By BRIAN DZENIS

bdzenis@vindy.com

CANFIELD

The coach and quarterback tandem of Mark and Mike Assion almost didn’t happen.

Mark, the current Jackson-Milton head coach, had coached his son through pee wee football. When his father passed away in 2006, he left coaching. As Mike was in middle school, he was considering attending Cardinal Mooney, his father’s alma mater. It took two years and some prodding from Mark’s wife, Amy, to get back in the game.

“My wife told me it was the best decision I ever made to get back into because she was gonna kill me. I was too distracting,” Mark said. “If I didn’t put the time in, I would have been an unhappy man. You know the saying. happy wife, happy life.”

His wife recalled those days.

“I told him, ‘You’re miserable and you need to go back into coaching,’” Amy said. “It’s your passion and you should do it as long as you want to.”

Mark became the head coach of the Bluejays six years ago and Mike stayed to play for his father. On Thursday, they had their last game together. The Assions coached and quarterbacked for the Mahoning County team in the 32nd Jack Arvin Classic at Canfield High school. Trumbull County won the classic, 14-13. Mike was the MVP for Mahoning County and Kasey Tingler took that honor for Trumbull County.

Mike opened scoring for the home county with a 33-yard TD strike to Valley Christian’s Jaquan Green. A short rushing touchdown from Cardinal Mooney’s David McDowell early in the second quarter gave Mahoning County a two-touchdown lead. Mark elected to go for two and McDowell was stuffed at the goal line.

“I knew it would be a defensive battle when you look at the rosters. Both teams were stacked defensively and that’s why I was trying to get to 15,” he said. “I thought 15 points would be insurmountable in a game like this.”

He was right. Lakeview’s Angelo Marino led Trumbull county to back-to-back touchdown drives to close out the second quarter. he did so by linking up with Tingler.

“He’s a great athlete — he did what he was supposed to do,” Marino said. “The whole team did what they were supposed to do and we executed.”

Marino linked up with Tingler for both of his touchdown passes. The latter of the two came with nine seconds left in the first half to take the lead. In addition to his two TDs, Tingler caught 38 yards and served as Trumbull County’s kicker and punter.

“It was just whatever to get this team to win. I’ll do anything,” Tingler said. “It just happened that I’m a good kicker and I can catch the ball. It all worked out.”

The halftime score stood for the second half. Both Marino and Mike Assion are trying to walk on at Youngstown State and Tingler will continue to play wide receiver and kicker at Cincinnati Christian.

The Assions led Jackson-Milton to the school’s first appearance in the playoffs. As a thank-you, a parent gave them a 6x8 blanket to commemorate the occasion. It hangs in the family’s living room.

“The first time I saw it, I almost cried seeing it,” Mike said. “It’s bittersweet seeing it.”

The blanket doesn’t mention the score of that game, a 63-20 defeat against Mogadore. Like Thursday’s game, it wasn’t the result they wanted, but it was still a great run.

“My heart’s breaking, but at the same time, I loved every minute of it,” Mark said of coaching his son for the last time. “I’m going to soak up these moments in as long as I can.”

Trumbull 14, Mahoning 13

Trumbull01400—14

Mahoning0600—13

First Quarter

Mahoning — Jaquan Green 33 pass from Assion (Jake Maszczak kick), 4:45.

Second Quarter

Mahoning — David McDowell 1 run (run failed), 8:55.

Trumbull — Kasey Tingler 13 pass from Angelo Mario (Tingler kick), 3:19.

Trumbull — Tingler 6 pass from Marion (Tingler kick), 0:09.

TM

First downs58

Rushes-Yards19-6728-50

Comp-Att-Int5-10-06-11-1

Passing yards4895

Fumbles-Lost2-04-0

Penalties-Yards4-504-50

Individual leaders

RUSHING — Trumbull, Brandon Rios 8-35; Mahoning, David McDowell 12-44.

PASSING — Trumbull, Marino 4-6-25-0; Mahoning, Assion 6-10-95-1.

RECEIVING — Trumbull, Tingler 3-38; Mahoning, Dakota Senvisky 3-50.