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Tallmadge undefeated with Suburban victory
By Tom Gaffney
Beacon Journal sportswriter
Published on Thursday, Sep 13, 2007
GREEN: The holes were there, and Tallmadge tailback Tyler Fortner was more than happy to run through them.
Fortner, aided by a dominating performance by his offensive line, continually ran through the Green defense to pace the Blue Devils to a 24-14 victory over the host Bulldogs on Thursday night in the opening game of the Suburban League season.
Fortner, a 5-foot-10, 190-pound junior, rushed for a career-high 255 yards and three touchdowns on 32 carries as Tallmadge moved its record to 4-0.
Fortner knew he had plenty of help along the way.
''The offensive line did really well. They have been doing it all year,'' Fortner said. ''We knew we could handle them up front. It was just a matter of making adjustments to their schemes, and we did that.''
The Tallmadge line of Jesse Hobbel, Robbie Underwood, Tyler Ross, Zack Cevasco, Nick Fleming (who was injured in the first half), Ben Feeman and Aaron Donze was sharp from start to finish.
''Our line did control the line of scrimmage,'' said Tallmadge coach Joe Vassalotti, whose team scored all its points in the first half. ''And with Tyler running the ball . . . he doesn't need a whole lot of room. He is very aggressive. That was obviously, the key to the game, the way we moved the ball consistently.''
Green (1-3, 0-1) had an offensive weapon of its own in junior quarterback Jesse Mason, who completed 22-of-33 passes for 297 yards. His favorite targets were Adam Spray and Garrett Cook.
Mason and the Bulldogs were able to put together some drives of their own. But they self-destructed by moving deep into Tallmadge territory four times, then losing possessions by failing to make first downs three times and missing a field goal.
One of those came in the final minute with the outcome not technically clinched when Green got to the Tallmadge 6-yard line but lost the ball on downs.
''We didn't capitalize a few times, and that hurt us,'' Green coach Elden McVicker said. ''That's inexperience. But we battled all the way. I don't want to make any excuses. Tallmadge is a very solid football team.''
Vassalotti, whose team has won or shared the past three Suburban League titles, preferred to credit his players for the stops with their goal line not far behind them.
''They did move the ball. We had some trouble on pass coverage,'' Vassalotti said. ''Our defense did resist when they had to.''
Tallmadge, which is ranked first in the Beacon Journal poll, scored on its second possession, going 80 yards in 12 running plays. The touchdown was a 3-yard burst up the middle by Fortner with 2:29 left in the first quarter.
The Blue Devils didn't need much of a drive for their second touchdown. On the second play of a possession, Fortner went 63 yards for a score with two seconds left in the first quarter. He was barely touched as he took the ball on a delay and cut left through the Green secondary.
The lead reached 21-0 at the 4:46 mark of the second quarter when Fortner did it again with a 33-yard touchdown run.
Mason then completed three passes for 52 yards and ran the final eight yards for a touchdown just 47 seconds later to cut the lead to 21-7.
Tallmadge got a 27-yard field goal from James Plunket with 1:02 left before halftime for its final points.
Green got a 4-yard scoring run from Justin James with 41 seconds left in the third period to make it 24-14, but the Bulldogs could not cut into the lead in the final 12 minutes.
Tom Gaffney can be reached at tgaffney@thebeaconjournal.com. Read the high school blog at http://www.ohiomm.com/blogs/varsity_letters/.
GREEN: The holes were there, and Tallmadge tailback Tyler Fortner was more than happy to run through them.
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