By ERIC FORTUNE

sports@vindy.com

MOGADORE

The Mogadore Wildcats’ dominance against local teams continued Friday night in their Division VI, Region 21 matchup with the East Palestine Bulldogs as they came away with a 39-20 victory.

“We made some mistakes that we can’t make,” East Palestine coach Tony Foster said. “Not fielding the kickoff and then some penalties that put us in some bad situations. Realistically it could have been a lot uglier than that had we not converted so many horrible situations. Tribute to our guys for hanging in there.”

Mogadore’s mastery continued behind a ground control game that accounted for 271 yards with Gavin Christy leading the way with 140 of those yards.

The game started off auspiciously for the Wildcats when they recovered the opening onside kick at the Bulldog 28. Four plays later, Christy’s 15 yard run made it 7-0 less than four minutes into the game.

“We had planned that all week long,” Adorni said. “We thought we might be able to get that by some of the things we saw. That was a big momentum shift right off the bat.”

East Palestine was game early on responding with a 14 play, 73 yard drive capped off a five yard run from Parker Sherry. The pass from Sherry to Branden Kemp gave the Bulldogs a short lived 8-7 lead with 3:01 left in the opening quarter.

The drive was impressive as the Bulldogs converted two third downs, a fourth down, and overcame 20 yards in penalties in taking 6:29 off the clock.

Sherry finished with 251 yards passing.

On the ensuing Mogadore possession, a 21 yard pass from Luke Rosato to

Kyle Coffman set up the Wildcats at the East Palestine 34. Five plays later, Rosato’s 16 yard run made it 15-8 at the 10:48 mark of the second quarter.

The Bulldogs turned the ball on their next possession when Sherry’s pass was intercepted by Eli Robertson at the Mogadore 45.

A 59 yard pass from Luke Rosato to Connor Kerr pushed the Wildcat advantage to 22-8 with 6:20 left in the first half.

Again, East Palestine moved the ball to the Mogadore 26 only to see the drive stall with 2:30 left until halftime.

Grant Slabaugh’s 27-yard field goal before the half made it 25-8.

The Wildcats added two more scores in the third on runs from Christy and Gavin Brake that consumed much of the quarter.

“Second half we just needed to get some stops,” Foster said. “Their style of play and what they like to do with the footing just hurt us a little bit. We have to be able to come out with the fire we had on that first drive and be able to maintain that.

It was necessary as the Bulldogs responded each time with drives that only took 2:21 total off the clock with a Sherry 4 yard run and 59 yard pass to Joey Monteleone from Sherry.

“I’ll give their kids credit too because I thought we might wear them down a little more and they kept pass blocking enough to protect him,” Adorni said. “Sherry is good as advertised. He’s tough. We put some shots one him and he kept coming. They all did. Fortunately, we made enough plays to win.”

After getting it within 19, the Bulldogs forced the first Mogadore punt of the night, but saw there ensuing drive stall at the Wildcat 1.

“I told my defensive coordinator, I think if they get into the 30s we’re in trouble,” Adorni said. “I didn’t think we’d score as many as we did. We’ll take it — survive and advance.”