By JOHN BASETTI

sports@vindy.com

YOUNGSTOWN

City athletic director Ed Matey was impressed with the Canfield band and the crowd was impressed with C.J. Frost, but P.J. Mays was not impressed with his offense.

Frost, a junior, blocked a punt, made jarring tackles on kickoff coverage and gained 72 yards rushing on seven carries — all after having not played varsity football before — to lead Canfield over East, 34-8.

“This was definitely my best game,” said the 5-foot-7, 155-pound Frost, whose primary sport is wrestling.

Coach Mike Pavlansky said that Canfield (3-3) was able to spread the ball around because of its offensive line of tight end Cameron Tareshawty, guards Jacob Esarco and Jaret Bunch, center Jack Pallante, left tackle Matt Minenok and right tackle Darien Minor.

“Those guys up front have grown every week and certainly had a great game this afternoon,” Pavlansky said.

Jake Cummings, a sophomore making his first varsity start at quarterback, picked up half of his 54 rushing yards on three touchdown runs.

Aaron Jenkins started Canfield’s season at QB, then Drew Rogers played some last week — against Sidney — before Cummings was inserted to change the momentum of the game.

“It’s worked out well,” Pavlansky said of the two-quarterback system.

Rogers also scored on a 63-yard run, while Bryan Kristan kicked four extra points for the visitors at Rayen Stadium, where Matey was amazed to watch Canfield band members clean up litter in their section of the stands before departing.

“That was a class act,” Matey said of the gesture.

Jawalen Shaw had East’s lone TD and Shaw ran the conversion for the Panthers (1-5). Damon Green, an Ursuline transfer who was recently cleared to play, gained 89 yards on 13 carries and the senior had a 21-yard reception.

Early in the second quarter, Frost crashed in from his left defensive end spot and got through a couple blockers before deflecting a punt by Brandon Jackson, who was standing deep in his territory.

After teammate Cody Holland fell on the ball at East’s 4-yard line, Luke Whittenberger scored to put Canfield ahead, 14-0. It was Frost’s first blocked punt in his first year of football.

Among his various roles, C.J. (Clayburne Joseph) said he was on the field for about 40 plays, during which time he split running back duties with Whittenberger and Rogers, who gained 70 yards on 10 carries.

Whittenberger’s 13 carries produced 18 hard-earned yards up the middle.

Senior Matt Milligan had an interception and a fumble recovery for the winners, while junior Troy Williams added a couple good hits on defense.

Once Canfield’s lead reached 34-0, a continuous clock went into effect until Shaw’s tally.

Mays enumerated his team’s woes and bemoaned the Panthers’ lack of execution and fundamentals.

“We’re fighting hard, but we’re finding a way to stop every drive, offensively, whether it be a dropped pass, a bad read by the quarterback, missed protection by a lineman, missed block on the backside of a run play that allows a defensive tackle to run us down or leaving a defensive tackle in the hole to let him make the tackle.” he said. “We are finding a way on every offensive possession to not allow us to move down the field to score points.”

Mays did reserve praise for his defense, which got good effort from TaBrian Donlow, Trevon Fite and Green.

“They did a good job, but it’s hard when you’re always on the field and always counted on to change field position [alter the burden of poor field position] and change the flow of a game and then be the 2000 [Baltimore] Ravens, who have to score a couple points to boot. Our defensive guys do a good job, but our offensive guys have got to help them. For the year-and-a-half that I’ve been here, our offense has been bad, plain and simple. We’ve got to find a leader, someone who holds the ball, and says, ‘I’ll make everybody else out here better.’ We haven’t had a leader since we [Mays and staff] got here.”