Stark County high school football OHSAA playoff recaps: McKinley, Massillon among winners
The McKinley, Massillon and Green high school football teams all won their first-round playoff games at home in convincing fashion Friday, as expected. Hoover won a thriller on the road. Sandy Valley pulled away to a road win. And Malvern won at home. Find out about those first-round playoff games and more.
Keith Quincy helps Canton McKinley win OHSAA football first-round playoff game
MCKINLEY 37, STRONGSVILLE 13
Division I, Region 1
CANTON — Two big plays by Keith Quincy helped the fourth-seeded Bulldogs (8-3) pull away to the win at home.
Quincy’s 68-yard touchdown catch on a throw by Keaton Rode increased a McKinley lead to 15-7 in the second quarter. Quincy added a 62-yard TD on an interception return in the third quarter, pushing the Bulldog lead to 29-7 and they cruised from there into the second round.
Rode went 9-of-17 passing for 135 yards, two touchdowns and one interception for McKinley, which snapped a two-game skid and advances to host No. 12 St. Ignatius in a regional quarterfinal next week. Dante McClellan caught Rode’s other TD pass.
McKinley outgained 13th-seeded Strongsville 391-176, doing much of its damage on the ground. The Bulldogs ran for 256 yards on 44 carries.
Nino Hill led the McKinley running game with 156 yards and two TDs on 24 carries, highlighted by a 50-yard TD run in the fourth quarter.
In addition to the pick-six, the McKinley defense also scored by recording a safety in the fourth quarter. Shaukeer Hatcher made a team-high six tackles for the Pups.
Xavier Belvin led the Mustangs (3-8) with 82 yards rushing on 21 carries and 17 yards receiving on four catches, including a TD reception. Strongsville ends its season with six straight losses.
Danny Bowser accounts for four touchdowns in Berea-Midpark win vs. Jackson
BEREA-MIDPARK 41, JACKSON 26
Division I, Region 1
BEREA — Quarterback Danny Bowser accounted for four touchdowns as the No. 7 seed Titans pulled away from Jackson at Finnie Stadium.
Bowser ran 10 times for 118 yards and three touchdowns. He also completed 14 of 19 passes for 225 yards, one TD and one interception as Berea-Midpark (7-4) avenged a first-round playoff loss at Jackson last year.
The No. 10 seed Polar Bears (5-6) led 7-0 in the first quarter when quarterback Nathan Kuntz, subbing for injured starter Lucas Ecrement, threw a 10-yard TD pass to Kyle Andrews. Midpark outscored Jackson 34-3 over the next two-plus quarters.
Kuntz completed 18 of 35 passes for 211 yards, two touchdowns and two interceptions. Andrews caught both TD passes, finishing with five receptions for 79 yards. Carson Pastorius ran for 55 yards and a TD on eight carries for Jackson, which went 1-5 after starting the year 4-1.
Bowling Green commit Austin Clay caught five passes for 127 yards for the Titans. Noah Silva ran for one TD, caught another and intercepted a pass on defense.
DaOne Owens throws 4 TD passes to lead unbeaten Massillon football
MASSILLON 41, CENTRAL CROSSING 6
Division II, Region 7
MASSILLON — DaOne Owens delivered his most productive game throwing the football, leading the Tigers to a dominant first-round win. Owens threw for 341 yards and four TDs on 20-of-27 passing.
He helped the top-seeded Tigers (11-0) outgain their visitors 458-47.
Owens threw two TD passes to Braylyn Toles (51 and 20 yards), in addition to scoring passes of 49 yards to Jacques Carter and 15 yards to Emy Louis Jr.
Dorian Pringle added Massillon’s other two TDs on runs of 10 and 5 yards. Those were his only carries of the night. But he was quite active defensively. He totaled nine tackles, including three for losses. Michael Wright Jr. Added 2.5 tackles for losses.
The Tigers, as team, made 11 tackles for loss in the game. That was a big reason 16th-seeded Central Crossing (4-7) managed to rush for just 14 yards on 27 carries and pick up only five first downs.
Malik Kamara’s 5-yard TD run late in the third quarter accounted for Central Crossing’s only points.
Green cruises past Columbus St. Charles for OHSAA playoff win
GREEN 44, COL. ST. CHARLES 14
Division II, Region 7
GREEN — Jorden Beyl broke off a 67-yard TD run on the second play of the game and the third-seeded Bulldogs rolled from there, building a 37-0 halftime lead.
Green (8-3) advances to a second-round home game against Federal League rival Hoover. The two met two weeks ago, with Green winning at home thanks to a strong second half.
Friday, the third-seeded Bulldogs scored at will in the first half.
Beyl added a second TD run, a 7-yarder, midway through the second quarter for a 24-0 lead.
In between his two scoring runs, Tyson Hunka threw a 27-yard TD pass to Zach Baglia and Caleb Boyle hit a 28-yard field goal.
Samino Manson, Green’s starting QB to open the season before suffering an injury in September, returned to action and threw a 31-yard TD pass to Anthony Manderine with 7:23 left in the first half.
Antonio Martin closed out Green big first half with a 34-yard TD run for the 37-0 lead, setting up a running clock for the second half.
Those two first-half TD passes were Green’s only completions of the game as the Bulldogs attempted just seven passes.
Green’s running game did the rest. The Bulldogs ran for 345 yards on 42 carries as a team, with Beyl’s 165 yards on 15 carries leading the way. Martin added 79 yards on just five carries.
Liam Short scored on a 4-yard run in the third quarter to account for Green’s final touchdown.
St. Charles (5-6) scored twice after that to avoid the shutout. Aidan Fox scored both TDs for the 14th-seeded visitors, as he ran for 192 yards on 22 carries.
Green’s defense recorded six sacks, including two each by Michael Schaal and Jesse Miller.
North Canton Hoover football wins on field goal as time expires
HOOVER 23, COL. DESALES 21
Division II, Region 7
COLUMBUS — Paul Koskovich’s 22-yard field goal as time expired gave the Vikings a playoff win at Alumni Field.
Behind freshman quarterback RJ Day, the son of Ohio State football coach Ryan Day, No. 6 seed DeSales (5-6) had rallied from down 20-7 in the first quarter to take a 21-20 lead in the third quarter.
The score stayed that way until Koskovich’s kick, which came with the Vikings facing a fourth-and-3 from the 5-yard line.
No. 11 seed Hoover (6-5) came out of the gates fast. Kyler Miraglia scored on a 20-yard run. After Day tied the score with a TD pass, Hoover’s Mason Ashby returned a kick 90 yards for a touchdown.
Later in the quarter, Ashby caught an 8-yard TD pass from Carson Dyrlund to put Hoover up 20-7.
The Vikings advance to play at No. 3 Green (8-3) next week in a regional quarterfinal.
Enzo Catania, Aurora football too much for Alliance
AURORA 41, ALLIANCE 7
Division III, Region 9
AURORA — Led by senior Enzo Catania, the Greenmen rolled to a win at home to end Alliance’s season.
Catania scored three first-half TDs on his way to 210 rushing yards on 24 carries for third-seeded Aurora (10-1).
The 14th-seeded Aviators (6-5) got their only points on a first-quarter TD pass. Senior QB Brendan Zurbrugg, an Oklahoma recruit, threw a 10-yard TD pass to K'Vaughn Davis.
Zurbrugg finished the season accounting for 40 total touchdowns, including 27 TD passes. Davis caught 10 of those TD passes this year.
Nick Petro propels Sandy Valley to comeback win
SANDY VALLEY 42, CORTLAND LAKEVIEW 21
Division V, Region 17
CORTLAND —Quarterback Nick Petro scored the final four touchdowns of the game to rally ninth-seeded Sandy Valley past No. 8 Cortland Lakeview.
Petro ran for touchdowns totaling 15, 5 and 16 yards. On defense, he had an 80-yard interception return for TD.
Chad Davis also ran for two TDs for the Cardinals (7-4), who will play at top-seeded Lake County Perry next Friday.
Malvern prevails over Salineville Southern in penalty-filled contest
MALVERN 35, SALINEVILLE SOUTHERN 20
Division VII, Region 25
MALVERN — Jared Witherow tossed three touchdown passes and ran for another for Malvern (10-1) to lead the No. 5 seeded Hornets to a victory over No. 12 seeded Salineville Southern (8-3).
Witherow was 9-of-11 passing on Friday for 203 yards with no interceptions. He carried six times for 55 yards.
Dylan Phillips and Rodney Smith caught two touchdowns each for Malvern. Phillips caught five passes for 124 yards while Smith had four catches for 121 yards.
Southern was called for 22 penalties for 185 yards in the loss. There were 34 total penalties in the game.
In other Stark County-area high school football playoff games
SOUTH RANGE 43, FAIRLESS 20
Division V, Region 17
CANFIELD — Defending state champion South Range, which only lost this season to Green, won big at home.
Fairless, seeded 15th, ends its season at 4-7. South Range, the second seed, heads into the second round at 10-1.
No details were available on the game.
STEUBENVILLE 42, CARROLLTON 0
Division IV, Region 15
STEUBENVILLE — Top-seeded Big Red shut out visiting Carrollton to win a 10th straight game and improve to 10-1.
Carrollton (6-5), seeded 16th, had won five of six before suffering its second shutout of the season.
No details were available on the game.
This article originally appeared on The Repository: Stark County high school football OHSAA playoffs recaps, scores
