McDonald falls to Tigers for second time
McDonald falls to Tigers for second time
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For the second time in a month, McDonald fell to league rival Springfield.
On Friday, four weeks after handing the Blue Devils their only loss of the regular season, the Tigers went on the road, ended McDonald's year and advanced to the Division VII, Region 25, title game with a 27-7 win.
"The kids played hard," McDonald head coach Dan Williams said. "It’s a good opponent, and we got a lot to be proud of in our season. Our seniors, they can hold their heads high. They had great careers, accomplished a heck of a lot. Four years going to the playoffs, two 10-win seasons. But we just gave up too many big plays in the first half, and that was the difference in the game. Tightened things down in the second half, but give Springfield credit: They played good ball tonight, and they were the better team tonight."
McDonald's first drive of the game quickly stalled, resulting in a punt, but a fumble on the return and a recovery by Caleb Gallner gave the Devils another chance.
Despite a first down and encroaching on the Springfield 20, though, McDonald turned the ball over on downs when quarterback Quinn Schmidt gained only two of the three yards he needed on fourth down.
After the defensive stand, the Tigers immediately flipped the field, with Marco Gentile picking up 45 yards on a quick reverse handoff. Quarterback Michael Tuscano then ran for 28 yards before Alex Caldwell finished the drive off with a 4-yard rushing touchdown.
Once back on offense, McDonald found its own groove on the ground, as Dom Sampson ripped off a 30-yard gain to put the Blue Devils in the red zone.
On the following play, Schmidt picked up 12, and on first-and-goal, he scored a touchdown on a sneak from the 8-yard line.
The Tigers responded with a one-play scoring drive, courtesy of Caldwell, who broke free and raced to the end zone to put Springfield back ahead with 2:47 left in the first quarter.
"They got some good runners, strong kids, fundamentally sound," Williams said. "When you play Springfield, you got to strap it up."
After punts by both teams, Springfield closed the half with another touchdown drive, which Tuscano extended with a 12-yard run on third-and-3. Two plays later, Caldwell scored on another long run. This time, he ran into the end zone from 64 yards out, giving the Tigers a 21-7 advantage shortly before halftime.
The Blue Devils' season-saving, comeback bid never materialized in the second half.
Like in their first meeting last month, Springfield largely shut down McDonald's old-school rushing attack, which forced the Devils to take to the air and ultimately punt several times as time dwindled away.
Tuscano made any potentially rally even more difficult late in the third third quarter, when he began to roll right and then immediately reversed course due to pressure. Picking up a key block in the open field, he raced down his own sideline and into the end zone for the 60-yard touchdown.
With an unsuccessful extra point, the score remained 27-7 with 80 seconds left in the third quarter.
McDonald's best drive of the second half came in the final minutes of the game, as Schmidt completed consecutive first-down passes before picking up another first with his legs as the game clock dipped under four minutes.
Shortly thereafter, however, the Springfield defense recovered and made another stand, forcing a turnover on downs by chasing down Schmidt short of the chains on what would be the Devils' final offensive play of the season.
"I don’t think it’s anything magical," Springfield head coach Adam Slopek said of the key to beating McDonald twice. "You have to be able to match up with their athletes and not give in to some of the misdirection things they do. It takes a great deal of discipline and a great deal of athleticism. And our kids, they did that. They did what we asked them to do.
"It was just a great team effort from our assistants to our scout team throughout the week. The way our kids prepared told the story of how well they were going to play tonight.
With the loss, McDonald finished the year with a 10-2 record, having beaten every opponent aside from Springfield. The Blue Devils' 21-14 defeat to the Tigers last month marked their only regular-season loss in the last two seasons.
Springfield, winner of its last eight since a three-game losing streak early in the season, improved to 9-3 and will meet No. 2 Cuyahoga Heights in the Region 25 championship next week. The Red Wolves defeated No. 3 Mogadore 30-0 in the other semifinal Friday.
"After the first McDonald game, we said, 'That was a great effort, but let’s not have that be the highlight of our season,'" Slopek said. "Again, tonight, great effort. But let’s not have that be the highlight of our season. We still had a lot of errors tonight. The best is yet to come."