LaBrae tops rival Tigers
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LEAVITTSBURG -- After getting shut out in their last two games against McDonald and Garfield, the LaBrae Vikings had to do some soul searching going into Week 5.
LaBrae had a great chance to right the ship on Friday, welcoming rival Newton Falls to town.
Once the Vikings got comfortable, they pulled away, beating the rival Tigers, 28-13.
"We're on an uptick right now," LaBrae coach Chris Marsco said. "Sometimes you need to get humbled. We certainly were leaving McDonald, and then last week we absolutely bottomed out. We put it on the players. It's their team at the end of the day, and we had our best week (of practice) all year. It's hard to stand here now and not think that, that had a lot to do with it. It was our best week of practice, and that's going to be the message to them. When we practice well and we have good habits in practice, that's what you see on Friday night.
"We came together when we absolutely needed to because that's the best Falls team in maybe 20 years. I mean it's been a while. They're really good."
Chase Clonch got the Tigers on the board first, pushing his way into the end zone from a yard out.
Neither team scored until the tail end of the first half. On a fourth-and-13 that was too far for a field goal, and too close for a punt, LaBrae junior Cash Provitt intercepted a pass. Provitt returned the interception down to the 3-yard line.
One play later, Maximus DeSmith took the handoff and earned the Vikings their first points of the evening.
On their first possession of the second half, LaBrae did it again, moving down the field and forcing its way into the end zone. This time it was senior Ty-Meir Boyd shoving his way in at the 1-yard line.
Boyd scored twice more in the fourth quarter, breaking off a 48-yard rush on his second score. Phil Davis scored for Newton Falls in the fourth quarter, in between Boyd's touchdowns.
With five games in the books, it's officially the halfway point of the season.
Newton Falls sits at 2-3 after a 2-0 start to the season, but coach Josh Goss said that his team could very well be 5-0. In each of their three losses, the Tigers left plenty on the table, and that's something they want to change.
"We feel like we could be a 5-0 football team, and we're sitting at 2-3," Goss said. "It comes down to we have to do little things at practice that we try, and I guess, overemphasize all the time. If we tell these guys we're tackling that practice, we expect you to tackle. If we tell you we're just in shells, you're coming to balance and wrapping up on the ball carrier. You have to do that. We really overemphasize our pad level on the offensive line. You got to stay low and run your feet. Our pad level was high tonight.
"We're doing little things incorrectly that we should be doing correctly that should lead to big things. I think if we do that, we're in an even closer ball game tonight, and we potentially could have come out with the win."
Newton Falls will travel to Liberty for a contest against the Leopards.
The Vikings (3-2) will host Champion in Week 6.
"We're in rivalry row right now. We've got Falls, Champion and Brookfield all in a row," Marsco said. "It's homecoming coming up, so that always has its own challenges it presents in terms of keeping them focused and motivated all week. But if you can't get focused and motivated for your rival coming to your place on homecoming, then this might not be the right sport for you. We're going to preach the right things to them and stay the course."