Updated: Saturday, October 10, 2009
From The Pressbox - Week 8 - Stark Edition
Hoover's Howard sets a Stark County record, plus looking at McKinley vs. Hoover, GlenOak vs. Boardman, Northwest vs. Carrollton and Manchester vs. Tuslaw
The Panthers managed to do that for the opening 12 minutes in playing the Bulldogs to a 7-7 draw. Perry couldn’t contain the Bulldogs’ big-play offense after that point, though, as McKinley took charge and overwhelmed Perry 54-21 to improve to 4-3 overall and 3-2 in the league.
Perry suffered its fifth straight loss in dropping to 2-5 overall and 0-4 in the league.
If McKinley running back Bryce Wilder wasn’t around and through the Perry defense, then quarterback Kyle Ohradzansky was lobbing scoring passes over the Panthers’ heads.
Wilder finished with 275 yards rushing and three touchdowns on just 19 carries. His 23-yard touchdown run on the first play following Ronald Gillom’s interception put McKinley up 7-0 with 9:23 left in the opening quarter.
Wilder tore through Perry’s defense for 164 yards on just 10 carries in the opening half. While he only scored once in the first half, several of Wilder’s runs helped set up McKinley deep in Perry territory en route to a 34-14 halftime lead.
Ohradzansky capped three of the drives with short touchdown passes to Matt Ogletree, Jewone Snow and Angelo Powell in McKinley’s 27-point second quarter. Ohradzansky, who finished 7-of-15 for 99 yards and four touchdown passes, also added a 1-yard scoring plunge in the second quarter. Elijah Farrakhan added 79 yards rushing for McKinley, which finished with more than 350 yards on the ground,
“They’re inside runs that are blocked well and you run a long way when that happens,” McKinley coach Ron Johnson said. “It’s not like they weren’t schematically sound. Our kids blocked it well up front, we ran hard and they resulted in big plays.
“I thought we did a nice job passing the ball and that helped open some things up for us in the running game.”
Perry did exactly what it wanted to on its opening drive by controlling the ball for 14 plays, all of which were on the ground. The Panthers moved 59 yards in seven minutes, with fullback Jonathan Miller burrowing in from 1 yard out with 2:23 left in the first to put Perry on the board. Ben Karam’s point after knotted the game at 7-7.
The Panthers hurt their own cause with three turnovers – including two fumbles.
“Turnovers are going to always hurt you and we had some of those tonight,” Perry coach John “Spider” Miller said. “McKinley has some great backs, there’s no question, and they do a great job. We just needed to build a wall and not let them cut back. But that’s what they did most of the night.
“We did some good things and we have to go back and look at those and come together for the last three games.”
After Perry’s Ryan Paige caught a 36-yard Hail Mary pass on the final play off the first half to draw the Panthers to within 34-14, Perry threatened to make a game of it early in the third. Two 15-yard penalties on McKinley before Perry even took a snap put the Panthers on the Pups’ 23. Caleb Laps needed just one play to cover that distance, and Ben Karam’s PAT brought the Panthers to within two scores with just 11 seconds gone in the third quarter.
McKinley responded with a 23-yard scoring pass from Ohradzansky to Powell on its next possession to extend the lead to 40-21. After Brice Everett recovered a Perry fumble on the ensuing kickoff, Wilder scored on an 11-yard dash. He later added a 39-yard touchdown run to complete the scoring.
McKinley 54, Perry 21
McKinley 07 27 20 00 – 54
Perry 07 07 07 00 – 21
M – Wilder 23 run (Forsythe kick)
P – Miller 1 run (Karam kick)
M – Ogletree 7 pass from Ohradzansky (Forsythe kick)
M – Snow 8 pass from Ohradzansky (Forsythe kick)
M – Ohradzansky 1 run (kick failed)
M – Powell 15 pass from Ohradzansky (Forsythe kick)
P – Marshall 36 pass from Offenberger (Karam kick)
P – Laps 23 run (Karam kick)
M – Powell 23 pass from Ohradzansky (kick failed)
M – Wilder 11 run (Forsythe kick)
M – Wilder 38 run (Forsythe kick)
McK Per
First downs 21 14
Rushes-yards 33-386 36-164
Passing yards 99 35
Comp-Att-Int 7-16-1 2-9-1
Fumbles-lost 0-0 3-2
Penalties-yards 6-67 2-24
Individual leaders
Rushing: Perry – Laps 21-102 1 TD; J. Miller 10-72 1 TD. McKinley – Wilder 19-275 3 TDs; Farrakhan 9-79.
Passing: Perry – Offenberger 2-9-35 1 TD. McKinley – Ohradzansky 7-15-99 4 TDs.
Receiving: Perry – Paige 1-36 TD. McKinley – Powell 2-38 2 TDs. Ogletree 3-53 1 TD.
