PAC Game of the Year - 2001 | Tusky Valley at Manchester | Week 5 | September 22, 2001
This is the third 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 and
here for 2000.
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At the start of the 2001 season, Manchester entered the year having won 26 PAC games in a row, dating back to the final game of the 1995 regular season, and they were 68-2 in conference since the inception of the league in 1989. But the Panthers started the 2001 campaign slowly. They dropped the opener after a three-hour bus ride on the road at Lehman Catholic 31-14. Things looked better a week later when they recorded a 19-0 shutout of Norton. But another long road trip in Week 3 yielded a 17-12 loss to Hamilton Badin. Suddenly, the Panthers were under .500.
The ship was righted again in the PAC opener in Week 4, as the Panthers easily dispatched Tuslaw 22-0, and it set up a Week 5 matchup with Tusky Valley. The Trojans were undefeated through four games (Canton South, Indian Valley, Garraway and Fairless) and were trending upward after a pair of 6-4 seasons. But this game didn't have the hype in Week 5 that the Manchester-Tuslaw games of the prior two years had. Perhaps it was because the bloom was off the Manchester rose a bit, after the shaky 2-2 start.
There was no major newspaper coverage at James R. France Stadium, and it didn't help that the game had to be postponed to Saturday either.
What ensued was a defensive struggle. The teams played a scoreless first half, before Manchester got on the board midway through the third quarter when senior wide receiver Mark Groza caught a 12-yard touchdown pass. Nick Manson kicked the extra point, and the Panthers led 7-0. The lead held up until Tusky Valley's Dan Kane responded with his own 12-yard touchdown pass to receiver Doug Cox with under three minutes to play in regulation.
This was a Saturday game, so the game report in
The Beacon Journal was one short on details and a bit cobbled together. It refers to a lead change as a result of the the Panthers' third quarter touchdown, which is erroneous, as it was the first score of the game.
What we do know is that The Manchester Mystique made an appearance just in the nick of time. The Trojans set up for the extra point, and ... "the kick went under the crossbar." Here's the game summary from the ABJ:
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That's it. Game over. Manchester 7 Tusky Valley 6. The Panthers went to 3-2 (1-0 in the PAC). Tusky Valley dropped to 4-1 (0-1). Both teams had half the season to go.
The PostScript
Sometimes you don't realize the game of the year has happened until after the fact. Neither team would lose again in the regular season. The Trojans would go on to outscore their final five opponents 198-42, before dropping a first round playoff game.
Manchester would again go undefeated in the PAC, and they were even more dominant, walloping their five remaining foes 273-26, enroute to their 12th PAC championship in 13 years.
The two early season losses earned them a 6 seed - the first time Manchester qualified for the playoffs through benefit of the expanded 8-seed tournament, which had been in place since 1999. This time, they took care of business on the road, unlike earlier in the year, in a 16-13 with at Perry up by the nuclear power plant.
In fact, the Panthers might have marched to another state title run had they not run into a team that had at its disposal perhaps the greatest athlete of the 21st century the next week in Week 12. Manchester came out and in typical Panthers style, punched their opponent in the mouth at The Rubber Bowl in the Regional Semifinal, rolling up 121 yards on the ground in the first quarter. But ... when you've got LeBron James on your team, you're going to win more often than not. And that's just what St. Vincent St. Mary did. Future Manchester head coach Jay Brophy was the head man for the Irish, and he saw the football version of James catch a 39-yard touchdown pass and reel in six catches for 136 yards receiving as the Irish took control in a 38-14 victory that ended the Panthers' season.
Manchester finished 9-3. Tusky Valley finished 9-2 after a first-round playoff loss to Fairfield Union. And LeBron James' football career would last two more weeks, before the Irish were eliminated in the Division 4 state semifinals. After that, he became The Chosen One. And the rest, as they say is history.
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whyy.org
Was that the game where Old Glory got ripped off the flag pole and flew away? I remember the light poles were swaying in the wind and all the trash cans were full of busted umbrellas. The wind was blowing straight at the visitor side where Manchester's crowd was sitting. Had a tough time walking back to the car after the game.
