After turnover filled first half, Canton McKinley clamps down on Green for victory
By Keno Sultan
C-Town Radio announcer and statistician
CANTON--As Julio Cesar Chavez entered his final round against a fading Meldrick Taylor in their classic 1990 WBC/IBF junior welterweight unification bout and his 66-0 record on the brink, his trainer told him words he had to abide by.
"You have to knock him out. Do it for your family. Do it for the love of God!"
The same could be said of Canton McKinley against a Green team threatening to spoil the 25th year reunion of the 1998 Division I state championship squad Friday night at Tom Benson Hall of Fame Stadium.
The Green Bulldogs were every bit like the flashy and quick rapid fire fists of the 1984 Olympic gold medalist and IBF champion Taylor, rocketing their way to a stunning 27-7 halftime lead as the Bulldog defense intercepted McKinley quarterback Keaton Rode five times, with Anthony Fortunato returning one for a touchdown to close the first half as the hosts went into the locker room down 20 amid a smattering of boos from their fans. However the second half was a different story as like the long reigning WBC champion Chavez, McKinley got their running game going and the defense finally clamped down on Green and caused three turnovers and wore down their Summit County visitors and emerged victorious with an unbelievable 28-27 victory to push their record to 4-1 (2-0 Federal League) at the midway point of the season.
No one may have imagined such an ending after how the first half played out. When asked if his team's comeback was reminiscent of Chavez's controversial come-from-behind TKO of Taylor with two seconds left to maintain his unbeaten record, fourth-year head coach Antonio Hall chuckled at the thought of the comparison.
"It's funny that you use a boxing analogy because today we watched some clips of Muhammad Ali and talked about what it means to be a champion so it's ironic that you said that," he said with a laugh. "It wasn't pretty by any means, a lot of self-inflicted wounds but I told them at halftime if we stay together, if we play for one another, if we come out one play at a time and execute one drive at a time, we'll get back in this thing, no matter what, we cannot fall apart."
Early on it seemed like the hosts were in for a long evening when Green quarterback Samino Manson connected on touchdown passes of 64 and 85 yards to Josh Just and Zachary Baglia and in just five plays, the visitors had a 14-0 lead in the opening quarter.
When junior running back Nino Hill scored on a short one-yard touchdown run in the second quarter, McKinley found some life in the second quarter as they only trailed by one when quarterback Jack Logsdon threw a fade to receiver Antonio Martin who outfought a McKinley defender for a touchdown. The extra-point was missed and Green led 20-7. The missed extra-point would prove large later on in the game.
Attempting to slice into Green's deficit, the Bulldogs anemia of turnovers continued. It was bad enough when Rode had a pass picked off by Martin in the end zone, and two more by Just. Followed by another one and then Anthony Fortunato picked off a Rode pass and eluded multiple defenders and scored on a long pick-six and it seemed Green was on their way to their first ever win against McKinley in nine attempts.
"Our defense caused all kinds of turnovers there in the first half and then we got a big stop to start the second half, I was real proud of them and the way they played," Green head coach Mark Geis said.
McKinley finally responded in the second half. Rode put behind his turnover malady when he threw a 33-yard touchdown pass to Xavier Harris, who made a spectacular one-handed catch to truncate their deficit to 27-14. Pretty soon, momentum was swinging the way of the Bulldogs as they unleashed some depth at the running back position with Stephon Thomas and Hill doing damage on the ground for McKinley.
Soon Green was depleted by fatigue and the McKinley durability took over in the second half.
"We have a great strength and conditioning staff. We train hard and we tell our guys if you don't rise to the occasion, you fall to the level of your training and we always put these guys in the most uncomfortable situations during practice when they train to be able to overcome adversity," Hall said. "Tonight was living proof."
Hill scored on a 22-yard scamper with over four minutes left to hand McKinley their first lead. After a solid punt return by Martin, Green got all the way to the McKinley 25-yard line. After a sack caused Green to hurry to the line of scrimmage (they expended all of their timeouts prior), a Logsdon pass was intercepted by Dante McClellan to seal McKinley's come-from-behind win, a win that will prove large over the course of the season.
McKinley is now 2-0 in league play but Hall knows they cannot afford those same turnovers next week against North Canton Hoover (who lost to GlenOak at press time 27-24) as ninth-year boss Brian Baum Sr. will have his legion of Vikings ready to battle. They got away with those turnovers but know such will not be tolerated.
"We have to take care of the ball first and foremost. We have to take care of the ball. We have to make sure our quarterback and receivers are on the same page and seeing the same things. Once we figured that out at halftime, we were great," Hall said. "Green did a good job of mixing up some coverages in the first half so hat's off to them, they had a great game plan, they played tremendous but ultimately we found a way to win."
"You can't take anything away from McKinley. They had some good drives and they finished the second half," Geis said as his team absorbed their second straight loss of the season to stand at 3-2 on the season (0-2 Federal League).
McKinley started the contest as slowly as Chavez did against Taylor 33 years ago. But in the end, a strong second half lef them feeling like Chavez, hand raised in the air and relieved as winners.
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