Monday, December 5th, 2022
Marion Local grinds out victory over Kirtland for 13th title
Flyers bring back gold
By Tom Haines
Photo by Paige Sutter/The Daily Standard
Marion Local's Connor Bruns (33) blocks a pair of Kirtland defenders as Kyle Otte (25) moves up the field.
CANTON - After rolling over opponents all year, Marion Local was happy to find itself in a 14-6 slugfest.
"Now, that's easy for me to say," Marion coach Tim Goodwin said, "because we had the 14 and they had the six. I realize that. But I mean, that's just what we live for, that competition."
The Flyers' defense stifled Kirtland even as their own offense struggled to find a spark, and Marion got just enough for the win in the Division VI football state championship game at Tom Benson Hall of Fame Stadium in Canton on Saturday.
With the win, the Flyers, collecting the program's 13th state championship, finish 16-0 for the second straight season. They allowed 39 points all year and never trailed in any of their games.
"That's what we do, we chase perfection," Goodwin said. "You're never going to hit it, we know that, but it's the quest. That's what we do, man. We're wired for that quest. And that's what Kirtland is. I think we're just wired differently, and this was a blast today, because they competed. This was way more fun than us rolling out here and drilling someone, putting a running clock on."
After gaining just 14 yards in the first quarter, including six on a four-and-out after starting at the Kirtland 30, Marion's offense briefly came to life in the second. The Flyers had a golden opportunity after a pass from Kyle Otte back to Tate Hess for a 24-yard gain and a 23-yard Otte run got them to the Hornets 5. But after gaining one yard on three plays, Hess and Drew Lause fumbled a fourth-down handoff, and Lause was taken down going the other way for a loss and a turnover on downs.
Photo by Paige Sutter/The Daily Standard
Marion Local's Nick Ranly (30) and Darren Meier (24) close in as Landon Arling (14) brings down Kirtland's Philip LaVerde during Saturday's Division VI title game.
Marion's defense quickly got the ball back. Conner Bruns darted through the gap for a tackle-for-loss on first down, Drew Seitz and Darren Meier brought down Rocco Alfieri short on third down, and the Hornets were forced to punt, putting the Flyers at their own 49.
"We knew our defense was going to have to step up and stop the run," Meier said. "Last week that No. 2 (Tommy Gogolin) had a great game, and we knew we were just going to have to step up and run to the ball, all 11 hats to the ball, and not allow a crease to cut back."
A third-down encroachment penalty gave the Flyers a new set of downs, and on the next play, Hess found Bruns, mainly a blocking tight end, in the middle for a 18-yard gain into the red zone.
"We were looking for anything," Goodwin said. "They were flying to the ball, and that's kind of a pop pass that we had run once or twice, where we pull the linemen with the running back and hopefully the linebackers react to it, and got a little window. I mean, here we are talking about like a 12-yard play like it's a big play."
Otte then took a snap in the wildcat and ran right down to the 2, and Meier cashed in on the next play to put the Flyers ahead 7-0 with 1:39 left in the half.
Kirtland quarterback Jake LaVerde hit Gino Blasini for a long gain as the Hornets tried to answer, but Aidan Eifert jumped a route in the flat for a juggling interception, and Hess knelt out the final 28 seconds.
Coach LaVerde chose to have the Hornets kick off with the wind at their backs to start the third, hoping to tie the game quickly. Goodwin responded with a fourth-and-1 try from the Flyers 43, which Otte converted with a six-yard jet sweep, and Otte added a 13-yard run into Hornets territory.
"We wanted the wind to kick off and pin them back, get a stop and score and tie it up," coach LaVerde said. "So that's why we took the wind in the third. The fourth quarter was tough against the wind."
On fourth down from the Kirtland 30, Otte got the ball to throw on a trick play and was hit by an unblocked rusher, and Gino Blasini came down with an interception and returned it to the 26, with a late hit penalty bringing the Hornets to their 40. Three plays later, quarterback Jake LaVerde threw too far ahead of Blasini in the middle of the field, and the ball sailed straight to safety Nate Buschur.
Photo by Paige Sutter/The Daily Standard
Marion Local's Nathan Buschur (5) comes down with the ball after an interception during Saturday's Division VI state football championship game against Kirtland. Buschur returned the intercept for a touchdown in the Flyers' 14-6 win over the Hornets for the Flyers' second straight title.
Buschur made a leaping grab and raced down the left side with a crowd of blockers walling off a wide lane, running in untouched for a 57-yard touchdown return and valuable insurance.
"I just saw him overthrow it a little bit, went up and caught it," Buschur said. "Started running and all I could see was my teammates in front of me."
"We thought there was a seam open, and obviously the safety made a good play and got over there and got it," coach LaVerde said. "He overthrew it or threw it too far to the inside, I'll have to look. But it's a fine line between - we don't throw the ball a lot, and when you're behind and you can't run the ball and you're playing the defense like that, you've got to throw it a little bit. That's the balance. We'd love to just run the ball and never throw, but they're so good a defense, we had to throw. But the pick-six was very crucial."
That was all the scoring Marion could muster, as Kirtland allowed just two first downs and 12 total yards in the final 18 minutes. The Hornets cut into the lead late in the third quarter after Meier fumbled just outside the Flyers 20, with Jake LaVerde finding Will Sayle three steps ahead of Ryan Homan for a 10-yard touchdown pass with 3:34 left in the third quarter.
Kicker Nick Barisic hit the PAT at a low angle and Bruns knocked it down to keep the Flyers' lead at eight.
"We got a turnover, a short field, which we obviously needed," coach LaVerde said. "Had to take a timeout there though. We protected our quarterback well, got a nice pass, and Sayle made a nice catch. Then we missed the extra point."
Meier hit LaVerde as he was throwing to force a third-down incompletion and a punt early in the fourth, but Blasini got his second pick of the day on an underthrown ball down the right sideline to give the Hornets another chance. After the wind held up one pass to force an incompletion, Jake LaVerde found Sayle for a leaping catch past the sticks, only for Buschur to knock him out of bounds before he could land.
The Hornets waited as the officials discussed whether or not to review if Sayle's heel landed inbounds, with video review available in the state finals. Coach LaVerde called his final timeout to give them more time to consider it, but they didn't call for a review and Kirtland was forced to punt again.
"They said the guys upstairs wouldn't review it," coach LaVerde said. "That's the reason I called the timeout, and they still didn't. The guys on the field were like, 'They're not reviewing it, call a play. You just lost a timeout.'"
After a three-and-out and a shanked punt, the Hornets got the ball back at their own 32 with 5:48 to play and drove into Marion territory. Blasini took a third-down pitch to the right sideline for a first down, Rocco Alfieri ran for 10 more yards, and Jake LaVerde dove up the middle before an encroachment penalty brought the ball to the Flyers 38.
That was where the Marion defense made its stand. Meier blew up Alfieri's next run for a loss of a yard before Jake LaVerde sailed a pass to the right sideline to bring up fourth down, where he dropped back and looked for a deep pass into the wind. The ball held up, Blasini got turned around and ran into Hess, and Hess batted away the ricochet as Blasini tried to make a juggling catch, handing the ball back to the Flyers with 2:50 remaining.
Photo by Paige Sutter/The Daily Standard
Marion Local's Tate Hess, left, battles Kirtland's Gino Blasini for the ball.
"We played a 5-3, five linebackers and only three secondary guys, and our three secondary guys were capable of doing their job as well," Goodwin said. "We had Tate, all year, we'd put him on their best receiver. He did a great job on number 10 again tonight.
"Everyone keeps asking, 'What's the key to your defense?' Good players at every level, but at some point, you've got to have somebody that can cover somebody. We had that this year with Tate. Tate would have their first, and if we were in man, Nate would have their second. That was a huge part of our defense."
Marion was forced to punt again, but Kirtland threw all 11 players into the rush and Eifert got it away cleanly with the wind at his back, and Mitchell Ranly downed the ball at the Hornets 2 with 29 seconds left.
Jake LaVerde completed a quick out before two incompletions and a delay of game penalty pushed the Hornets back to the 3 with nine seconds left, and the final pass was short of the sticks to extinguish whatever hope remained.
Marion held Kirtland to 161 yards and 10 first downs, forcing seven punts - which coach LaVerde said was the most in any of the Hornets' games - as Kirtland went 2-of-13 on third down. The Hornets rushed for 109 yards, with Tommy Gogolin, who set a school record with 363 yards against Fort Frye a week ago, held to 77 before leaving with an injury early in the fourth quarter.
"Their defense was as advertised," coach LaVerde said. "Only (10) first downs for the game. You can't replicate their size, speed and physicality in practice."
"They're very well coached, they're very fast, and they run all different kinds of blitzes," coach LaVerde said. "It was really hard for us to move the ball. Typically we want to run the ball 80% of the time, and I see we threw the ball 18 times, which is the most for us all year. We got behind the sticks, we couldn't get four, four, four and just get going on them there. They're too good."
Photo by Paige Sutter/The Daily Standard
Marion Local's Carter Jones (3) tackles Kirtland's Will Sayle.
The Flyers, for their part, only mustered 142 yards and nine first downs, went 2-of-12 on third down, and committed three turnovers.
"Tough battle," Goodwin said. "I didn't think it was this tough, but we had 142 yards? Holy cow. I didn't think it was that bad. I thought we could've been bumping 200."
Otte ran for 75 yards, while Hess went 9-of-11 for 52 yards. Bruns led the team with 27 receiving yards.
With the win, Marion improves to 2-2 all-time against Kirtland, with all four matchups coming in the state finals.
"I think it's great, especially since it's Kirtland and they've been such a great rival for us the last couple years," Seitz said. "Coming into this we had a losing record against them. To be a team that can put a win against them, I think it means a lot more than just, what (Goodwin) said, beating another team, running clock. To actually play a full game, all 48 minutes, it was awesome."
