Battle for the Battle of 224
By Brian Dzenis
There’s the Battle of 224 and then there’s the Battle for the Battle of 224.
Poland and Canfield first met on a football field as eight-man sides in 1921. They began playing each other as 11-man teams in 1944 and haven’t stopped. The rivalry in football and all other sports have become a staple of both communities.
“I’ve played [Canfield] in every single sport that I’ve ever played in my entire life,” Poland senior linebacker Kincaid Mrakovich said. “[My] last time being able to play them as a football team with all my brothers will be special even though future generations aren’t going to be able to know what it is or what it means.”
Unless the administrations for both schools can figure something out, the series will go dark after its 75th meeting in 2018.
A SCHEDULING CONFLICT
The seeds for the split came in May when Poland, along with Hubbard, Jefferson, Girard, Lakeview, Niles and Struthers, announced its intention to leave the All-American Conference to form the NorthEast 8 with Inter-Tri County League castoff South Range. The league, which Canfield was not invited to join, will begin play in the 2019 season.
In an email to area media, Poland athletic director Brian Banfield laid where things sit from Poland’s point of view. Weeks 4 through 10 of the Bulldogs’ 2019 schedule are tied up with NorthEast 8 play.
“We’re willing to play them — this has nothing to do with not wanting to play them,” Poland football coach Ryan Williams said. “Our school district made a decision based on the size of our school to join another league.
“That league doesn’t allow us to get out of a Week 10 opponent,” Williams said. “What’s wrong with Week 1? What’s wrong with Week 2 or 3? If it’s a great rivalry, it doesn’t matter when you play.”
In Banfield’s email, he pointed out that since 1987, the two teams met in Week 10 12 times.
“I am not sharing any information with you that has not been shared already with Canfield administrators. I have offered repeatedly to schedule Canfield either Week 2 or 3 starting in 2019,” Banfield wrote. “Those are my only two weeks that are open.
“I have held both of these weeks open since last May to give the Cardinals the opportunity to schedule with us.”
Canfield athletic director Greg Cooper declined to comment.
Canfield superintendent Alex Geordan said it isn’t as simple as slotting the Bulldogs in the Cardinals’ schedule. Typically, Canfield schedules non-league games in Weeks 1 through 3.
“I would never go to another district and tell them that we have to drop them to fulfill a requirement with another district, just like I wouldn’t expect Poland to do that with us,” Geordan said. “I’m sure Poland has people locked up in 2019 and we do as well, so I’m not interested into getting in a debate with another district and try to tell them what they should do.”
Two of Canfield’s first three opponents this season have winning records as fellow Division III, Region 9 teams. They’ve been a valuable source of points as the Cardinals earned, at minimum, a home game in the postseason this year.
Lee Frey, Cooper’s predecessor at Canfield, understands why the Cardinals may be sticklers about keeping their first three games as is, whether they’re in a league or not in 2019.
“I can understand Canfield’s point where if we dropped one of those people to add Poland, we still have seven games to make up [in 2019]. If Poland would cooperate and go [Week 10], we have six games to figure out,” Frey said. “The traditional opponents that Canfield has are gone. They’re all in that league.
“Howland, Boardman and East can be three more games — so that’s four games, which is hard to get in the middle of the schedule.
“I’m happy I’m not the athletic director at this particular moment.”
WHAT ABOUT THE OTHER SPORTS?
Getting a straight answer on what will become of the rivalry in the non-football sports proved to be tough.
Why the dispute involving the football teams should affect sports like baseball, basketball or soccer is unclear.
“I think it would be a sin not have them play in other sports, I really do,” Frey said. “It’s a great rivalry and the kids enjoy playing each other.
“It has a little bragging rights,” Frey said. “It’s just like, Canfield and Boardman play all kinds of sports. Canfield and Fitch play all kinds of sports. Poland plays Fitch in every sport besides football.
“I think it’s silly to say, ‘We’re going to be stubborn and say if we can’t play you in football, we can’t play you in anything else.’ ”
Cooper told The Vindicator’s broadcast partner WFMJ on Oct. 13 that discussions are ongoing, but no deals have been signed for sports other than football for the 2018-19 school year.
“We’re surely interested, but it hasn’t been a two-way street obviously and that would be an answer that would have to come at the other end of 224,” Geordan said.
Banfield wrote that Poland “would love” to continue the series in all sports. Poland superintendent David Janofa did not return a call for comment.
ON THE FIELD
Put all the administrative arguing aside and there’s a really good football game to be played between the undefeated Cardinals and the 8-1 Bulldogs.
Cardinals head coach Mike Pavlansky wasn’t keen on addressing the off-the-field issues with the rivalry, but he and players have taken a keen interest in what Lakeview — the only team to beat Poland — did two weeks ago in a 35-30 win.
“Absolutely, I talked to my brother!” Mike Pavlansky said of Lakeview head coach Tom Pavlansky. “Lakeview throws the ball a heck of a lot more than we’re willing to throw it, but certainly, you can compare notes.”
Canfield and Poland are both run-first teams. Canfield has a potent 1-2 punch in quarterback Vinny Fiorenza (1,090 rushing yards, five touchdowns) and running back Paul Breinz (472 yards, 10 TDs). Fiorenza also has 697 passing yards and eight TDs by air.
The challenges the Cardinals have to navigate include Poland’s all-time sack leader in Alec Catsoules. He’s a handful for offensive lineman at 5-foot 11, 200 pounds.
“You have to target him and know where he’s at on the field,” Pavlansky said. “He lines up on both sides of the line and if you don’t identify him, he’s making a big play.”
Lurking in the secondary is Mike Diaz, who has seven interceptions.
“I have to just look him off and if I do throw his way, I have to get it to the wideout,” Fiorenza said. “He’s quick, so when I make a decision, I can’t hesitate.”
Canfield’s defense looks to be the best Poland has faced this season, Williams said. That unit also features some unconventionally-sized lineman in wrestlers Anthony D’Alesio and Tyler Stein.
“They’re always quick and they’re always good with their hands, but when you face guys like that, you want to put your hands on them before they put their hands on you. It’s the biggest thing,” Poland offensive lineman Nick Sabrin said.
“They’re wrestlers. They’re used to playing with leverage. You have to stay as low as possible while putting your hands on them.”
Offensively, the Bulldogs have leading rusher Jonah Spencer back after missing last week’s contest with Hubbard due to an injury. He’ll be paired with Dante Romano in the backfield.
Poland leads the 11-man all-time series 40-30-3.
ANOTHER RIVALRY GOES
Should Poland and Canfield go their separate ways after next season, the series will be another casualty in a recent stretch of league reshuffling. Last season had the collapse of the ITCL, which put an end to the Columbiana-Crestview rivalry.
“It’s much more recent and people feel like they can’t compete in a situation or they look at the number of boys that they have and maybe enrollment starts to drop,” Frey said. “There’s certain ADs that talk and say, ‘Maybe we’ll get our own league’ with this and that. They might think they have it all lined up and then they meet somewhere and it’s kind of secretive.
“Then you have a league meeting and they say, ‘We’re dropping out’ and the league goes, ‘What?’ They say they’re dropping out because it will make them more competitive in a new league. I believe that’s what happened to Canfield.”
It’ll also mark the second time this decade that the Cardinals have lost a rivalry. Canfield dropped Cardinal Mooney as an opponent in 2013.
The news of the split broke as the two sides were playing their final boys basketball game. Former Mooney coach Brian Danilov said he never received an explanation for what happened, but had the sense that if it was up to Canfield’s coaches and AD, it wouldn’t have happened.
“You leave it up to ADs, coaches and players and they’ll figure out a way to make things work in an honorable way,” Danilov said. “There’s a lot of good principals and administrators that are great to work with. It’s usually somebody that doesn’t understand the Mahoning County-Trumbull County area, the deep ties and the competitiveness and they might be more concerned with designer socks or handkerchiefs or something.
“They might be more concerned about their own leadership positions rather than listening to their ADs and coaches.”
WHAT IT MEANS
For those who have participated in the The Battle of 224, the significance of the rivalry is taught at an early age.
“It means something because first off, it was told to you that it meant something to you. When you first start playing football in Canfield, you don’t automatically know that you have to try and beat Poland in particular,” said Joe Rosko, who was a part of Canfield’s state semifinal team in 2005. “You sit in that locker room in your freshman and sophomore years and former players always come back and they tell you their story. They tell you what it was like to win that trophy.”
Rosko characterized the rivalry as respectful but with some edge.
“It was a ritual that we pulled pranks on each other leading up to the game,” Rosko said. “My sophomore year, we lost 13-0.
“We were coming off a year where we were 10-0 and graduated a lot of good guys,” Rosko said. “We show up for film the next day and there’s all kinds of vulgar images spray-painted on the victory bell and the parking lot.
“I can’t remember what we did, but it involved dog food and leaving something at somebody’s door,” he said. “When I got to my senior year, we played these guys so many times and when we finished the game, the respect was still there.”
At Stambaugh Stadium on Tuesday, former Cardinals quarterback Jake Cummings was finishing practice with Youngstown State’s football team. He beamed when asked about tonight’s contest. Cummings scored the winning touchdown in a 7-6 Canfield win in 2015 to break a six-year postseason drought. As someone who grew up with the rivalry, he doesn’t want to see it go.
“It’s unfortunate because it’s such a great rivalry,” Cummings said. “People come from all around Mahoning County and growing up as a kid in Canfield or in Poland, you always looked forward to this game.
“You dream about playing in that game.”