Canton South football was 'watching a dream come true' in playoff win vs. West Branch
LOUISVILLE — Canton South senior defensive lineman Joe Meyer fell to the turf clutching the football at Louisville Leopard Stadium. His teammates mobbed him as he held the football tight running to the sideline.
Meyer had just clinched a 40-21 win for the unbeaten Wildcats with 2:50 to play in a Division IV regional semifinal game. A couple first downs later and knees from victory formation, and the celebration was on.
"I saw the quarterback roll out and I honestly thought he saw I was covering the play," Meyer said. "The next thing I knew, the ball was in hands. It was a shocking moment for me. It took a moment to sink in. It's a moment we all worked so hard for and we were watching it come true."
It was the perfect exclamation point on a nearly perfect night of football for Canton South (13-0), which advances to play Struthers in a regional final.
Quarterback Jack "Poochie" Snyder tossed two touchdowns to become Stark County's all-time leader in TD passes. Snyder now has 118 for his career to surpass Sandy Valley's Cameron Blair (116).
"He made all of the plays that we needed him to make to win tonight," Canton South head coach Matt Dennison said. "He's accomplished just about everything you can. These accomplishments couldn't happen to a better kid. He's just a fantastic young man."
Snyder was 21-of-30 passing for 233 yards with no interceptions. He also ran for two touchdowns and 142 yards on 22 carries.
"It feels great to have a night like this," Snyder said. "Setting the record was a nice bonus. I want to thank all of my teammates for helping make that happen. That's a team accomplishment in my eyes. I've had a lot of great blockers and a lot of great receivers here. A lot more goes into throwing touchdowns than just me throwing the ball."
Rome Cox added a 29-yard touchdown run in the fourth quarter for Canton South. Landon White also hit a 36-yard field goal and a 20-yard field goal to round out the scoring for the Wildcats. Cox ran for 100 yards on 24 carries to help Canton South control the clock.
"Rome did a great job of keeping the chains moving for us," Snyder said. "He really kept us in manageable down and distance situations with his running all night. Landon White was also clutch for us kicking the ball."
The big story was the Wildcat defense. Canton South held West Branch to just one touchdown in the first half and just 10 first downs for the game. West Branch came into the game averaging 43.5 points per game.
"We came out feeling confident," Meyer said. "Our goal was to play the game at our pace and our speed and we did that. If we can keep a team playing our game, we have an excellent chance of being successful."
Nerves may have played a part in the offensive struggles for West Branch (11-2) in the first half as Canton South built up a 24-7 lead.
"I think the bright lights and the atmosphere might have gotten to us a little bit at the start of the game," West Branch head coach Tim Cooper said. "I think we played tight and it showed. In the second half we did a better job of relaxing and playing at our tempo and we had more success. I'm happy with the way we competed. I'm happy and grateful for the opportunity I've had to coach these kids."
Beau Alazaus threw three TD passes for West Branch. Alazaus was 17-of-25 passing for 230 yards with an interception.
"These kids accomplished a lot," Cooper said. "They won an outright Eastern Buckeye Conference championship. They won all their big rivalry games during the regular season. They won double-digit games for the third consecutive year. They had a deep playoff run and they battled tonight. Would we like to keep playing? Sure. But you have to give credit to and congratulate coach Dennison and Canton South. They played a great game. We left it all on the field."
Reach Cliff at cliff.hickman@cantonrep.com
On Twitter: @chickmanREP
This article originally appeared on The Repository: Canton South's Poochie Snyder sets Stark touchdown passing record
