Monday, December 8th, 2014
Cavs play 'best game' for another title
Division V State Championship Game
By Gary R. Rasberry
Photo by Mark Pummell/The Daily Standard
Coldwater players celebrate after defeating Canton Central Catholic 62-21 in Saturday night's Division V state final. The Cavaliers won their third straight state title and fifth overall.
COLUMBUS - Chip Otten called it the best game his Coldwater team played this season.
The Cavaliers jumped out quickly on Canton Central Catholic and never looked back in winning the school's fifth state title and third straight Division V championship with a record-breaking 62-21 win over the Crusaders Saturday night at Ohio Stadium.
Coldwater, ranked second in the final Associated Press state poll, ends the season 14-1. Canton Central Catholic, the poll champion at the end of the season, falls to 14-1 after being denied a third state title in school history.
"It's amazing," senior lineman Nick Clune said. "It's so much sweeter winning this year being a senior out there. It's fun to finish at "The Shoe."
The Cavaliers scored on all nine of their possessions in the game, broke or tied three state Division V final records and scored more points in the game than the Crusaders allowed in the first four postseason games
"I think we played our best game today," said Otten, who improves to 64-11 as head coach of his alma mater. "That's a good team we played. (CCC) went through Ursuline and Bishop Hartley (in the regional final and state semifinals), two real good teams. We put it together with our best performance (on) offense and defense."
Crusaders coach Jeff Lindesmith could only tip his cap to the Cavaliers.
"The backbone of the team has been our defense," said Lindesmith, whose team gave up an average of nine points per game coming into Saturday. "We played some great offenses throughout the year. My hat's off to (Coldwater).
"They took it to us. Not much more you can say."
The quick start began on the opening drive. The Cavaliers went 66 yards on four plays, the final 36 coming on Brody Hoying's 36-yard touchdown strike by Kraig Schoenherr, who shoestringed the catch before heading to the end zone just 72 seconds into the game.
After forcing the Crusaders to punt on their opening possession and Aaron Harlamert's return put the team at midfield, Hoying needed just four plays again to add to the lead. A pass interference call put the Cavaliers at the Crusader 33. After running for nine yards, Hoying took the ball another 24 yards for another score to make it 14-0 with just over 4 1/2 minutes left in the first quarter.
CCC moved the ball on its next possession with Jake Boccuti using several big passes to set up a 19-yard touchdown run by Jimmy Russell with 4:25 left in the quarter to cut the Coldwater lead to 14-7.
The Crusader momentum was quickly muted. Harlamert brought the kickoff to midfield, where the Cavaliers needed seven plays to make it 20-7 on Hoying's 10-yard pass to Derek Thobe.
From that point, it was all Cavaliers, stuffing the Crusaders' offense and giving the CCC defense a healthy dose of Hoying. Hoying had touchdown runs of 10 and 60 yards on the next two Cavaliers drives to make it 34-7 with four minutes left in the first half. Chris (Petey) Post wrapped up the first half scoring for Coldwater with a three-yard run to make it 41-7 at the half.
"Our defense played really well today," linebacker C.J. Seibert said. "The second half they started getting (points), but the first half we did really well."
The Crusaders did not concede in the second half, twice stopping the running clock by bringing down the Coldwater lead under 30 points. John Colangelo scored from three yards out on the opening drive of the third quarter and after Hoying added his fourth touchdown run of the game on the ensuing drive. Russell had his second score of the day off a 31-yard pass from Boccuti to close out the third quarter.
Coldwater quickly revived the running clock in the fourth quarter on Mitch Fullenkamp's two-yard run to make it 55-21 with 8:27 left.
Just when it looked like the Cavaliers would punt the ball away to run out the clock, McKibben fired a pass to C.J. Seibert, who was uncovered on the punt coverage, for a 73-yard score that broke the Division V state final record not only for points by one team (held by Youngstown Ursuline with 55 against Coldwater in 2009) but also for combined points with 83 (also in 2009 when Coldwater lost 55-25 to Ursuline).
"I apologized to Canton for that last play," Otten said. "C.J. was uncovered and that was what (Seibert) was taught to do. I didn't really think about it and didn't expect it."
Lindesmith bore no grudge after the game.
"They're classy guys," Lindesmith said. "I'm not upset by it. There's no hard feelings."
Hoying closed out his football career with 236 yards on 21 carries and four touchdowns, tying the division final record for most rushing touchdowns, and threw for 99 yards and two touchdowns.
"All credit tonight goes to the offensive line," Hoying said.
Photo by Mark Pummell/The Daily Standard
Coldwater's Brody Hoying looks for the open teammate during Saturday's state championship game in Columbus. Hoying threw for two touchdowns - and ran for four more - in the Cavaliers' 62-21 victory.
Photo by Mark Pummell/The Daily Standard
Coldwater's Chase Bruggeman, 33, sacks Canton Central Catholic quarterback Jake Boccuti as Mitch Fullenkamp, 24, and Mitch Clune, 86, close in. Bruggeman had two sacks in the Cavaliers' 62-21 win over the Crusaders.
Photo by Mark Pummell/The Daily Standard
Coldwater's Jason Kaiser, 29, and Brandon Kunk, 21, close in on Canton Central Catholic's Jimmy Russell during Saturday's Division V state championship game.
Photo by Mark Pummell/The Daily Standard
Coldwater's Kyle McKibben stretches for additional yardage after making a catch.
