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Quick-strike offense gives school first Division III title
By Jonas Fortune
Beacon Journal sports writer
Published on Sunday, Nov 30, 2008
CANTON: As the members of Aurora High's football team stood on a pedestal in the middle of Fawcett Stadium — hoisting the Division III State title trophy high above their heads — no one had to say a word.
It was all written on the eye black pasted underneath senior running back Steven Yung's eyes.
''Make History,'' it said.
Mission accomplished.
The Greenmen, using two costly Columbus Eastmoor Academy turnovers, scored all their points in the second quarter to beat the Warriors 21-10 and win their first Division III state title in school history Saturday.
''I don't think it has hit us yet,'' Yung said. ''Coming into this game, many of us didn't realize what we were getting into. I think we expected to be here because we set our goals so high and right now I just don't know what to feel. We reached the ultimate goal.''
The win wasn't nearly as easy as the final score dictated. The Warriors out-gained the Greenmen 297 yards to 191 and provided plenty of big plays,
but to no avail. Eastmoor Academy may have made more plays, but Aurora made its when they mattered most.
Using a quick-strike offense with a minute remaining in the first half, Aurora delivered fatal blows that the Warriors could never respond to.
Aurora senior Dee Brizzolara followed the Greenmen's first meaningful drive of the game — a 10-play, 79-yard scoring drive, ending with a three-yard touchdown run by Eric Shultz — to make the score 14-7 by intercepting an errant pass at the Aurora 45-yard line.
Brizzolara returned the pick to the Eastmoor 26-yard line. On the following play, the Greenmen went right back to Brizzolara for a 26-yard touchdown pass from senior quarterback Brendan Gallagher that made the score 21-3 in favor of Aurora.
''Dee was kind of tired after picking it off and running it back,'' Aurora coach Bob Mihalik said. ''I grabbed him. I said 'Dee, you all right? We are going to go up top here.' His eyes lit up and he said, 'I'm good, coach,' and went right in.''
The Greenmen relied on a stingy defense the rest of the way. With a fear of the quick-strike attack Eastmoor has used the entire season, Mihalik demanded that his players not give up the big play.
''We wanted to keep everything in front of us,'' Mihalik said. ''If they were going to score, we wanted them to go on those long drives. Yeah, they scored, but they took almost the entire third quarter to do it. So time was on our side at that point.''
Eastmoor Academy dominated the first quarter by intercepting an Aurora pass and limiting the Greenmen to three and out on their other two possessions.
The Warriors rushed for 77 yards in the first quarter. Senior Touche Hopkins had 51 yards, or 10.2 yards a carry. He finished the game with 72 yards on 12 carries.
After senior linebacker Danny Myers forced a Hopkins fumble, which Aurora's Connor Perry recovered, Yung got the stagnant Aurora offense rolling.
On third and 10 from the Eastmoor 49-yard line, Yung slipped out of the backfield and up the left sideline without many defenders noticing.
Gallagher, who passed for two touchdowns and 120 yards, fired a strike to Yung near the 30-yard line. He caught the ball, cut past a closing defender and raced up the left sideline for the touchdown to make the score 7-3.
''We needed that,'' Mihalik said. ''That was the spark that got our offense going and that picked up the passing game for the rest of the half.''
Jonas Fortune can be reached at jfortune@thebeaconjournal.com.
CANTON: As the members of Aurora High's football team stood on a pedestal in the middle of Fawcett Stadium — hoisting the Division III State title trophy high above their heads — no one had to say a word.
Get the full article here.
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