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Adversity finally too much for JFK

Tribune Chronicle / Joe Simon John F. Kennedy’s Christian Marantis (12) runs the ball while being pursued by Cuyahoga Heights’ Carson Horstmann (73) during their Division VII Region 25 championship game at Nordonia High School. The Eagles lost, 35-20.

MACEDONIA — Not many teams bounced back from adversity like John F. Kennedy did this year.

A team that was lucky to be 1-4 at the midway point of the year and was outscored 213 to 49 during a brutal four-game stretch somehow managed to win four of its last five games and qualify for the playoffs.

Then, the underdog Eagles started to roll and advanced to the Division VII, Region 25 final.

It was there that adversity finally became too much to overcome.

Cuyahoga Heights took advantage of a rare fourth-quarter meltdown by JFK, pulling away for a 35-20 victory at Nordonia High School’s Boliantz Stadium. The Redskins (11-2) play Glouster Trimble in a state semifinal at 7 p.m. Saturday at a site to be determined.

Tribune Chronicle / Joe Simon John F. Kennedy’s Jordan Edmondson, right, shakes off the tackle of Cuyahoga Heights’ Jason Bartosik near the goal line.

The Eagles (7-6) looked to be on a path toward that spot for the second time in three years. They held a 20-14 lead and had a first-and-10 at the Cuyahoga Heights’ 30-yard line as the third quarter came to an end. A simple holding call seemed to change everything.

JFK moved back to the 42 and faced a first-and-22. They moved back four more yards on a screen pass, lost two more on a run and then threw an incomplete pass on third-and-28. Fourth down was the breaking point.

A high snap went over the head of the punter, Cuyahoga Heights took over at the Eagles’ 29 and rattled off 21 unanswered points to stun JFK.

“The holding penalty really turned the tide in the game because we’re not built for second-and-28, and I don’t know too many offenses that are,” Eagles coach Jeff Bayuk said. “That was a big turning point in the game, and then things just started to snowball after that.”

While things began to spiral out of control, JFK kept finding ways to stay alive.

Tribune Chronicle / Joe Simon John F. Kennedy’s Christian Marantis sets up to deliver a pass Saturday against Cuyahoga Heights. The Eagles lost, 35-20, in the Division VII Region 25 championship game at Nordonia High School.

The Redskins’ Brayden DiSanza, who ran for 131 yards and three touchdowns on 26 carries, scored after the botched punt to give Cuyahoga Heights a 21-20 lead. The Eagles then lost four yards on three plays and punted, and the Redskins scored on a 44-yard pass two plays later for a 28-20 lead with 6 minutes, 28 seconds left in the game. Things only got worst from there.

JFK’s Jordan Edmondson lost his second fumble, and Cuyahoga Heights drove to the Eagles’ 42 with 4:28 left, but JFK forced a fumble of its own. They moved to the Redskins’ 26 with less than a minute remaining, trailing 28-20, when Cuyahoga Heights sacked quarterback Christian Marantis. Marantis, who completed 14-of-21 passes for 105 yards, was picked off on the next play, and Jason Bartosik returned it 93 yards for a game-sealing TD.

“It’s like a roller coaster,” said senior fullback/linebacker Isaac Hadley of dealing with the adversity of the game, “and when you get in that rut, you’ve just got to keep digging yourself out because you know eventually some things are going to go your way. And they did, and then we just got right back in the rut. It was just a roller coaster of game.”

JFK was enjoying the ride for a while.

Tied at 14 at halftime, the Eagles took the lead when Cameron Hollobaugh, who played a spectacular game with 56 yards rushing and 92 receiving on nine receptions, scooped up a fumble and rumbled 65 yards for a touchdown midway through the third quarter. They followed that up by forcing a three-and-out, but that led to the holding penalty and high snap on the punt.

The roller coaster of a game mimicked JFK’s season.

A team with just five seniors looked to be on the verge of a rare rebuilding year after that 1-4 start, but they found a way to come together, snuck into the playoffs (their fourth straight appearance) and nearly won their second regional title in three years after winning the 2016 state championship.

“When you’re as young as we are, and you go through what we went through the first half of the season, you’ve got two choices to make,” Bayuk said. “You can pack it in and just say we’re young, or you can keep fighting and keep persevering, and thankfully for our coaches, those are the kind of kids we have. They decided that they were just going to keep putting their nose to the grindstone and working hard.

“That’s how the kids have been every since Game 5,” he later added. “They just keep fighting and keep fighting. The five seniors that we have held it all together. I’m really proud of them. That just tells me that they’ll be successful when they get out of here because they can get beat down and then come out on the other end better for it.”

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