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McDonald hopes ground attack slows Kirtland
By ERIC FORTUNE
McDONALD
As they entered the postseason in 2009, the McDonald Blue Devils were coming off their second straight undefeated season.
They welcomed eighth-seeded Hopewell-Loudon to A.A. Burkey Memorial Stadium. The Chieftains just happened to be the Division VI state runner-up.
At one point in a back-and-forth game, it seemed the Blue Devils were poised to get the win only to suffer a heartbreaker, 28-24.
Flash forward to this Friday as the roles are a bit reversed with McDonald playing the role of spoiler as the eight seed against the Division V state runner-up Kirtland Hornets.
“I mentioned that to our kids,” McDonald coach Dan Williams said. “We talked about eights beating ones. I feel once you get into the playoffs, seeding doesn’t mean a whole lot. Back even in 2000, Gibsonburg was ranked fourth and we were fifth.
“They had the leading rusher in the state at that time, Dave Mason. We went up there and handed them a loss. Hopewell-Loudon was a perennial power at the time. They really had things rolling. We had a nice year that season, but they came in and got us.”
The Blue Devils will rely on what got them to 7-3. The regular-season schedule included games against four playoff teams.
“We sort of knew we were heading in this direction,” Williams said. “We thought, ‘Let’s bump up our schedule.’ Our league is always competitive. Whoever comes in first and second is most likely going to make playoffs. We looked forward and set ourselves up in this situation.”
Their rushing attack, which almost feels like a staple of the Blue Devil tradition with the likes of Jim Gresko, Bob Santangelo, Anthony Rozzo in the late 1980’s through the 1990’s, will be the Blue Devils’ bread and butter.
The last 10 or so years, the Blue Devils have employed a running back-by-committee system in which guys have stayed fresh and it’s now paid off with their 14th playoff appearance.
The latest three-headed monster includes Matt Morrell (799 yards), Jake Reckard (526) and Cameron Ifft (445). Each player’s unique style helped the Blue Devils lead the Inter-Tri County League, Tier Tier in rushing with 2,657 yards and 37 touchdowns. Williams was hoping would that multi-faceted attack would be the key to the Blue Devils’ success.
“That’s what we started out with,” Williams said. “There are a couple of games where I look at the stats and I couldn’t have planned it any better. Every running back got 10 to 13 carries. All of them have about the same yards. Ben (Carkido) has really come on since game four or five.
“He’s really stepped in and done a nice job. We’ve been more of a multi-dimensional team since Week 5 where we won four out of our last five. That’s Wing-T football. When you run it, you expect all three guys to get carries and pick up yards.”
McDonald will try to continue that success with time-consuming drives to keep a potent Kirtland offense, — averaging 58 points — off the field.
“That’s what we’re going to try to do, keep them guessing and try to mix it up between the pass and the run,” Williams said. “We want to get all three of our guys touches, of course.
“They all have different styles of running. Morrell is the speed guy that can take it the distance at any given time. Reckard is that guy that is just shifty and patient and will find an alley to run through. Cameron’s a hard nosed runner. Ben really thrives off play action and does a nice job there, so we’re going to try and keep it spread out.
“We have a storied tradition here. We’ve sort of been there, done it with a couple of state championship appearances. Though not as recent as Kirtland, but we have to rely on our tradition here and rely on what we’ve accomplished over the years. I think our kids buy into that.”