By Tim Cleveland

sports@vindy.com

BERLIN CENTER

Most high school football teams do well if they have one back who gains big yardage.

Western Reserve has two.

Western Reserve can hit opponents with senior Dan Zilke (“Mr. Inside”) and junior Evan Nesbitt (“Mr. Outside”).

The duo combined for 356 yards rushing on 25 carries and six touchdowns in the Blue Devils’ 45-19 rout of Garfield Heights Trinity Saturday night in a Division VII Region 23 quarterfinal.

Blue Devils coach Andrew Hake said his team’s offensive line battered down Trinity’s.

“We’ve got great kids and they play real hard,” Hake said. “The line is a big, strong, physical line. As the game wears on, they wear you out. We have the backs to take it the distance.”

Ahead 10 points at halftime, the Blue Devils (11-0) delivered the crusher in the third quarter in the form of Nesbitt. The speedy 5-foot-9, 160-pounder carried the ball three times for 217 yards, scoring touchdowns on runs covering 58, 84 and 75 yards to blow open a competitive contest.

“As soon as I saw the hole, I just exploded through it,” Nesbitt said. “I knew I was going to be gone.

“My line’s great; they make huge holes. They’re the greatest guys ever.”

Nesbitt’s scores came in a span of 6:55 and extended the Blue Devils’ lead to 38-13.

“I’m really proud of him,” Hake said. “I’ve been waiting for him to have a breakout game and nothing like this game to be a breakout game. That put him over 1,000 [yards on the season]. He’s worked his butt off all year and he’s gotten a lot better.”

Nesbitt said being able to deliver the knockout punch for his team was huge.

“It was very important,” he said. “We had to get some momentum going. We just had to put it on them and we did.”

“We really talked about that at halftime, of coming off the ball and putting this thing away because [Trinity was] on the ropes,” Hake said. “The hitting got to them. We put pressure on them. Their quarterback [Kyle McSweeney] is a sophomore. I think we rattled them a little bit.”

Zilke had scoring runs of 18 and 22 yards in the first half to help Western Reserve to a 17-7 lead. He added a 1-yarder in the fourth quarter and finished with 112 yards on 13 carries.

“The line blocked awesome. I’ve got the best line ever,” Zilke said.

The Blue Devils surrendered a 92-yard kickoff return for a touchdown by Brett Dawson to tie the game at 7, and a 95-yard scoring run by Matt Iacobucci that pulled Trinity (4-7) to within 31-13 in the third quarter.

Hake chalked those scores up to over-aggressiveness.

“That stuff happens. We play an aggressive defense,” he said. “I think we blitzed and they picked us up.”

Zilke reflected on the final home game of his high school career.

“Just coming out on the last time on this field, is a crazy feeling,” he said. “Time goes way too fast. The stands were packed, and it was a great game. That was a great team we played.”