

The big plays Pavlansky speaks of began with the opening kickoff.

Northwest’s Ronnie Beers ran 86 yards and took it down to the Canfield 9 yard-line. It set up his own rushing touchdown.

In addition, the Indians had two passing TDs of 53 and 80 yards from QB Nick Riley who finished the day going 16-of-26 for 250 yards, four TDs, and zero interceptions.

For Canfield, starting QB Jordan Italiano led with 104 rushing yards in the first half, but was replaced by Mike Hughes in the second half due to an injury.

There, Hughes led the Cardinals’ ground game with 34 yards on eight carries.

However, the big play came from RB Ben Angelo who received a jet-sweep handoff, but then proceeded to connect with WR Mike Ross on a 51 yard TD pass which cut Canal Fulton’s lead to 19-17.

Perhaps, though, the biggest differential were turnovers.

The Cardinals were picked off three times, one occurred on a tipped-pass that setup a Northwest TD.

Overall, the two teams combined for seven scores, and five of them were from 36 yards or more, so it’s safe to say that each school had their fair share of big moments.

“They’re as good of a team as we’ve played all year long,” Pavlansky said. “They’re well diversed and they spread it around really well. We lost to the better football team tonight and we lost to a very good football program.”