by Their multi-talented quarterback Teddy Grendzynski also joined the mix with 85 yards on six carries, scoring a touchdown as well. The Bulldogs as a team, with the addition of the yards by Michael Howard (32) finished with 494 combined rushing yards on 51 carries. They only threw the ball four times, all of them completions for Grendzynski who compiled 108 yards on those completions with a touchdown.
Remarkably, despite the nonstop barrage of Bulldog points, yards and big plays, the player with the best stats in the game came from the losing team. Berea-Midpark running back Bryce “The Beast” Agnew finished with an outstanding 181 yards on 18 carries with touchdown runs of 45, 2 and 53 yards.
The Bulldogs pounded the ball on the ground early and often, to the tune of three first quarter touchdowns that allowed them to build a 21-point lead. The Titans managed to get a key turnover to stop the bleeding late in the opening quarter after some crafty downhill running by the ever-hungry Agnew got them into scoring position. It was Trevor Bycznski on a quarterback rumble from seven yards out to get the Titan attack on the board. I cannot stress this enough, Agnew drove with his legs to break several tackles on that drive and kept the Titans in it.
The Bulldogs wasted no time answering the Berea-Midpark score with one of their own. This time it was the very speedy Luke Lombardo flying in from 26 yards out. Lombardo showed the speed of a track star and has the jets that scouts at the NFL combine look for. The Titans then showed the heart they are known for as Bycznski capped off a multi-play drive to strike right back with a 13-yard touchdown toss to Omar Siggers to make it 28-14 at the half.
The Bulldogs wasted no time yet again, taking the opening drive of the second half into the end zone. Once again, it was Nick Dailey with the honors on a first and goal from the 20, taking it to pay dirt for the Bulldog fifth rushing touchdown of the night.
If the game was over, someone forget to tell Agnew however, as he rumbled in from 45 yards out on the very next Berea-Midpark possession. Lombardo for the Bulldogs then took his turn, scoring from nine yards out to give Olmsted Falls their three touchdown lead back at 41-21. From there they would slug it out a little bit more, to the tune of six total touchdowns by the end of the third quarter which saw Olmsted Falls build the lead to 49-28 by the time the quarter was over.
Down 21 points to start the fourth quarter, Bryce “The Cannonball” Agnew, steamed down the field like a rocket, ripping off a 53-yard touchdown run leaving Bulldogs yards behind panting to catch up. From there both teams would continue to fire away with touchdowns at will but Berea-Midpark was never able to close the gap closer than 13 points as it finished 62-49.
The Bulldogs would stay hot, win out and make the playoffs where they had the Midview Middies’ waiting for them. The game was in Olmsted Falls and would feature a thrilling finish after a wild back and forth game.
Once again the incredible rushing attack of the Olmsted Falls Bulldogs proved to be too much to contain. The Bulldog triple-headed rushing monster compiled 218 total rushing yards in a 26-23 victory over The Middies to advance to the second round of the state playoffs. The leading rusher was Michael Howard with 108 yards and a touchdown on 10 carries.
A trick passing play in the closing seconds secured Olmsted Falls one of the most dramatic wins in OHSAA Playoff history. Running back Jack Spellacy threw a 60-yard halfback pass touchdown to Braden Galaska with 42 seconds left on the clock to win the game. No one saw the play coming and it proved to be a genius call by Head Coach Tom DeLuca to win his team the game in shocking fashion.
“We’d been in four games in the last two years in which we had to come on a two-minute drive to win the game,” said DeLuca, who took us behind his thought process at the time of his gutsy call. “We’re not afraid to run the ball on those two-minute drives, thus a defense cannot just play us in a prevent defense and not account for the run. Their safety and their corner both bit on the halfback lead and we threw it over the top. We have been practicing it for the last four weeks and thank God we did!”
Coach DeLuca went on to say they he did not call the play, “I was actually discussing a call with the official between plays while Coach Rivera made the call. It was kind of funny because I was getting after the official a little bit and jumped back on the head set and asked what do we have called. Carlos said 58 lead pass. I was a little surprised and said sounds good. It was kind of a calm moment prior to the play and then we hit for 6. It was really exciting. Coach called the play because a few plays earlier in the drive their corner and safety bit on 58 lead so hard that we thought we could get over the top. Luckily we did.”
The craziest part of it all was that only 90 seconds earlier, it was a trick play by Midview that gave them the 23-20 lead with two minutes left to play. Midview was down 20-17 at the time with a few ticks over two minutes remaining on the clock when they ran a double reverse that allowed wide receiver Ben Gendics to break off a 64-yard touchdown run that appeared to seal the victory for the Middies.
It was their first lead of the entire game, and for all intents and purposes appeared to be enough to vault the Middie’s into the second round of the playoffs. But, the Bulldogs were not done yet which led to the dramatic finish.
While the Bulldogs were coming off of a playoff run in 2017 heading into 2018, the Titans had a slew of talented seniors coming back that had them off to a 4-2 start and talking playoffs themselves. Heading into that game, quarterback Trevor Bycznski and tailback Bryce Agnew were putting together incredible senior seasons and gave the Titans a chance to do big things. They were personally 0-3 against Olmsted Falls in the rivalry and this was their last chance to win the Bagley Cup while playing High School Varsity football.
A full-blown shootout was expected to occur that night at Finnie Stadium in Berea as over their last two meetings the two teams combined to score 224 points. The two high powered offenses once again didn’t disappoint as the Titans defeated the Bulldogs 70-57 in yet another high scoring affair for the Bagley Cup.
Both quarterbacks had the ball moving early and often. Teddy Grendzynski did it mainly with his feet for Olmsted Falls, running for 101 yards on 7 carries, scoring twice. He also ran for a two-point conversion.
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