10U Cards head to Superbowl

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Neighbors | Submitted.Canfield Cardinals 140 pound player Payton Kostelic is shown catching the ball at the game Oct. 19.

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Neighbors | Submitted.A fired up Canfield 140 pound team defeated Boardman 38-0 Oct. 19.

The 10U Canfield Little Cardinals avenged a 12-8 loss to the Boardman Little Spartans with a 14-6 win Oct. 20 and earned a spot in the YAC Superbowl game. Coming into the game, the Cards were the fourth tournament seed facing the first seed Spartans. Both teams had convincing wins in the first round of the YAC playoffs with Boardman beating the Austintown Little Falcons, 40-0, while Canfield beat Howland, 22-0.

The Cards won the toss and elected to take the ball.

“I felt our offense was really executing well and would control the game.” Coach Crawford commented.

The Cards drove to the Spartan 18 and fell short on a fourth and one. The Spartans immediately moved in to Card territory with big plays. Canfield slowed them on the one, but the Spartans were able to push it in for a six-point lead. The conversion failed. After a couple of three and outs by both teams, Canfield was able to drive back down the field with Logan Torok running behind solid offensive blocking from Evan Beistel, Robby Coonce, Mike Crawford, Andrew Morchak, Anthiny Orr and Pat Guerreri. He was able to reach pay dirt on a three-yard run and add the conversion to give Canfield an 8-6 lead going into the half. The same score as in the their previous match up.

Boardman took the ball in the second half, but Canfield’s defense stopped them at the 50. Evan Perry, Luke Morell and Jeff Shaunessey helped the defense hold its ground. Taking a lesson from Coach Tressel, the Cards played the field position game and punted. Boardman took over on their 23 and fumbled the ball to Canfield’s Nathan Fiorenza. Again the Canfield offense was forced out on downs. Another Boardman fumble recovered by Conor Hritz gave the Cards the ball on the Spartan 47. Torok was again able to slip the Boardman defense and find the endzone from 21 yards out. Key blocks from Luke Holland, Nathan Fiorenza and Conor Hritz opened the path.

Holding a 14-6 lead in a one score game, and 2:36 left in the game, Canfield was able to stop Boardman’s late attempt to tie the game.