By Kevin Connelly

kconnelly@vindy.com

MOGADORE

The McDonald High School football team learned what happens when a pair of 1,000-yard rushers get held to fewer than 100 yards combined.

Friday’s result was a disoriented offense that turned the ball over three times and needed a fourth-and-long conversion to find the end zone against a stout Mogadore defense.

Unfortunately for the Blue Devils, that wasn’t the worst part about their Division VI regional quarterfinal loss to the Wildcats, 33-6.

That came in the form of missed tackles, which allowed Mogadore to run for 260 yards on 36 carries and four touchdowns on the ground.

“We didn’t tackle,” Blue Devils senior Caleb Dimery said. “We just didn’t break down, we didn’t tackle.

“Too many missed ones.”

It also led to the Wildcats’ (11-0) first score of the game late in the opening quarter.

The Blue Devils (10-1) chose to punt from the Mogadore 40-yard line — an interesting decision — and Dominik Pizzino fielded the punt on his own 7 yard line — an even more interesting decision.

He shook off a few McDonald players and took off down the sideline for a 93-yard return for a touchdown.

“Privately, we were happy they kicked to him, because a lot of teams in our league stopped kicking to him toward the end of the year,” Mogadore coach Matt Adorni said. “He’s explosive, if we get the edge.”

That would be the first of many explosive plays the senior transfer from Green High School made against the Blue Devils.

Pizzino added touchdown runs of 27, 29 and 59. He finished with 134 yards on 13 carries.

“We knew it was going to be a dogfight,” Pizzino said. “We thought were going to be able to run them down and eventually just run them over.

“We did exactly what we thought we were going to be able to do.”

Mogadore’s other running back, Brandon Berry, ran it in from three yards out to make the score 21-0 with less than four minutes to go in the first half.

McDonald quarterback Ben Carkido found Dylan Portolese over the middle on fourth-and-10 for a 37-yard touchdown that cut into the lead just before halftime.

To start the second half, McDonald intercepted Mogadore quarterback Zedekiah Pollock on the 1 yard line — one of three interceptions for the Blue Devils defense.

From there, they put together a 14-play, 60-plus-yard drive to move into Wildcats territory. But on third down, Carkido dropped back to pass, was hit hard and fumbled the football.

“Turnovers,” McDonald coach Dan Williams said. “That puts it at maybe an eight-point ballgame at that time.

“Those situations you can’t turn the ball over and it goes back to the same old song and dance that you have to play flawless against good football teams in Week 11.”

Mogadore immediately turned the fumble into points as Pizzino raced to the end zone for his third score of the game to put things out of reach.

Dimery finished with 68 yards on 15 carries, while Jake Reckard had 28 yards on six carries.

Carkido was forced to throw the ball 25 times — he attempted just 65 passes in the regular season — and did a nice job despite having little time to throw.

“Like I said earlier, we played well at times, but you can’t go on the road and just play well at times,” Williams said. “You have to play well every down when you’re in Week 11 and we didn’t do that tonight.”

Mogadore advances to play the region’s top-seeded Loudonville.