by The Padua Bruins emerge victorious after a 2 hour and 40 minute back-and-forth contest against the Bears of North Royalton
The first 5 minutes of the game were pretty uneventful, as both teams traded punts to begin their nights on offense. When Padua got the ball back to kick off their second drive, they began to get in sync. Quarterback Nick Barker made a beautiful read of the blitz and dumped the ball off to running back Roderick Love who took the screen for first down yardage. The Bruins continued to play the game of Love, as Roderick churned out multiple first downs on the ground by himself. He then reaped the benefits of his great drive, capping it off with a 2 yard touchdown to give Padua an early 7-0 lead.
After forcing another quick three-and-out, the Padua Bruins continued to play the game of Love, as he took the second play of the next drive 86 yards to the house to double the Bruin lead at 14-0 to close out the first quarter.
After failing to get a first down for most of the first quarter, the North Royalton Bears offense began to wake up, getting to the Padua 6 yard line as the opening frame came to an end. Unfortunately, they couldn’t capitalize as the Padua defense bent but didn’t break. They stuffed Bears running back Cameron Saul on 4th and 2, resulting in a turnover on downs and keeping the momentum in Padua’s favor.
The North Royalton defense stepped up to keep the game at 14-0. Facing a 3rd and long in Padua territory, quarterback Joe Kinney found receiver Luke Koprowski for a short curl that he turned into a 28 yard touchdown. Just like that, the lead was cut in half to 14-7. On their next offensive possession, they once again came up clutch on 3rd and long, this time it was Joseph Calaraco with a 25 yard catch-and-run to keep the drive alive. Joe Kinney snuck the ball in from 1 yard away for the score and evened the score…or did it?
The Bears fumbled the snap on the ensuing field goal attempt and despite a miraculous effort to heave the ball into the endzone, the pass was not caught. Instead, North Royalton found themselves down 14-13 going into halftime.
The second half started with a big sack by Bruins defender Joe Zver on Joe Kinney to give Padua the ball back early. The game of Love is still in effect. The star Bruin running back took the snap out of the wildcat formation and went 86 yards untouched into the endzone to give Padua a two touchdown lead once again. This was Love’s second touchdown of over 80 yards on the night.
The Bears stayed in it, forcing a Padua punt to give them the ball back with less than 5 minutes to go. Things were starting to get dicey for the Bruins, as NR running back Cameron Saul continued to rip through the Bruin defense, getting multiple first downs by his lonesome. Kinney then unloaded a deep shot to Koprowski down the sideline, which the receiver hauled in, but then fumbled inside the endzone and was recovered by the Bruins to keep the game at 27-20. It was truly an awful break for the North Royalton Bears late in the game.
North Royalton was able to stay in the game once again thanks to their defense forcing another stop. In the end, it didn’t matter as Kinney overthrew his receiver and the ball went right into the hands of DB Conner Williams to seal the win for the Bruins
Player of the Game
An obvious choice here, as Roderick Love amassed over 250 yards from scrimmage tonight. The Padua Bruins played the game of Love and won.
