PAC Game of the Year - 2021 | Fairless (8-0, 5-0 PAC) at Triway (5-1, 4-1 PAC) | Week 9 | October 15, 2021
This is the 23rd 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,
2019 and
2020.
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It's finally Game Week. But I'll try to wrap up this series in rapid-fire fashion in the first half of the week. Here's 2021.
The Prelude
The advent of the 2021 Principals Athletic Conference season brought with it a spirit of change and even rebirth. Three new coaches would be roaming sidelines in the Fall of 2024. Matt Zuercher took the reins at Orrville after being an assistant the previous four seasons for the Riders, succeeding the legendary Doug Davault. Nick Cook returned to his Northeast Ohio roots in June to become the third head coach in CVCA football history. And Matt Dennison wrapped up 18 seasons at New Philadelphia to head north to take over at Canton South. Those three plus the 2020 newcomers - John Demarco at Northwest and Jay Brophy - meant that more than half of the head coaches would be making initial trips to road venues in the fall of 2021.
Each year brings a natural transition in star players as well. And with the departure of quarterbacks Jordan Mick at Northwest and Michael Bevington at CVCA, it seemed like an elite era of PAC football had come to an end, with those two stars now gone to join the recently departed Ethan Wright (Manchester), Marquael Parks (Orrville) and Tre Tucker (CVCA).
But time marches on and the calendar knows no enemy. Football games were scheduled and players were going to show up in pads and play them. Unless you were a member of the Triway Titans. The summer of 2021 seemed to be a return to some sense of post-pandemic normalcy. But just one day before the start of the season, word came that Covid was not quite in the rear-view mirror. The Daily Record
reported:
After months of preparation, Triway will not be playing high school football over the first two weeks of the season.
Triway co-athletics director Pat Honza confirmed a positive COVID-19 test within the program forced the school's administration to cancel the Titans' Week 1 game at West Holmes and their Week 2 home game against Mogadore.
PACtion wasn't quite out of the Covid woods. But the rest of the Week 1 games went on, and the season began.
Fairless had some eye-raising wins in 2020, but also some head-scratching performances. That left the Falcons looking for consistency in the new season. The Falcons opened the season at home against Sandy Valley on Thursday night, as is the Fairless tradition. But they came out flat, trailing 14-0 at the half, and still down two scores at 21-7 in the fourth quarter.
But they fought back behind four Carson Colucci touchdown passes (three to Brody Pumneo) and stunned the Cardinals 29-28 when Hunter Campbell converted a two-point conversion in overtime.
Campbell (10) secures the game-winning points vs. Sandy Valley | Massillon Independent Photo
The scare and subsequent escape at home may have been just what the Falcons needed. Head coach A.J. Sarbaugh's flock didn't look back and won eight straight games to start the season, including wins over key PAC competitors Northwest (28-14, Week 4) and a thriller against Manchester (41-40, Week 8), which pitted two undefeated PAC squads against each other. The latter game easily could have been the PAC GOTY in any other year. The Falcons stopped a Manchester two-point game-winning attempt with just 11 seconds remaining in the game to seal the victory and go to 8-0.
Brody Pumneo takes down Jackson Summers in the hard-hitting game against Manchester | Massillon Independent Photo
The Manchester victory put the Falcons one Week 9 win against Triway away from securing a share of their first conference championship since 1979.
The Titans, who had been sidelined from the first two weeks of the season, got started with a solid 28-7 Week 3 win against Waynedale and then blasted a hapless Tuslaw squad 43-14 in their PAC opener. But it was the Week 5 result that got everyone's attention. The Titans authored a "signature win," as head coach Eric Brenner called it when
they went to CVCA and dominated the Royals in a 33-0 shutout.
Triway defeated Loudonville the next week, but
ran into a surging Manchester team in Week 7.
Manchester's Jackson Daugherty and Kenton Duty sandwich Triway's Zack Miller in a 42-14 win over the Titans | The Daily Record Photo
The following week, the Titans rebounded and defeated Northwest. And remember The Stop in the Fairless-Manchester game? It was just as big a play for the Titans as it was for the Falcons. The Manchester loss to Fairless provided Triway with a path to at least a share of the conference championship. They once again controlled their own destiny in a season that seemed so out of control at the start.
The Game
The setting was Triway's Jack Miller Field. Fairless, despite a pair of scares in Week 1 and Week 8, had passed all the tests and was undefeated. Triway was looking for some redemption to restore the shine to a season that had been tarnished two weeks earlier against Manchester. And while great football players and coaches don't make excuses, this time the Titans would take on a championship foe at full strength. Alex Tichenor of The Daily Record summed up the Triway opportunity:
Four of the Titans' normal starters, including three two-way guys, never put on pads that night because of injury or illness. Another one didn't play a snap in the second half. That version of Triway lost big to the Panthers, squandering an opportunity during its biggest game of the season.
Luckily for the Titans, sometimes the "biggest game of the season" comes around more than once.
The game began with Triway's offense getting the first opportunity, and they drove the length of the field to produce a goal-to-go chance. But the Fairless defense forced a third and goal from the 20. Enter Cam Soss, who had missed the Manchester game. The speedy wide receiver hauled in a Zack Miller touchdown pass and the Titans were on top 7-0 with 7:20 left in the opening quarter.
Cam Soss puts the Titans up early | The Daily Record Photo
Fairless responded as the Carson Colucci to Brody Pumneo combination connected on a 36-yard touchdown, which after the PAT, knotted the score at 7-7 after one quarter.
On Triway's next offensive chance, the Titans again drove inside the ten-yard line, but faced a fourth and goal from the 7. The junior quarterback, Miller, tossed an incomplete pass, apparently turning the ball over on downs. But Fairless was called for pass interference, allowing the Titans' drive to continue. Miller took advantage and converted a 3-yard run to put Triway back on top 14-7 with 9:23 remaining in the half.
That score held up until the final two minutes of the quarter, but woe be you if you headed to the concession stand early.
Fairless finished off another long drive on their next possession when Carson Colucci scored on a five-yard run with 1:36 to go. His two-point PAT failed an Triway still led 14-13.
It didn't take long for the Titans to strike back. Riley Gumber hauled in a 10-yard Miller pass with 0:11 left on the clock to give the Titans a 21-13 lead.
Gumber celebrates his late first-half score | The Daily Record Photo
Fairless got the ball back after the kickoff on their own 45-yard line. Down 8 points, A.J. Sarbaugh called for Carson Colucci to dial up the Hail Mary. Sometimes when you pray, God says yes. Sometimes when you pray, God says wait. Sometimes when you pray, this happens.
The Hail Mary fell into the hands of the fastest guy on the field. And he was wearing purple. Tichenor picks up the description:
... the ball never made it close to the goal line. Instead, Soss was there to intercept the pass. And then he started running. And kept running.
"Last year, I had the same thing — coach told me to smack it down, and [instead] I caught it and run it," Soss said. "This year, he told me the same thing, 'Smack it down and we'll go into halftime.' I caught it and there was no one ahead of me, so I was running."
An All-Ohio sprinter, Soss turned on the jets and ended up in the end zone 80 yards later, turning a one-score lead into a 27-13 Triway advantage heading into the halftime break.
The Falcons were stunned. They had no answers in the second half either.
Triway's Brock Tisko picked off another Colucci pass in the third quarter, which the Titans converted into a 30-yard Landon Taggert field goal. And they closed out the scoring in the final stanza when Seth Vizzo (17 carries, 108 yards, 7 catches for 83 yards) was rewarded for an outstanding game from his running back spot, when he bounced into the endzone from four yards out with 1:41 left in the game.
Seth Vizzo ran hard all night | The Daily Record Photo
Given a second chance and healthy, the Titans left no doubt. They defeated the Falcons 37-13, outgained them 407 to 190 and won the turnover battle 3-0. Miller finished 26 of 34 for 215 yards and two touchdown passes. He rushed for another with 10 carries for 71 yards. After the game, Head Coach Eric Brenner talked to Alex Tichenor about his quarterback.
"The kid is everything you could ask for besides not being tall enough," Brenner said of Miller. "He's tough as nails, super cerebral, a natural leader who also has the athletic ability to do whatever you want him to do. ... He's a dream come true as a coach."
In a year of transition, Triway had climbed to the top.
The Postscript
Manchester was upset by Northwest in Week 9 to suffer its second straight loss and fall out of championship contention. In Week 10, Both Triway (21-14 over Orrville) and Fairless (47-12 over Tuslaw) won in Week 10 to share the conference title.
Despite the 9-1 record, Fairless could only muster the 8-seed in Division 4 Region 13, but it the expanded playoff era, it meant a home game. But
the Falcons lost handily to Poland Seminary 35-14 to bow out after one week, and they finished 9-2.
Triway was a 6-seed in Division 4 Region 14, but
lost to Wauseon 41-7. The Titans finished 7-2.
Manchester won a Division 5 8/9 playoff game at home, 50-0 over Edison, but was
dismissed by top-seeded Kirtland 37-0 in the second round, as the multi-time state champions ran their win streak to 52 straight games.
Northwest was a 13-seed in Region 13, but it was one-and-done against Perry in a 42-6 loss, and CVCA snuck into the Region 13 field as the 16-seed, but was sent home by West Branch 45-8.
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