Fitch has devil of a time with Brunswick

September 13, 2014 at 12:08a.m.

Brunswick vs Austintown Fitch

AUSTINTOWN

For more than a month, Austintown Fitch coach Phil Annarella has been trying to warn people about the Falcons’ inexperience.

On Friday, you could finally see what he was talking about.

After two blowout victories, the Falcons met their match in a 41-27 loss to a Brunswick team that features 45 seniors and almost as many playmakers.

“I’ve been saying this since the beginning of the year — we’re inexperienced,” said Annarella, whose team won both of its first two games by at least five touchdowns. “We’ve got two starters back on defense. We only have one offensive starter on the line back. We’re playing a bunch of young kids.

“I’m not making excuses, but experience does matter.”

Brunswick senior quarterback Steven Ficyk (6-foot-4, 215 pounds) did a pretty nice Ben Roethlisberger impression, using his strong arm and quick release to complete 13 of 19 passes for 270 yards and four TDs and his surprising speed to run for 55 yards and a TD.

“Fitch brings a lot of pressure and he was able to see where the pressure was coming from and take what the defense gave him,” Blue Devils coach Luke Beal said. “I can’t say enough about Steven.”

Gary Clift caught five passes for 123 yards and two TDs for Brunswick (3-0), which lost by four touchdowns to the Falcons two years ago and two touchdowns last season.

“They’ve had our number the last two years,” Beal said. “They’ve been a team that’s been really physical and we’ve had trouble with their defense. And they’ve always had a great running back and a great quarterback, so for us, this is a huge win.

“It’s great from a confidence standpoint because we felt coming in we had two good wins [against Medina and Parma Padua] but we knew this would be a good test for us.”

While Fitch’s defense had no answers for Brunswick’s no-huddle offense — the Blue Devils reached 41 points with more than 16 minutes left in the game — the Falcons’ offense struggled to get past the first level of Brunswick’s defense. The Blue Devils shut down tailback Darrin Hall (10 carries, 27 yards) and usually had 10 or 11 defenders within 10 yards of the line of scrimmage, daring the Falcons to stretch the defense vertically.

They couldn’t. While quarterback Antwan Harris had some success running (23 carries, 161 yards, 1 two TDs) and passing (16 of 22, 171 yards, one TD), most of his yardage came either in traffic or after the catch.

Worse, explosive wideout Joey Harrington left the game in the fourth quarter with a left ankle injury and was using crutches in the locker room afterward.

“We got handled by by a more experienced team,” Annarella said. “They totally outplayed us. They deserve the victory.”

This year’s Blue Devils are a little like last year’s Falcons in that they’re good enough to make a run at the Division II state title, but are stuck in Division I.

Still, Fitch can take consolation in knowing there aren’t too many teams on this year’s schedule who are that good.

“A couple more can give us that [type of test],” Annarella said. “Let’s put it this way — every one of the teams on our schedule will give us everything we want.”