Photo

FOOTBALL - (5) Joey Ohlin tries to get the ball into the end zone but is stopped short by (9) Nick Lucente of Lowellville during thier game Friday night in Springfield. - Special to The Vindicator/Nick Mays

Team

Springfield

Record	Div.	Conf.
8/3	Div. VI	Mahoning Valley Athletic Conference

Team

Lowellville

Record	Div.	Conf.
4/6	Div. VII	Mahoning Valley Athletic Conference

By Lowell Spencer

sports@vindy.com

New Middletown

Sometimes you can win the battles and still lose the war.

For the Lowellville Rockets they must have felt that way as they were able to move the ball on the ground, and dominate the time of possession, but it was the Springfield Tigers, led by quarterback Nick Russell, who seemingly scored at will in a 38-14 win on Friday night.

Russell completed 11 of 14 passes for 240 yards and three touchdowns. Oh yeah, he also rush for one score too.

“Our line blocked really well, and our receivers, they started playing man and we did some checks and go and they were fast enough to beat them. We threw deep and beat them,” Russell said.

The first six minutes was a big indication of what was about to happen in the game. The Rockets took the opening kickoff and drove 33-yards on 10 plays before punting.

Tigers senior Ryan Stacy rushed in and blocked the punt. The ball bounce up into his arms and he raced 36 yards to put the Tigers up 7-0.

“It was supposed to be a safe block. I just ran in to see if I could do anything, and I actually did block it. I picked it up and ran it in,” Stacy explained. “It felt great. I never had that feeling before.”

The Tigers scored on their next possession as Russell hit senior receiver Joey Ohlin on a 47-yard pass to the Rockets’ 1-yard line. From there Russell plunged into the end zone. The score put the Tigers up 14-0 with 3:17 left in the first stanza.

After a quick three and out by the Rockets the Tigers drove to the Lowellville 5, from where senior kicker Lexi Zubick converted a 25-yard field goal to put the Tigers up 10-0 at the 11:08 mark of the second quarter.

Again the Rockets had another solid march. They traveled 71 yards on 15 plays, and scored on a 3-yard touchdown pass from Randy Pavlicko to Peter Barone. The score cut the Tigers’ advantage to 17-7 with just 3:31 left before the half.

On cue the Tigers wasted very little time in answering.

Russell connected on 3 of 4 passes, two of them to Ohlin, the second being a 5-yard pass for the touchdown with 2:34 remaining before halftime break giving the Tigers a 24-7 lead.

“Nick has good timing with our wide-outs. Our lines protecting him enough to get the ball out, and our wide-outs are making the plays,” Tigers coach Sean Guerriero said.

Lowellville’s last touchdown was a 9-yard run by Ryan Previtte.

“We’re definitely seeing progress. We got a couple bad breaks tonight, but we moved the ball,” said Lowellville coach Jeff D’Altorio.