Team

Canfield

Record	Div.	Conf.
12/1	Div. III	All-American Conference Red Tier

Plucky Cardinals employ some trickery in loss

By MARTY GITLIN

sports@vindy.com

AKRON

The Canfield Cardinals had nothing to lose Friday night except a football game nobody but them believed they could win.

And they played like it.

They wasted no time letting powerful Akron St. Vincent-St. Mary know that they would pull no punches, opening the game with an onside kick. They eventually lost their Division III regional quarterfinal by a rather lopsided score of 49-28. But it could not be claimed they played not to lose.

A strange start set the tone. Canfield (8-3) actually got lucky after their squib to start the proceedings traveled just nine yards, which would have given the Fighting Irish possession around midfield. But the Cardinals were called for delay of game, giving them a mulligan. Rather than kick it deep, they tried another onside kick that SV-SM (10-1) jumped on at its own 46.

It was the beginning of the end for plucky Canfield. With the huge Irish offensive line opening up sizeable holes, they drove downfield and scored when quarterback Dominic Davis rolled right and hit junior wide receiver DeAmonte’ King for 22 yards in the right corner of the end zone to give their team a lead it would never relinquish.

The Cardinals could not move the ball early because they could not snap the ball early. Inaccurate and fumbled exchanges from center to quarterback Jake Cummings ruined their first two possessions.

“That was because of nerves and miscommunication between me and the center,” Cummings said. “It was pretty much nerves for the most part.”

Only a stout Canfield defense early against the explosive Irish prevented a blowout by the end of the first quarter. But SV-SM pretty much drained all the drama away with its first possession of the second quarter, which concluded on a 13-yard scoring run off left tackle by sensational back Markus Hurd, who finished with 151 yards to give him 1,259 on the year.

Hurd saved his most impressive run for the last two minutes of the half. It covered just two yards, but he broke several tackles before falling into the end zone to give his team a 21-0 lead.

But just as it appeared that St. Vincent-St. Mary would run away and hide, the Cardinals began matching them point for point. They used a bit of trickery to answer the Hurd touchdown on a 13-yard flea flicker from junior tailback Jared Clark to senior wide receiver Michael Rusu that cut the deficit to 21-7. Still, the Irish finished the half with a 233-58 yardage advantage. That wasn’t what Canfield coach Mike Pavlansky had in mind.

“In a playoff game against St. V, we couldn’t make those kind of mistakes in the first quarter,” he said. “That put us behind the eight-ball and they were able to take advantage of that. We played hard, but that first quarter, that’s not who we are.”

The second half was an exercise in “Can you top this?” with both offenses striking quickly and the run-oriented Cardinals thriving through the air. A bomb from Davis to King just two minutes into the third quarter set up a 1-yard scoring run by the former, but Cummings engineered the team’s best drive of the night, setting up his own 3-yard touchdown run with a 43-yard pass to Troy Williams.

The Cardinals then attempted yet another onside kick and recovered and continued to play like they had nothing to lose, going for it on 4th-and-7 and losing possession around midfield. A few minutes later, Hurd bolted around left tackle and saw nothing but green into the end zone to make it 35-14.

In the end, it was not only too much Hurd, but too much King for the tired Canfield defense to handle. “They have a really good football team with great skill position players,” Pavlansky conceded. “We couldn’t track down (Hurd and fellow wideout Malik Woolridge) at times. We left (their offense) on the field too long.”

The Irish weren’t on the field very long in the fourth quarter – they scored very quickly. All-purpose junior back Myles Williams showed off his speed by taking a short pass and sprinting into the end zone with 9:36 remaining in the game to make it 42-14.

The Cardinals continued to keep pace on a 46-yard strike from Cummings to Rusu, who snagged the tipped pass and bolted into the end zone. Cummings finished 9 of 17 for a season-high 121 yards through the air and added 41 yards on 17 19 carries. “That’s the most I’ve thrown the ball,” he said. “But when they go up on you, you have to score quickly and throw the ball around.”

SV-SM needed a mere two plays to put the cherry on top as Davis fired a perfect 27-yard pass to King. A Cummings bootleg left from three yards out with five minutes remaining resulted in the final score.

And when it was over, he and his teammates put their arms around each other, faced the stands and listened to the Canfield band play the school alma mater. For the seniors, it would be the final time. But at least they could not complain that they went out without a fight.