Led by seniors Charlie Frederick, Donny Hardy and Nick Vinci, the Chagrin Falls Tigers defeated their rival, the West Geauga Wolverines, 21-17 on Senior Night.
Led by seniors Charlie Frederick, Donny Hardy and Nick Vinci, the Chagrin Falls Tigers defeated their rival, the West Geauga Wolverines, 21-17 on Senior Night.
While the Tigers had the series edge 32-28 over the Wolverines going into the contest, West G had won the last three rivalry games and five out of the last seven.
In fact, the current senior class had not been a part of a victory over their rival.
To motivate the Tigers during the week, coach John Scott emphasized the significance of this long-standing rivalry.
“This whole week, Coach Scott preached to us about how much this rivalry means to us, going all the way back to when the school first started,” said Vinci. “We had at least five guest speakers come and talk to us, and they just preached what this game meant to us. And we took that to heart for sure. All of us did, each and every practice.
“You could just see, this whole week, it raising our level. There was something different in the air. It was a different atmosphere this week. We put that together, and we didn’t play for ourselves — we played as a team.”
Added Hardy, “That last drive, we had to dig down deep and bring everything we got, work our way down the field. It took all 11 of us; we got in for the win.”
The game was indeed close throughout.
The Wolverines scored first with 7:17 left in the first quarter on a 1-yard touchdown run by Christian Mulica. The Tigers tied the game shortly before halftime on an 8-yard touchdown run by Charlie Frederick.
With five minutes left in the third quarter, the Tigers took the lead on a 5-yard touchdown pass from Vinci to Aiden Beresford. But the Wolverines answered with a Keenan 5-yard touchdown run as time expired in the third quarter.
The Wolverines took the lead with 1:46 left in the game on an Owen Puletti 30-yard field goal.
In dramatic fashion, Vinci and Hardy led the Tigers down the field to score the game-winning touchdown as Hardy had a two-yard touchdown run with 36 seconds left, sealing the victory.
The Tigers were led through the air by Vinci, Jackson Beavers and Drew Zelch. Vinci was 8-16 for 94 yards and one touchdown, and Beavers had four catches for 87 yards. Zelch had three catches for 37 yards.
On the ground, Chagrin Falls was led by Donny Hardy, who rushed for 90 yards on 15 carries.
The Wolverines were led through the air by Finn Keenan, Andrew Marino, Matthew Osters and Nikko Kless. Keenan completed 11 of 16 passes for 90 yards, while Marino led the Wolverines with six catches for 46 yards.
Osters had three catches for 30 yards, and Kless caught two catches for 14 yards.
On the ground the Wolverines were led by Kless, Keenan and Travis Veleba. Kless had nine carries for 63 yards, while Keenan rushed for 62 yards on 13 carries, and Veleba had six carries for 36 yards.
Both teams next play Oct. 21 — the Tigers against Geneva in their regular season finale, and West Geauga facing Perry.
