TROY – Geremie Dart drilled a 30-yd field goal in the closing moments of the fourth quarter to secure a thrilling, 30-22, Clinton Massie victory over Kenton in a Division IV Region 16 semifinal on Saturday night at Kettering Fairmont’s Roush Stadium.
The MVP Player of the Game, Jordy Scanlon, scored two of his three rushing touchdowns in the third quarter to extend the Falcons’ 14-6 halftime lead to a 27-6 one.
“We knew that they were a good football team coming in,” Kenton head coach Mike Mauk said afterwards. “It’s just unfortunate that we couldn’t finish some drives and couldn’t make some plays. They were able to, and the better team won the game.”
Unofficially, the junior running back accrued 188 yards rushing and three touchdowns on 38 carries. Most of those were between the tackles behind big blocks from massive offensive tackles like Michael Stenger, Jared Salisbury, and Jordan Dransak.
It was looking bad for KHS until midway through the fourth period until Mauk threw two long range touchdown strikes – a 40-yarder to Max Morrison, as well as a 7-yarder to Dan Lombardo – to cut the lead to 27-22.
Senior Lombardo caught only four passes all night, but those catches were good for 142 yards and two touchdowns.
“(Coming into the game) I thought that Morrison was a talented kid,” Clinton Massie head coach, Dan McSurley, said. “I also thought that number two (Lombardo) was outstanding.
“They hurt us with the middle screen, but our defense just played lights out. We got some pressure on him (Mauk), and it was just a phenomenal team effort—both offensively and defensively.”
Kenton’s valiant comeback attempt not meant to be. They should take solace in the notion that, in Coldwater (a 29-26 loss in week one) and Clinton Massie, the Wildcats lost to two exceptional football teams/programs.
The undefeated Falcons live to play another day, and that day will be next Saturday (11-21) at 7 p.ml. when they will face the defending state D-IV champions – the mighty Alter Knights – on what pretty much amounts to their home field (Centerville Stadium)– in the 2009 Region 16 final.
“We’re going to go in next week to Kettering, or wherever the game is going to be, and we are just going to strap it up,” said McSurley. “It’s going to be a real fun game to prepare for.
“They run the wishbone, we run the wishbone. Something has got to give next week.”
As for the 10-2 Western Buckeye League Champion Wildcats? They can look forward to two more seasons of quarterback Maty Mauk’s heroics, but the 2009 season is majorly over—as it likely is soon for the winner, too.
But you never know. Certainly that is among the more compelling cases to be made for actually playing the game.
Meanwhile, this semifinal presented a radical contrast in styles:
1) Kenton ¬– They offered a world of possibilities on offense. They radically spread the field and dared Clinton Massie to defend every single inch of it. No-huddle all of the way, only the quarterback ever lined up behind center. And Mauk (the state’s leading passer) seldom willingly carried the ball. Mostly he passed, and that approach resulted in almost 400 yards of passing offense for the game.
2) Clinton Massie – They made no offers on this night. Instead, the Falcons ran the ball and sought to score on as many possessions as possible. In so doing, they obviously hoped to control the clock. How did they do? At halftime the score was 14-6 + they were stopped just short of 20:00 (out of a possible 24:00 in possession time), and in the end, their 324 yards of rushing represented a boatload of clock time.
3) As always you the reader, gets to make the call. I have always heard that the best defense is a great offense, and that always sounded right to me—but it’s your call.
Consider this: If Kenton’s passing threat was indeed offset by Clinton Massie’s relentless rushing attack then this game really came down to nothing more than execution. And if that’s the case then the Wildcats five turnovers (three interceptions and two fumbles) were by far the most important and relevant statistic.
The Falcons’ offensive efficiency made every possession matter, and Kenton proceeded to squander five of those precious possessions on turnovers. The fumbles were largely the results of major-league hits but the pass interceptions were the predictable result of Mauk’s extremely low release point in his throwing motion.
The longer the game wore on the lower it got, and Dan McSurley has been around far, far, too long not to have seen that on film last week. Accordingly, Clinton Massie’s pass rush unit played a critical role in this game.
Another peculiar twist to this saga is Kenton’s apparent total lack of a kicking game. Their punting was so bad that they were inclined to go for it on almost all fourth downs.
Their place kicking just as bad. So they proceeded to execute two onside kicks (they recovered one of them) and faked a punt (unbelievably, it went for a first down).
At press time, no one is certain, exactly, just how a team that punts as badly as the Wildcats do can pull off a fake punt—but they did just that.
“We knew that they struggled in the kicking game,” McSurley said. “We were actually prepared for it, and we knew what they were doing on those onside kicks. I don’t know what happened on that one we lost before the half, though.”
In an effort to be extra-special fakey on the play, the Kenton coaching staff decided to direct that fake-punt-pass to the state’s leading receiver (entering the night), Max Morrison, who was double covered (in the right flat) but made the catch anyway.
Surprise! No one would ever expect the state’s leading receiver!
“We needed to score one more time,” Mauk said. “We weren’t able to, and I attribute that to the great defense that (Clinton Massie) played.”
