Confidence keys Indians’ faith

By ED PUSKAS

epuskas@vindy.com

DOVER

Girard quarterback Mark Waid has his wide receivers on speed dial and vice versa.

When the Indians’ 2017 season ended in a second-round playoff loss, Waid and receivers Nick Malito, Aiden Warga, Jimmy Jones and Terrance Davis — among others — didn’t sulk.

They went back to work.

“We were out there throwing in the snow,” Waid said. “We were throwing passes and running routes in the gym … anywhere we could. My receivers were calling and texting me, ‘Let’s go throw.’ I was calling and texting them, too.”

The commitment to getting better paid off in 2018 with a 9-1 regular season and that trend has continued in the playoffs, where the Indians have beaten East, Perry, Hubbard and now Newark Licking Valley to reach Saturday’s Division IV state championship game.

The Indians outlasted the Panthers 53-48 in a wild state semifinal Saturday night at Crater Stadium in a game that featured some of just about everything.

Waid was 31 of 45 for 414 yards. He threw touchdown passes to Jones, Warga and Malito. Waid dialed up the game-winning pass for Malito with 1:44 to play. The go-ahead score capped a furious drive that began after Licking Valley had taken a 48-47 lead with a touchdown and two-point conversion pass with 3:40 remaining.

Waid drove the Indians (13-1) to the Panthers’ 22, where the drive stalled and Girard faced a fourth-and-15.

Indians coach Pat Pearson said the play call was simple.

“Give Marky the ball,” he said. “We ran a crossing route and Marky always has the option to take it. But Nicky has unbelievable size and speed and Marky found him going across the middle.

“Nicky dropped one earlier, but then he came back and caught the biggest touchdown pass in Girard football history.”

Waid appeared ready to take off running as the pocket collapsed around him. Instead, after stepping up near the line of scrimmage, he hit Malito in stride inside the 10.

Malito did the rest, turning upfield and darting into the end zone for the final, decisive touchdown in a game that featured so many big plays from both teams.

Waid’s two-point conversion pass fell incomplete, but it didn’t matter. The Girard defense forced a three-and-out and the Indians ran out the clock on the Panthers.

Malito finished with six catches for 165 yards. Earlier, with the game tied at 40, Waid found him wide-open deep in the Licking Valley secondary, but Malito couldn’t hold on.

“I just said, ‘Shake it off,’” Malito said. “I said, ‘Let’s get the next one.”

That mentality and the accompanying work ethic define the Indians.

“We’ve been working together non-stop since last December after we lost that last game to Perry. We’ve been in the gym ever since. Mark and all the receivers. He has confidence in all of us.”

It showed. Moments after Malito’s drop, Girard ran virtually the same play and Waid delivered another perfectly thrown deep ball. This time Malito made the catch for a first down at the Licking Valley 5.

Waid ran for the last of his three rushing TDs on the next play for a short-lived 47-40 Indians lead. The senior QB rushed for 162 yards and finished with 576 yards of offense.

But it was his continued confidence in his receivers and their innate ability to make play after play and eventually wear down the Panthers that eventually made the difference.

“Everybody makes mistakes — I threw a pick,” Waid said. “It’s how you bounce back from those. It’s how you bounce back from your mistakes. Nick Malito bounced back in a huge way. What a play. … I told him I love him.”

Pearson said the Indians preach a level-headed approach.

“We always say don’t get too high, don’t get too low,” he said. “It’s a next-play mentality. Our guys have played a lot of ball together. There’s no pointing fingers. You just keep going.

“You play as you possibly can for as long as you possibly can.”

Girard will get one more chance to do that in next week’s state championship game against Cincinnati Wyoming at Canton’s Tom Benson Hall of Fame Stadium.

Kickoff is set for 8 p.m.