By Steve ruman

sports@vindy.com

NILES

Niles football coach Jim Parry knew his team had to play mistake-free football if it was going to compete Friday night against Ohio’s top-ranked Division III team.

Unfortunately for the Red Dragons, the mistakes came early and often, and as good teams usually do, Canfield took full advantage of the errors. The result was a 35-0 Canfield road win, lifting the Cardinals to 7-0 (1-0 in the All-American Conference Red Tier).

Canfield has now won 18 consecutive regular-season games.

The Canfield defense forced five turnovers, including four fumbles. Niles turned the ball over on its first three possessions of the game, and the Cardinals turned each of those turnovers into touchdowns.

“This was a tough night, we had some positives in the first half offensively, but this late in the year it’s frustrating that the good was negated by turnovers and penalties,” Parry said. “You can’t play like that against a really good team, and this late in the year we can no longer use the excuse that we’re a young team.”

Niles (1-6) took the game’s opening possession and marched into Canfield territory before Jacob Whittenberger halted the drive with an interception. The Cardinals then put together a 14-play, 79-yard drive which ate up nearly seven minutes of the first quarter. The drive was capped by a Nick Crawford one-yard run.

The Red Dragons turned the ball over on the first play of their ensuing drive, and this time the Cardinals needed just two plays to take a 14-0 advantage. After Crawford ran 14 yards to the Niles two, Max Dawson hooked up with Joe Marzano on a 2-yard touchdown pass.

Dawson completed six of nine passes, including a second-quarter 44-yard TD pass to Crawford. The senior said that while the Canfield game plan was to run the ball, his goal was to throw a few touchdown passes in honor of teammate Matt Zaremski. Canfield’s leading receiver, Zaremski suffered a season-ending injury last week.

“I told Joey [Marzano] before the game that we needed to get a couple through the air for Matt,” Dawson said. “He’s a great friend, a great teammate and a great receiver. It was tough not having him out there with us tonight, so I wanted to put a couple in the end zone in his honor.”

Dawson also rushed for 89 yards, including a 25 yard touchdown. Crawford gained a game-high 103 rushing yards on 14 carries. Mehlyn Clinkscale carried the ball just five times but gained 65 yards and scored from 11 yards out.

Canfield racked up 375 yards of offense while limiting Niles to just 151 yards. Robbie Savin (11 carries, 34 yards) and Travis Molnar (10 carries, 28 yards) led the Niles running game while sophomore quarterback Zack Leonard completed six of 17 passes for 65 yards.

“I’m really proud of our offensive line, up front we’ve gotten aggressively better throughout the season,” said Canfield coach Mike Pavlansky. “Offensively, we executed really well tonight and we were well-balanced with the run and the pass.”

“Defensively, we were lights out getting to the ball. We’ve had to mix and match some players in and out due to injuries, and our guys have done a nice job of stepping up.”

Parry said the Cardinals are well-deserving of their high ranking.

“This is the most complete team we’ve faced this year,” Parry said. “From special teams to offense to defense, they are very talented and fundamentally sound. It’s what you expect from a Canfield team. They have a really good chance to make some big noise in region nine.”