by CANTON, OH – It was all Glenville early and often as they rolled past Shelbyville 45-7 in the OHSAA DIV IV State Championship Game today in Canton. This is now their third State Championship in three years with prior wins coming in 22 and 23.
Quarterback Arvell Nelson finished by going 6 of 17 for 90 yards with 2touchdown tosses. His top threat out of the backfield was once again CJ Newell who finished with 2 touchdown runs on 8 carries while compiling 81 yards on the ground. His other top rushing threat was Romell Phillips who rushed for 133 yards on 14 carries.
It took almost the entire first quarter, but the Tarblooders finally got it cooking with a Jaquan Gibson 92-yard punt return with 1:19 left in the first quarter to put them ahead 7-0. The second quarter wasn’t nearly as quiet as Glenville scored 17 more points to take a 24-7 lead into the break.
Initially to start the second quarter, it appeared that Shelby tied it with a Luke Blevins 20 yard run, but he was marked down at the goal line. It wouldn’t matter as one play later Michael Shepherd’s 1-yard sneak tied it at 7 with 11:39 to play in the first half.
The rest of the first half was all Glenville as they went on a 17-0 run to finish the half. It started with a Emiere Lemons 31-yard field goal. From there, a CJ Newell 13-yard touchdown run with 5:36 left in the half extended the Glenville lead to 16-7. The capped the first half scoring with a CJ Newell six yard touchdown run to close out the hald of 24-7.
It was a bit of a crawl in the third quarter until Arvell Nelson Jr. tossed a 5-yard touchdown pass to Emiere Lemons to put the game out of reach 31-7 with a little over 2 minutes to play in the third. Joe Saffold left St. Ed’s to play for Glenville and got the moment he wanted when he caught a 31-yard touchdown reception from Arvell Nelson Jr. to make it 38-7 Glenville with 8 minutes to play.
The Tarblooders went on to cruise to victory from there.
