#PACtion™ 2024

This is in the Rep today....the scammers are everywhere.....

COLUMNS

Straight Talk: Be careful with streaming links for high school sports​

Better Business Bureau
Special to The Canton Repository

BBB logo


Fans used to be limited to trips to high schools or Cleveland Browns Stadium to root for their favorite teams.
However, online streams now make it possible for people to watch games from the comfort of home. Unfortunately, scammers have followed.
By sharing fake streaming links on social media, scammers aim to capture personal information, including credit card and Social Security numbers, as fans get tricked into logging in to watch their teams play.

How the scam works​

You want to watch your high school's football game, or a niece's college softball team play in a tournament out of state. You search online to find a link where the game might be streamed. Sure enough, a fan has shared a link on social media that you can use – for free.
It's almost time for the game to start, so you eagerly click the link. The next screen asks you to sign up for the streaming service, so you enter your name and email ... and then you get asked for a credit card number and potentially more sensitive information.
Are you seeing red flags yet?
These scammers infiltrate social media with links to fake streams. The posts often will tag the high schools, colleges, or professional teams involved to make the post appear legitimate. The scammers hope the would-be viewer inputs their information and pays to watch the event. The consumer doesn’t get to watch the game because the scammer has not set up a stream. Instead, whatever data they entered may be compromised.
As a new school year begins, Better Business Bureau reminds consumers to do their research when looking to watch a high school, college or professional sporting event online.
Last year, state associations that oversee high school athletics in New Mexico, Indiana and North Carolina issued warnings about the fake streams.
BBB Scam Tracker has received reports of fake sports streaming links. One consumer shared, "The link was posted under a high school football post claiming we could watch the high school football games for free. Then it asked for credit card information in order to charge $1. After putting in credit card information, I was not able to watch any football games ... my trial was for 24 hours and if I didn't cancel, it would charge my credit card $60 per month."
 
Tough to get nuggets of info, but found this on the IVC thread.
IV looked really good against Fairless, 5 scores to 1 and that 1 was on the JV’s.

And while not a PAC result, I’m sticking with Manchester as a three score favorite in Week 1:
North 21
Coventry 9
Score wasn’t officially kept. Coventry needs to work on their passing defense. All of the Vikings touchdowns were through the air.
 
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This is in the Rep today....the scammers are everywhere.....

COLUMNS

Straight Talk: Be careful with streaming links for high school sports​

Better Business Bureau
Special to The Canton Repository

BBB logo


Fans used to be limited to trips to high schools or Cleveland Browns Stadium to root for their favorite teams.
However, online streams now make it possible for people to watch games from the comfort of home. Unfortunately, scammers have followed.
By sharing fake streaming links on social media, scammers aim to capture personal information, including credit card and Social Security numbers, as fans get tricked into logging in to watch their teams play.

How the scam works​

You want to watch your high school's football game, or a niece's college softball team play in a tournament out of state. You search online to find a link where the game might be streamed. Sure enough, a fan has shared a link on social media that you can use – for free.
It's almost time for the game to start, so you eagerly click the link. The next screen asks you to sign up for the streaming service, so you enter your name and email ... and then you get asked for a credit card number and potentially more sensitive information.
Are you seeing red flags yet?
These scammers infiltrate social media with links to fake streams. The posts often will tag the high schools, colleges, or professional teams involved to make the post appear legitimate. The scammers hope the would-be viewer inputs their information and pays to watch the event. The consumer doesn’t get to watch the game because the scammer has not set up a stream. Instead, whatever data they entered may be compromised.
As a new school year begins, Better Business Bureau reminds consumers to do their research when looking to watch a high school, college or professional sporting event online.
Last year, state associations that oversee high school athletics in New Mexico, Indiana and North Carolina issued warnings about the fake streams.
BBB Scam Tracker has received reports of fake sports streaming links. One consumer shared, "The link was posted under a high school football post claiming we could watch the high school football games for free. Then it asked for credit card information in order to charge $1. After putting in credit card information, I was not able to watch any football games ... my trial was for 24 hours and if I didn't cancel, it would charge my credit card $60 per month."
Thanks for the heads up. I have signed up with the NFHS Network the last couple of years. Not bad until it comes to playoff time. I like how yappi post video and audio carriers for many of the games.
 
And while not a PAC result, I’m sticking with Manchester as a three score favorite in Week 1
Here's the one issue nobody has brought up with Coventry in they PAC, if they don't get it figured out and Tuslaw and Manchester continue to struggle the rest of the PAC teams have essentially 30% of their schedule that will score them next to no playoff points. Not a lot of room for error for the bigger teams in the conference
 
shoot - good point but I feel "bigger" schools knew they were gunna be big fish in the smaller pond and can schedule smart in OOC.
Haven't heard anyone is looking to leave with any real prospects since the small dust ups during basketball of some mild flirting by a couple schools. PACtion™ does have a full roster of good coaches: Sarbaugh-Dial-Stacey-Demarco-Dennison to name the ones off the top of my head. IT will be up to Akron Coventry to take a look at these stadiums and staffs and step up their game if they want to win in football in PACtion™. Only thing sacrificed is playoff position for the bigs - all schools that were supposed to be in the playoffs have made it now with the extra week.

PACtion™
just cuz
 
Here's the one issue nobody has brought up with Coventry in they PAC, if they don't get it figured out and Tuslaw and Manchester continue to struggle the rest of the PAC teams have essentially 30% of their schedule that will score them next to no playoff points. Not a lot of room for error for the bigger teams in the conference
True, but that was mostly CVCA's issue being D3. And with the expanded playoffs, you could win 5 games against winless teams (if that's even statistically possible) and still make the top 16 of the region.
 
I went to Coventry, and have been to the majority of games the last 18 years, but they are going through a drought. They are not traditionally great in football but they’ve struggled more in the last year. Last year made me miss the typical 3-7/4-6 seasons, and I’m hoping that they can improve on that by going 2-8/3-7 this year. 4-6 might be asking for too much at this point. I’ll support regardless, but I hope for even a slightly better season. I’ll take 2-8 as an improvement.
 
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Fair at best. They have a QB issue. Secondary needs work as does running game. Hopefully it'll be better Thursday.
That's surprising, wasn't it the Sharpe kid the last year or two? Good athlete, also wrestles, but also didn't really want to play there but was told they didn't have many other options or has that changed? Not sure about him as a pure QB, throwing etc, but clearly you can win with an athlete at that position in H.S. and play to the strengths. Also thought the Kuzmit twins or at least one of them was a pretty solid option in the backfield....
 
Unfortunately the cleansing hit the high school gym floor. Industrial drying machine brought in on the back of a flatbed semi trailer is currently drying out the Bob Knight Gymnasium floor from last week's deluge.
Sorry to hear that. Hopefully insurance will cover that.
 
Sorry to hear that. Hopefully insurance will cover that.
As of today all events/practices will be moved to our "old" gym. Sounds like some pretty significant damage...or that it's too close to volleyballl season to give the surface a thumbs up for use.

Thankful we have 2 competition gyms and a multi purpose facility because it sounds like the new gym may be out of commission for a while.

Who knows with the damage being caused by flood what insurance will and won't cover.
 
PAC Game of the Year - 2020 | Fairless (3-1, 3-1 PAC) at Northwest (4-0, 4-0 PAC) | Week 5 | September 25, 2020
This is the 22nd in an ongoing series, highlighting the PAC Game of the Year in each season, from 1999 through 2023, which will lead up to the start of the 2024 high school football season. For a look back at prior summaries, click here for 1999, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018 and 2019.
__________________________________________

The Prelude

The oddity that was the 2020 season saw the biggest win occur off the football field. Just ten days before the first scheduled games were set to take place, Governor Mike DeWine gave the green light to fall contact sports, including football, whose seasons had been hanging in the balance amid the Covid-19 pandemic. Athletes had already lost winter sports championships and the entire spring sports season during the prior academic year, and all scheduled scrimmages with other schools had been put on hold. The gubernatorial blessing on fall sports came with a number of stipulations. Attendance was limited to 15% of stadium capacity. Players were supposed to stand six feet apart while wearing masks on their own sidelines. Officials would use an orange beanbag to spot the ball, but the umpire would not handle the ball. Instead, the offensive team center would spot the ball on the beanbag spot.

The regular season would be truncated to six games and all teams would be eligible to participate in the OHSAA playoffs, with an opportunity to schedule additional games - up to ten regular season contests - after elimination from playoff contention. Local officials were able to decide if they would play at all. And we learned about another oddity - Covid cancellations. Games could be canceled and also scheduled on a moment's notice.

Since spectators were limited, it brought about the onset of en masse live streaming for the first time. Some streams were done well. Others left some things to be desired. But after being couped up - literally, at least there was something to look forward to, even if you couldn't be there in person.

The PAC decided to play a six week round robin, starting with what originally would have been Week 5 of the regular season. Weeks 1-4 were scrapped, and just ten days after DeWine's press conference, the season was off and running, with one exception. Manchester officials originally decided not to play in the Fall of 2020. But they reversed course and the Panthers joined the fray in Week 3.

Based on the 2019 results, Orrville, Northwest and CVCA were expected to be the top teams, but given the limitations and restrictions on practice time, it was really anyone's guess.

Opening night came, and to add to the Covid oddities, it arrived with a massive storm front rolling through Northeast Ohio. Northwest was scheduled to visit Orrville in a matchup that pitted the Jordan Mick-led Indians against an Orrville squad that had won the 2018 Division 5 state championship and went three rounds deep in an 11-win season the year before and still had Marquael Parks. The game was suspended due to the storms in the third quarter, with Northwest leading big. It got worse for the Riders on Saturday. Orrville, who had 16 new starters from the 2019 team, got blown out 42-7. It also unexpectedly turned out to be the final game in the the illustrious career of Parks, who was dismissed from the team a week later after incurring legal trouble.

Elsewhere on opening night, CVCA traveled to Fairless, and the teams slogged through three different lightning delays. Each time, Fairless would retreat to their locker room. CVCA, on the other had, waited out the delays on their buses as the visiting team was prohibited from using the school facilities due to Covid regulations. On the field, an 8-point game game was blown open on each side of the half, when Fairless returned a kickoff for a touchdown just before the half and then scored on the opening possession of the third quarter. The Falcons briefly put a running clock on the Royals in a game that ended well after midnight with the Falcons winning 42-26. It was a surprising result, but it announced the arrival of the Falcons as a major player in the battle for conference superiority for the next several seasons.

The following week, CVCA was on the road again at Northwest. The Royals led at the half, and the teams combined for more than 1,000 yards of offense, but Mick and the Indians pulled away with two fourth quarter scores to win 41-25.

Timing is everything and both Fairless and Northwest got the better of CVCA before the Royals got rolling with the most prolific offense in school history. The Falcons and Indians sat atop the conference standings after Week 2, after Fairless defeated Loudonville.

Week 3 saw Manchester start play, and up first was Fairless. It was the first game of the Jay Brophy era at Manchester, and the Panthers celebrated with a 7-0 shutout victory against the Falcons. In retrospect, it turned out to be fools gold. Manchester managed just two more touchdowns in the entire regular season; they were outscored 160-56 and and finished 2-4 in six total games.

Fairless shutout Triway 38-0 in Week 4, while Northwest destroyed Manchester 49-7, which set up a de-facto PAC Championship Game at Northwest in Week 5.

The Game

Northwest entered the contest looking to go 5-0 for the first time in 13 seasons, having outscored opponents in the first month by a combined 163-47, and the Indians featured senior quarterback Jordan Mick, who clearly looked like the conference Player of the Year over the first month of games.

Fairless got the ball first, but went three-and-out on a keeper by quarterback Ethan Brindley, a Hunter Campbell run and an incomplete pass on third down.

The elder Mick had weapons to throw to, including his younger brother Braden, as well as Anthony Grossnickle and Nick Dinkins. In the backfield, sophomore Ethan Nickey was a load behind the big Northwest O-Line.

But it was a freshman who got the first two carries for Northwest on this night. Kyler Miraglia foreshadowed a big future with gains on the first two plays. But it was Nickey, who took the fourth play of the night for the Indians offense up the middle for a 25 yard touchdown score with 9:05 to go in the opening stanza.

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Nickey drags two Fairless defenders into the endzone | Canton Repository Photo

The next Fairless drive ended in a Braden Mick interception of Brindley on a bomb attempt, and after an exchange of possessions, Northwest was driving, but the progression into Falcons red zone was halted by a Coltin Colucci sack of Mick. Sophomore Isaac LaFay followed with a 37-yard field goal to put the home team up 10-0.

The Northwest defense continued to put their imprint on the game on the next Fairless drive, which ended when Jason Greenfield and LaFay stopped Brindley on a 4th and long conversion attempt. It gave the ball back over to the Indians and Mick.

The senior quarterback then executed a perfect screen pass to Grossnickle, who did the rest with his legs. Sixty-one yards later, he was celebrating in the endzone. LaFay's extra point made it 17-0, and it appeared that the Indians were on their way to another lopsided victory.

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Grossnickle outraces Fairless' Brandon Pumneo to put Northwest up 17-0 | Canton Repository Photo

One problem. Nobody told Fairless they were going to be on the losing end of a blowout. Northwest stopped Fairless again, and decided to keep their foot on the gas. With so many big leads, the Indians had not had occasion to run the two minute offense at any point in the season. With seconds to go in the half, Mick dropped back and found pressure from Falcons' Defensive End Seth Short. Mick flicked a pass forward, and Short snatched it out of the air and returned the ball down to the Northwest 7-yard line.

The Falcons had life, and Brindley followed with a 4-yard toss to Colucci with just 0:02 remaining in the half. LaFay blocked the PAT, but the Falcons closed to within 17-6 at the half, despite mustering only 70 yards of offense in the first 24 minutes.

The second half began with Northwest receiving the opening kick. But the Indians could not mirror their first half offensive production. Twice on fourth down, the Fairless defense came up with big stops. Short sacked Mick to halt one drive near midfield. But the Falcons offense continued to see its wings clipped by the stingy Indians defense.

Late in the third quarter, Fairless was forced to punt for the eighth time in the game, and they pinned Northwest deep. That's when the Falcons defense picked up the offense once again. Mick dropped back to pass and was looking for 6-5 receiver Billy Crookston. Instead, he found the other Fairless defensive end Reise Lanier, who snagged the ball and ran 15 yards untouched into the endzone for a Falcons touchdown. Northwest stopped the Fairless 2-point attempt, but suddenly it was a one score game with three minutes left in the third quarter at 17-12.

And that's how it stayed until late in the fourth quarter when the Fairless offense had one final chance to try and solve an Indians defense that had dominated all night. Down five points, they got the ball back late on their own 25 yard line and they needed to engineer a drive.

With just over two minutes left, the Falcons faced a 4th and 1 from near midfield. Head coach A.J. Sarbaugh called on his quarterback to keep the ball, and Brindley delivered. Moments later an unsportsmanlike conduct penalty on Northwest move the ball down to the Indians 21.

That's when 5-foot-8-inch Cooper Barnby made the play of his life.


From the Steve Doerschuk story in The Canton Repository:
"They motioned to the right," Barnby said. "They had three guys on one side, and they were to the boundary, so I knew one of them had to come to me. Once he threw the ball, I just went for it.

"I really just had confidence at that point in the game. We played well all year defensively. I trusted the team could put it away somehow."

Northwest took over and ran out the clock to survive.


Chants of "Coop," all around, suggested folk-hero status in later life.

"I'm just really proud of my guys and the coaching staff," Barnby said before the Indians celebrated with a senior walk. "We've all worked really hard all year to get to this position. There's a lot more to do."

Indeed there was. Northwest survived Fairless and took care of Loudonville the following week to emerge unscathed in the abbreviated six-game Covid season as PAC Champions.

The Postlude

Northwest carried the top seed in Division 4 Region 13 rankings, which earned them a bye in the first round of the playoffs. After the bye, they extended their win streak to 8 games, with a 52-29 win over Girard and then a 13-10 win over Shaw.

8e9852ed-602e-43da-a6f5-21049c1434c7-Football_Girard_at_Northwest_002.JPG
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Barnby makes a tackle against Girard (L) and LaFay converts a field goal in Northwest's 13-10 win vs. Shaw | Canton Repository Photos

Meanwhile, CVCA ... remember them? The Royals finished the regular season with four straight wins, and averaged 52 points a game in those demolitions of Orrville, Tuslaw, Loudonville and Manchester. CVCA then opened the playoffs at home and administered a 55-21 dismantling of Edgewood. The next week, CVCA avenged playoff losses the previous two seasons with a 55-28 victory at Perry. The following week, you couldn't fault the Royals for looking ahead at halftime of their playoff game against Lake Catholic. They held a 21-7 lead and could envision a rematch with Northwest a week later in the Regional Semifinal. But Lake Catholic scored the game's final 28 points to win and end any chance of a PAC playoff rematch.

In Week 10, Lake Catholic ended the Northwest season in a 7-0 defensive struggle.

CVCA played two more games after being eliminated from the playoffs, defeating Salem and engineering the biggest comeback in program history, defeating West Branch 58-55, after being down 28 points twice late in the first half.

And Fairless? The promising season yielded a playoff opportunity. But the Falcons fell flat and dropped a first round playoff game 28-17 against previously winless VASJ. Still, the Falcons did schedule a pair of additional games as well, recording a 28-20 nonconference win over a quarterback named Jack Snyder at Canton South and finishing up with a 40-7 win over Tusky Valley to end the year at 6-3.

The win over South was notable as the Wildcats had also been defeated a week earlier by that same Lake Catholic team that ultimately came within a final play game-winning field goal of winning the the State Championship in Division 4.
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Future PAC Player of the Year "Jack" Snyder awaits a snap against Lake Catholic | Canton Repository Photo
 
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Not yet. That takes place this coming Friday.
Hopefully Village of Northhampton Mayor @the123kidz will instill tuffness.

Creston is a nice place but is it tuff like Northhampton?**

**I wonder how many times Norwayne has called their bigger neighbor Cloverleaf for a game and have been ghosted like a bad Bumble profile?

BETTER YET....let's start paying for the flood damage at Orrville HS. Schedule Norwayne vs Orrville now!

I trust insurance companies like I trust US Senator Bob Menendez (D-Demonic Dopey Dumm As*) with underage girls from the Dominican Republic.

Anyways, best wishes to Orrville except against The Slaw. Get those repairs made and get back on track (railroad analogy for an old railroad town like Orrville; only old railroaders like The Silent Flock® got that one right off the bat).
 
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PAC Game of the Year - 2020 | Fairless (3-1, 3-1 PAC) at Northwest (4-0, 4-0 PAC) | Week 5 | September 25, 2020
This is the 22nd in an ongoing series, highlighting the PAC Game of the Year in each season, from 1999 through 2023, which will lead up to the start of the 2024 high school football season. For a look back at prior summaries, click here for 1999, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018 and 2019.
__________________________________________

The Prelude

The oddity that was the 2020 season saw the biggest win occur off the football field. Just ten days before the first scheduled games were set to take place, Governor Mike DeWine gave the green light to fall contact sports, including football, whose seasons had been hanging in the balance amid the Covid-19 pandemic. Athletes had already lost winter sports championships and the entire spring sports season during the prior academic year, and all scheduled scrimmages with other schools had been put on hold. The gubernatorial blessing on fall sports came with a number of stipulations. Attendance was limited to 15% of stadium capacity. Players were supposed to stand six feet apart while wearing masks on their own sidelines. Officials would use an orange beanbag to spot the ball, but the umpire would not handle the ball. Instead, the offensive team center would spot the ball on the beanbag spot.

The regular season would be truncated to six games and all teams would be eligible to participate in the OHSAA playoffs, with an opportunity to schedule additional games - up to ten regular season contests - after elimination from playoff contention. Local officials were able to decide if they would play at all. And we learned about another oddity - Covid cancellations. Games could be canceled and also scheduled on a moment's notice.

Since spectators were limited, it brought about the onset of en masse live streaming for the first time. Some streams were done well. Others left some things to be desired. But after being couped up - literally, at least there was something to look forward to, even if you couldn't be there in person.

The PAC decided to play a six week round robin, starting with what originally would have been Week 5 of the regular season. Weeks 1-4 were scrapped, and just ten days after DeWine's press conference, the season was off and running, with one exception. Manchester officials originally decided not to play in the Fall of 2020. But they reversed course and the Panthers joined the fray in Week 3.

Based on the 2019 results, Orrville, Northwest and CVCA were expected to be the top teams, but given the limitations and restrictions on practice time, it was really anyone's guess.

Opening night came, and to add to the Covid oddities, it arrived with a massive storm front rolling through Northeast Ohio. Northwest was scheduled to visit Orrville in a matchup that pitted the Jordan Mick-led Indians against an Orrville squad that had won the 2018 Division 5 state championship and went three rounds deep in an 11-win season the year before and still had Marquael Parks. The game was suspended due to the storms in the third quarter, with Northwest leading big. It got worse for the Riders on Saturday. Orrville, who had 16 new starters from the 2019 team, got blown out 42-7. It also unexpectedly turned out to be the final game in the the illustrious career of Parks, who was dismissed from the team a week later after incurring legal trouble.

Elsewhere on opening night, CVCA traveled to Fairless, and the teams slogged through three different lightning delays. Each time, Fairless would retreat to their locker room. CVCA, on the other had, waited out the delays on their buses as the visiting team was prohibited from using the school facilities due to Covid regulations. On the field, an 8-point game game was blown open on each side of the half, when Fairless returned a kickoff for a touchdown just before the half and then scored on the opening possession of the third quarter. The Falcons briefly put a running clock on the Royals in a game that ended well after midnight with the Falcons winning 42-26. It was a surprising result, but it announced the arrival of the Falcons as a major player in the battle for conference superiority for the next several seasons.

The following week, CVCA was on the road again at Northwest. The Royals led at the half, and the teams combined for more than 1,000 yards of offense, but Mick and the Indians pulled away with two fourth quarter scores to win 41-25.

Timing is everything and both Fairless and Northwest got the better of CVCA before the Royals got rolling with the most prolific offense in school history. The Falcons and Indians sat atop the conference standings after Week 2, after Fairless defeated Loudonville.

Week 3 saw Manchester start play, and up first was Fairless. It was the first game of the Jay Brophy era at Manchester, and the Panthers celebrated with a 7-0 shutout victory against the Falcons. In retrospect, it turned out to be fools gold. Manchester managed just two more touchdowns in the entire regular season; they were outscored 160-56 and and finished 2-4 in six total games.

Fairless shutout Triway 38-0 in Week 4, while Northwest destroyed Manchester 49-7, which set up a de-facto PAC Championship Game at Northwest in Week 5.

The Game

Northwest entered the contest looking to go 5-0 for the first time in 13 seasons, having outscored opponents in the first month by a combined 163-47, and the Indians featured senior quarterback Jordan Mick, who clearly looked like the conference Player of the Year over the first month of games.

Fairless got the ball first, but went three-and-out on a keeper by quarterback Ethan Brindley, a Hunter Campbell run and an incomplete pass on third down.

The elder Mick had weapons to throw to, including his younger brother Braden, as well as Anthony Grossnickle and Nick Dinkins. In the backfield, sophomore Ethan Nickey was a load behind the big Northwest O-Line.

But it was a freshman who got the first two carries for Northwest on this night. Kyler Miraglia foreshadowed a big future with gains on the first two plays. But it was Nickey, who took the fourth play of the night for the Indians offense up the middle for a 25 yard touchdown score with 9:05 to go in the opening stanza.

dbe506b7-d309-415e-9da4-6b6dc3372f98-Rep_Football_Fairless_at_Northwest_201_.jpg

Nickey drags two Fairless defenders into the endzone | Canton Repository Photo

The next Fairless drive ended in a Braden Mick interception of Brindley on a bomb attempt, and after an exchange of possessions, Northwest was driving, but the progression into Falcons red zone was halted by a Coltin Colucci sack of Mick. Sophomore Isaac LaFay followed with a 37-yard field goal to put the home team up 10-0.

The Northwest defense continued to put their imprint on the game on the next Fairless drive, which ended when Jason Greenfield and LaFay stopped Brindley on a 4th and long conversion attempt. It gave the ball back over to the Indians and Mick.

The senior quarterback then executed a perfect screen pass to Grossnickle, who did the rest with his legs. Sixty-one yards later, he was celebrating in the endzone. LaFay's extra point made it 17-0, and it appeared that the Indians were on their way to another lopsided victory.

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Grossnickel outraces Fairless' Brandon Pumneo to put Northwest up 17-0 | Canton Repository Photo

One problem. Nobody told Fairless they were going to be on the losing end of a blowout. Northwest stopped Fairless again, and decided to keep their foot on the gas. With so many big leads, the Indians had not had occasion to run the two minute offense at any point in the season. With seconds to go in the half, Mick dropped back and found pressure from Falcons' Defensive End Seth Short. Mick flicked a pass forward, and Short snatched it out of the air and returned the ball down to the Northwest 7-yard line.

The Falcons had life, and Brindley followed with a 4-yard toss to Colucci with just 0:02 remaining in the half. LaFay blocked the PAT, but the Falcons closed to within 17-6 at the half, despite mustering only 70 yards of offense in the first 24 minutes.

The second half began with Northwest receiving the opening kick. But the Indians could not mirror their first half offensive production. Twice on fourth down, the Fairless defense came up with big stops. Short sacked Mick to halt one drive near midfield. But the Falcons offense continued to see its wings clipped by the stingy Indians defense.

Late in the third quarter, Fairless was forced to punt for the eighth time in the game, and they pinned Northwest deep. That's when the Falcons defense picked up the offense once again. Mick dropped back to pass and was looking for 6-5 receiver Billy Crookston. Instead, he found the other Fairless defensive end Reise Lanier, who snagged the ball and ran 15 yards untouched into the endzone for a Falcons touchdown. Northwest stopped the Fairless 2-point attempt, but suddenly it was a one score game with three minutes left in the third quarter at 17-12.

And that's how it stayed until late in the fourth quarter when the Fairless offense had one final chance to try and solve an Indians defense that had dominated all night. Down five points, they got the ball back late on their own 25 yard line and they needed to engineer a drive.

With just over two minutes left, the Falcons faced a 4th and 1 from near midfield. Head coach A.J. Sarbaugh called on his quarterback to keep the ball, and Brindley delivered. Moments later an unsportsmanlike conduct penalty on Northwest move the ball down to the Indians 21.

That's when 5-foot-8-inch Cooper Barnby made the play of his life.


From the Steve Doerschuk story in The Canton Repository:


Northwest took over and ran out the clock to survive.




Indeed there was. Northwest survived Fairless and took care of Loudonville the following week to emerge unscathed in the abbreviated six-game Covid season as PAC Champions.

The Postlude

Northwest carried the top seed in Division 4 Region 13 rankings, which earned them a bye in the first round of the playoffs. After the bye, they extended their win streak to 8 games, with a 52-29 win over Girard and then a 13-10 win over Shaw.

8e9852ed-602e-43da-a6f5-21049c1434c7-Football_Girard_at_Northwest_002.JPG
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Barnby makes a tackle against Girard (L) and LaFay converts a field goal in Northwest's 13-10 win vs. Shaw | Canton Repository Photos

Meanwhile, CVCA ... remember them? The Royals finished the regular season with four straight wins, and averaged 52 points a game in those demolitions of Orrville, Tuslaw, Loudonville and Manchester. CVCA then opened the playoffs at home and administered a 55-21 dismantling of Edgewood. The next week, CVCA avenged playoff losses the previous two seasons with a 55-28 victory at Perry. The following week, you couldn't fault the Royals for looking ahead at halftime of their playoff game against Lake Catholic. They held a 21-7 lead and could envision a rematch with Northwest a week later in the Regional Semifinal. But Lake Catholic scored the game's final 28 points to win and end any chance of a PAC playoff rematch.

In Week 10, Lake Catholic ended the Northwest season in a 7-0 defensive struggle.

CVCA played two more games after being eliminated from the playoffs, defeating Salem and engineering the biggest comeback in program history, defeating West Branch 58-55, after being down 28 points twice late in the first half.

And Fairless? The promising season yielded a playoff opportunity. But the Falcons fell flat and dropped a first round playoff game 28-17 against previously winless VASJ. Still, the Falcons did schedule a pair of additional games as well, recording a 28-20 nonconference win over a quarterback named Jack Snyder at Canton South and finishing up with a 40-7 win Tusky Valley to end the year at 6-3.

The win over South was notable as the Wildcats were had also been defeated a week earlier by that same Lake Catholic team that ultimately came within a final play game-winning field goal of winning the the State Championship in Division 4.
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Future PAC Player of the Year "Jack" Snyder awaits a snap against Lake Catholic | Canton Repository Photo
These stories are so good. Can we pay you off to continue them even when you're in the Crown Conference?
 
Love the Dukakis bumper sticker.
I was a skosh too young to vote in '88 (Do you see @ShootNation....and then you said I graduated from Tuslaw in the 1960's....lol....I just read a TON....that's called having a strong #PACtion™ education) but I followed that 1988 election closely. That wasn't an election with candidates that saw things my way from either party.

The first election I voted in....1992....was wild.
 
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huge Hollie Stranos fan - and willing to be her designated driver
What about Betsy Kling from Copley? She works really hard and has heart.

Bring back Sara Shookman, add Zac Jackson doing sports with Ken Carmen (PTO), and Betsy doing weather for an (almost) all Summit County news team. @TopCat working behind the scenes. Maybe recruit Stefani Schaefer to assist Shookman for more Stark County balance.
 
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