Blue Devils overcame several fourth-down obstacles to win a Division V crown

Staff report

LISBON

Special moments under adverse conditions can trigger state championship seasons. For the 1995 Lisbon High School football team, no moment was more special than what the Blue Devils overcame in the fourth quarter of their second playoff game.

Trailing Monroe Central 14-9 in the Division V quarterfinals on the sloppiest field imaginable in St. Clairsville, the Blue Devils faced fourth-and-24 late in the game.

That’s right, fourth-and-24.

Quarterback Zach Williams, who went on to play at Kent State, calmly found tight end Todd Sinsley unguarded for a pass that gained 32 yards to the Central 14-yard line.

Four plays later, Williams hit Steve Rodgers for an 8-yard gain on a fourth-and-7 play, setting up Damien Powell’s 2-yard touchdown for the game-winning points.

“He was an unbelievable leader,” center Dustin Tedrow said of Williams at a recent team reunion. “When he was in the huddle, there wasn’t any maybe. We were going to do this, this and this and anything other than that was unacceptable.”

Two weeks later in the state championship game at Massillon’s Paul Brown Tiger Stadium, the Blue Devils capped their perfect 14-0 season with another amazing rally.

With practically everyone from the Columbiana County village looking on, the Blue Devils trailed Cincinnati Mariemont 21-7 at halftime, then rallied to force overtime, winning 34-31 after the second extra session.

Since that victory, only one Mahoning Valley public school (Poland, 1999) has won a state championship. Lisbon is the only state champion from Columbiana County.

“I didn’t expect us to win it all at the start of the season,” said Jim Tsilimos, Lisbon’s head coach then and now. “After Week 9, however, and after we defeated Leetonia [41-12], I told the guys in the lockerroom that I expected us to be state champions.

“I got lucky in making that prediction.”

The Blue Devils outscored their regular-season opponents by a 341-65 count. Still, Lisbon had two close calls on the way to the school’s first 10-0 season.

The Blue Devils had to rally in Week 5 to defeat Crestview in overtime. In Week 8, the Blue Devils edged East Palestine, 8-3.

Without those wins, Lisbon most likely would not have made the playoffs. Twenty years ago, only four teams from each region qualified for the postseason, which meant a lot of 9-1 teams saw their seasons end before Week 11.

Today, there are seven divisions and eight teams from each region qualify, requiring a 15-week season for a champion.

“At the time, we had 187 boys,” Tsilimos said. “One more boy and we would have been Division IV.

“We had a great lockerroom, but also had a lot of luck along the way.”

No moment was bigger than the magic Williams made in the mud in round two.

“We called a timeout and Rich Washinko, our offensive coordinator, along with Coach Tsilimos made the call to go for it,” Williams said of the fourth-quarter gamble.

“It was a shotgun formation and I remember dropping back and looking down the middle,” Williams said. “I was trying to look the safety off to the right side and our receiver, Todd Sinsley, came open down the [left] sideline.

“When I saw him open, I just threw it and knew it was good,” Williams said. “It worked out well for us.”

Washinko recalled his discussion with Tsilimos.

“Jim was a good as anybody could have been in regards to responsibility for calling plays. On that particular play, I was mumbling,” Washinko said. “Jim called an old switch play and it worked.”

In the state semifinal game at Louisville, the Blue Devils romped past Apple Creek Waynedale, 33-7. That set up their championship game on Dec. 1, 1995 that had an 11 a.m. kickoff. Shortly after noon, the Blue Devils were down two touchdowns going into the lockerroom.

Early in the fourth quarter, Lisbon sliced Mariemont’s lead to 21-14 after Williams engineered a 75-yard drive.

With regulation time dwindling, Williams found Bobby Hutton for a 16-yard touchdown on a fourth-and-7 play to force overtime.

After each team scored touchdowns and extra points in the first overtime, the Blue Devils held Mariemont to a field goal in the second session. Lisbon took possession and Powell bulldozed his way 10 yards to the 1-yard line.

Williams then followed Tedrow, the only junior on the line, into the end zone for the title.

“I was a transfer from Southern Local and it was my first year there,” Tedrow said. I didn’t know anybody at the start and didn’t know much about the program. After the Crestview game, I did realize that this was something special.

“We were in the huddle and I don’t think there was a call,” Tedrow said of the Blue Devils’ final play. Everyone knew that Zach was going to take it and he just followed me into the end zone.

Linebacker Mike Stockman, also a running back, said the team had the right chemistry to win it all.

“If someone was down, someone else was there to pick up the slack,” Stockman said. “I don’t think at the beginning of the season, looking that far ahead that I would have predicted we would have won state, but going into the playoffs we won our first game, started moving forward and that’s when the picture became a little clearer that we had a shot to win it all.”

Three coaches off of Tsilimos’ staff are superintendents of area school districts. Don Mook, a former Boardman High School and YSU player, is at Columbiana. John Wilson oversees the Southern Local School District while Joe Siefke is in charge at Lisbon.

“Guys like Jim Tsilimos taught me all about leadership,” Mook said. “He taught me to treat kids right and to be fair, consistent and honest.

Assistant coach Todd Brammer, now in his 21st season on the Blue Devils staff, was a first-year coach for Tsilimos in 1995.

“The players, the staff and Coach Tsilimos made the year an absolutely memorable one,” Brammer said. “You could tell after every practice and every game that this team was something special,” Brammer said.

Sportswriter Tom Williams and correspondent Greg Gulas contributed to this story.