Canfield rallies past Poland
Cardinals’
Vitto scores
11 in 4th Q
By BRIAN DZENIS
CANFIELD
Go ahead, slow the game down. Keep it the score in the teens at halftime and see if it fazes Canfield.
It didn’t and while the first “Battle of 224” this season wasn’t a great exhibition of scoring, Canfield eked out a 44-41 win against rival Poland.
“I know this isn’t the game everybody wanted to see, but it’s one we like to play where we’re defending hard,” Canfield coach Todd Muckleroy said.
Poland (13-3) was playing without leading scorer Jared Burkert, who has been out since getting injured last Friday in a game against Howland. To adjust to that, Poland coach Ken Grisdale wanted to slow the game down.
“It changed the way we attack,” Grisdale said. “With [Burkert] in, we play a little more uptempo, but without him, we have a freshman playing a lot and a junior that plays a lot of JV and we wanted to keep the game at our pace.
“It was perfect for three quarters and it was going right where we wanted it.”
And what he wanted was for Canfield (13-5) to struggle. The score after the first quarter was 8-4 in favor of the Cardinals. At halftime, it was 19-13 Poland. Adding to the Cardinals’ troubles was leading scorer Mason Mangapora having to sit after getting into foul trouble early in the second quarter. Canfield has had its share of low-scoring games and is adept at winning a defensive struggle.
“This year there’s been several. We seem to be a team that makes me a nervous when we dig ourselves a hole,” Muckleroy said. “Our guys just have to learn how to play and play hard and good things are going to happen and that’s what happened in the second half.”
It was looking bleak as Poland built a lead to as much as 14 points, but a 10-2 run to close out the third quarter kept hope alive. Trailing by eight to start the fourth quarter, Mangapora sparked another scoring binge by starting the quarter with a 3-pointer. Cardinals senior guard Julian Vitto had zero points through three quarters, but after Mangapora’s 3-pointer, he was white jot. Vitto scored 11 points in the fourth, including back-to-back 3s that gave his team the lead for the first time all night.
“I just looked to shoot every time I get a good shot that the team wants,” Vitto said. “It just so happened that they were all going in.”
Despite foul struggles, Mangapora led Canfield with 17 points and Brandon McFall also scored 11 points.
“We had the tempo right where we liked to have it. We were executing very well. We fought our (butts) off and they made some big shots and got the momentum going,” Grisdale said. “Unfortunately, it didn’t work out for us tonight.”
Nick Buccieri led the Bulldogs with 12 points and also finishing in double figures was Matt Baker with 10 points. Poland was able to rally to get to within three points and had the ball with 30 seconds left, but the Bulldogs turned the ball over at midcourt. Mangapora hit two free throws with 16 seconds left to clinch the win.
“Poland is so good and can always hit a three and get right back in it, but we stood strong and we D’d up at the end,” Vitto said.