Martin powers Alliance past Canfield
By Joe catullo
sports @vindy.com
CANFIELD
When Alliance High’s Parrish Martin sees green, he goes. He doesn’t hesitate or think twice, he just goes.
That mindset played into Friday night’s game against Canfield High with 18 seconds remaining and trailing by four points.
Martin, playing quarterback, faced fourth-and -goal from the Canfield 5-yard line with no timeouts remaining on either side. Martin took the snap and rolled to his right. Ryan Bevington and J.J. Kukura waved their arms in the air, but Martin put his head down and ran for the pylon. He snuck in at the last second for the go-ahead touchdown.
“For us to have three timeouts and to be able to coach him throughout the end of the game like that and have his athletic ability take over, that’s what we needed,” Alliance coach Mike Schott said.
Canfield could not answer, and Alliance halted the Cardinals’ comeback attempt with a 41-38 victory.
“Tonight, Alliance made one more play than we did,” Canfield coach Mike Pavlansky said.
Despite the loss, Canfield (0-2) did not quit after trailing the Aviators (2-0) by 17 at halftime. Martin scored four touchdowns in the first half to give Alliance a 27-10 lead. The Aviators scored 20 points in the second quarter.
Martin is the team’s starting running back and third-string quarterback but had to switch positions when starter Kordelle Phillips left with a head/neck injury. Schott said Phillips later returned to the sidelines in the second half.
Martin ran 30, 80 and 17-yard touchdowns along with a 25-yard passing score to Kukura. He finished with 158 rushing yards, 153 passing and six touchdowns (five rushing).
“I didn’t know how I was doing it, but I was doing it,” Martin said. “I’ve been doing this since I was a little kid. I’ve just been getting better and better, and my line did better. They finally came up.”
Canfield found a way to slow Martin down in the second half, and the first 11 minutes of the third quarter belonged to the Cardinals, scoring 14 points. Quarterback Kimu Kim ran a 48-yard touchdown and later a 24-yard score.
“I don’t think there was anything different,” Pavlansky said. “We just executed better.”
But the Aviators answered. Bevington returned a kickoff 84 yards with one minute left in the third, and Martin scored on the first play in the fourth quarter that gave Alliance a 34-24 lead. Pavlansky said it was a momentum swinger.
Nick Annichenni ran 53 yards for a TD on the next drive, and Kim later ran 10 yards for a TD to give Canfield a 38-34 lead with 1:39 remaining before the game-winning drive.
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