Coming into the third week of high school football action, Elyria Catholic looked to earn its first win under first-year coach Chase Farris on Sept. 1 at Midview in a clash of old rivals.
The Middies had already banked Coach Jack Armstrong’s first win in Week 2 and hoped to use the positive momentum as a springboard against the Panthers.
The Panthers made it a game in the second half, but Midview ultimately prevailed, 21-13.
“Everything’s a progressive thing and I think the kids have gotten better,” Midview coach Jack Armstrong said. “They’ve gotten better from Week 1 to Week 2. Week 3 we popped off some big runs and I’m super proud of the boys. I tell the linemen all the time it’s much more fun to run-block than pass-block, so I’m proud of the boys and I think they agree now.”
After a Midview drive stalled with about 5:30 left to play, Elyria Catholic got the ball back inside its own 5-yard line after the punt.
On a third-and-short, EC quarterback Hector Garcia looked to be going down with a sack, but the signal caller spun out of several tackles to gain the first down with the clock continuing to tick closer to three minutes left in the game.
Facing third-and-9 with 2:03 on the game clock on their own 44, Garcia nearly had a pass picked off by Cam West, giving Elyria Catholic a final play. That was overthrown and turned the ball over to Midview on downs.
The second half was a showing of what Elyria Catholic could do if they’d competed in all four quarters, but Coach Farris took no moral victories coming out of tonight’s contest after starting 0-3.
“At the end of, we work on us,” Farris said. “Like I said, I’m not one for moral victories, it is what it is. They know they can compete, they know they can do that. At the end of the day, do they choose to do it or not? For us as coaches, it’s our job to pull that out of them each and every day.
“I say we get back to the drawing board, get practice rolling and continue to push forward.”
With Midview’s final drive stalling out, sophomore tailback Michael Passerrello Jr. iced the game with a 20-yard first down run and slid in bounds to keep the clock running.
“ I don’t really care about my personal stats as long as we can go out there and we can win every week,” Passerrello put it succinctly.
Following three-and-outs on each teams opening drives, Midview’s Ethan Elbert completed a fourth-and-6 pass inside the Panthers’ 25-yard line for 13 yards for the first down. On the very next play, Elbert found an open lane to take the ball 12 yards to the house for the first score of the game.
With Elyria Catholic getting the ball back, Hunter Anderson stripped the ball from Garcia’s hands with Gabe Borror falling on the recovery.
Midview sacked Garcia on a fourth-and-8 with a little over 5:30 to play in the opening half when Elbert needed only one play to hit Dane West for a 60-yard touchdown pass to open the game up to 14-0 as the Panthers struggled to move the ball in combination to negative plays and penalties.
Anderson was disruptive on special teams the entire half, nearly blocking two punts and tackling the punter for a loss of nine in the late second quarter. That put the Middies in the red zone, with Michael Passerrello capping a 20-yard drive with an eight-yard scamper into the end zone to build a 21-0 buffer ahead of halftime.
Paired with Dior Jones on defnese, both Anderson and Jones were disruptive in getting to the quarterback and several tackles for loss.
“I mean, the energy on our defense the last two games has been phenomenal,” Anderson said. “It’s the energy keeping us all alive. We’re working hard every play, we know we have to get off the field in four downs. Dior’s right next me, we’re both faster than crap. Working with him as a team trying to get in the backfield is awesome.”
Elyria Catholic finally had an answer to open the second half. After a 15-yard personal foul penalty and Garcia converting a third-and-16 with a 23-yard scramble, Anthony DeMartinis punched the ball in from five yards out with four minutes of clock chewed up to make it a two-touchdown game.
With a fourth-and-3 from the Panthers’ 32-yard line with 1:04 left in the third quarter, Midview was stymied by two five-yard penalties that gave Elyria Catholic the ball back at their own 25-yard line and a bit of momentum heading into the final quarter.
The Panthers kept driving down the field, with Garcia pulling the ball down on a key third-and-3 to move the ball inside the 25. On the next play, Garcia hit Connor Petrus with a jump ball in the endzone for a 22-yard score, but the point-after attempt was blocked to keep the Middies up by eight with eight-and-a-half minutes left in regulation.
“In the second half when our offense started slacking, our defense helped,” Elbert said. “I have full trust in both sides of the ball, (both) my offensive guys and my defensive guys. That was a big part of it for the win tonight.”
Elbert and his Middie teammates get to move to 2-1 on the year after hunkering down in the second half, as they get ready to take on Amherst in SWC action.
THE SCORE
Midview 21, Elyria Catholic 13
