Alliance Review

Alliance

The Canfield High football team found the perfect way to stop a bunch of Aviators — ground them.

The Cardinals rolled up 280 rushing yards, including 100 in the second quarter when it snapped a scoreless tie with two rushing touchdowns, and held on for a 21-0 win over Alliance on Friday night at Mount Union Stadium.

“Up front, we established the line of scrimmage early,” Canfield head coach Mike Pavlansky said. “We were able to run the ball well.”

Alliance (0-2) scored the last 13 points, including a touchdown pass with 5:33 left in the fourth quarter that cut the deficit to eight. But Canfield ran 51 yards on its final drive to run out the clock.

“That’s a good sign for us,” Pavlansky said. “We were able to take the remaining time off the clock and close out the game.”

Sophomore tailback Nick Annichenni rushed for a game-high 126 yards for the Cardinals (1-1) and scored two touchdowns, including one on a 46-yard run.

Senior fullback Conner Kesner added 84 rushing yards and junior quarterback Kimu Kim ran for 62 yards.

Kim hit Annichenni on a crossing pattern for a 22-yard touchdown pass play to make it 21-0 Canfield early in the third quarter

Alliance was paced by freshman quarterback Aeyron Williams, who fired two touchdown passes in the second half. In his second series at quarterback, Williams hit Kukura, who moved back to wideout, on a crossing pattern for a 43-yard touchdown catch-and-run touchdown, cutting the Canfield lead to 21-7.

“We were having trouble running the ball, so we put him in,” Alliance coach Mike Schott said. “Who knows what would’ve happened if we started him? He proved he could step in and play.”

Williams connected with JJ Kukura on a 43-yard touchdown pass play in the third quarter and fired a 25-yard scoring strike to Ryan Bevington midway through the final quarter.

The Aviators were minus injured starting quarterback Kordelle Phillips, a dual threat with his arm and legs, and tried to counter with their own ground attack at the start of the game.

The Cardinals were equal to the task defensively in the first half, crowding the line of line scrimmage and limiting the Aviators to 43 rushing yards on their first five series.

“Our defense played well and we tackled well,” Pavlansky said.

“It was a good battle,” added Schott said. “We played hard like we did in our first game [against Canton Central Catholic], but we played smarter.”