Staff photo / Greg Macafee Canfield quarterback Broc Lowry holds up the Division III regional championship trophy while surrounded by Cardinals teammates Friday night at Ravenna.

RAVENNA — The third time is the charm.

Behind a strong defensive performance and a game-breaking 56-yard run from junior running back Danny Inglis, the Canfield football team got the monkey off its back with a 14-7 win over Chardon in the Division III, Region 9 regional final Friday night at Ravenna High School.

It’s Canfield’s first regional title since 2005, but the Cardinals (12-1) also were able to exact revenge on the top-seeded Hilltoppers (11-2) after falling to them the last two years in the playoffs.

Canfield will play Holy Name next week at Euclid in the state semifinal. Holy Name defeated Padua Franciscan 56-21 in the Region 10 final.

“We wanted to win a regional title and that was our first goal just because we hadn’t won one since 2005,” Canfield quarterback Broc Lowry said. “But it’s a good feeling to beat Chardon because they beat us the past two years.”

With just over four minutes to go in the fourth quarter, Canfield’s defense came up with a sack on third and long deep in Chardon territory and forced the Hilltoppers to punt with the game tied at seven.

The Cardinals received the punt around their own 44-yard line.

Just a few plays later, Inglis found his way through the offensive line and ripped off his longest run of the night to give the Cardinals the go-ahead touchdown and the lead for good.

“I saw absolutely nothing at first,” Inglis said about his game-winning touchdown run. “But, I trusted my offensive line, saw a hole, saw a big 66 (AJ Murphy), and ran right behind him.”

Leading up to that point, the Cardinals had run the same play on multiple occasions and according to head coach Mike Pavlansky there was always something that was just a little off. So as the play call came in again, the Cardinals felt like something was going to break.

“We had that play called a couple of times and just missed a couple of creases and Danny finally hit a crease and our guys blocked it really well,” Pavlansky said. “Danny has great speed and it was great to get that on the board.”

Through the first three quarters of the game, it was a physical back-and-forth affair as both teams tried to gain the upper hand.

Lowry started off the game with a 14-yard scamper on the first play of the game but Chardon’s Caleb Hewitt came up with an interception a few plays later on a deep third-down throw that seemed to get held up by the wind.

The first score of the game came after the Hilltoppers blocked a Canfield punt and recovered the ball on the 40-yard line in Canfield territory with 8:05 left in the half.

It was the first true sign of trouble for the Cardinals and Chardon cashed in. Junior running back Andrew Bruce scampered into the endzone from 35 yards out to give the Hilltoppers the lead with just over seven minutes left in the first half.

The Cardinals quickly got back on the offensive as Lowry hit Paul Bindas with a 34-yard pass up the middle of the field that crossed over into Chardon territory. On the next play though, Lowry completed another long pass to Drew Rosteck but the ball came out and Chardon recovered on their own 9-yard line.

It was the second big blow the Cardinals had to endure, but the defense responded. Lowry stood up the ball carrier on the right side of the field a few plays later and stripped the ball out for a forced fumble.

Anthony Mazzella recovered it and the Cardinals were back in business.

“We always preach sudden change on defense and our job is to get the ball back and that’s what we did,” Lowry said.

One play later, Lowry found Dom Marzano on a rollout pass and the senior fullback punched it into the endzone on an eight-yard connection to tie the game up at seven.

From that point on, the momentum shifted in Canfield’s favor. The Cardinals started to stitch offensive drives together and had Chardon with their backs against the wall throughout the rest of the game.

“It was a huge factor in the game, once we got that touchdown, the momentum completely switched,” Marzano said. “We started playing better on defense, we got the ball back and we started driving on offense. After that it was great.”

After the Canfield defense forced a punt to start the second half, the Cardinals took just over eight minutes off the clock with a methodical drive that marched the ball down to the Chardon 3-yard line. But, after a QB draw on fourth down came up short, the Cardinals turned the ball over on downs.

The defense stood on its head once again though and forced a punt heading into the fourth quarter.

Leading into Friday night, the Hilltoppers had averaged just over 30 points a game and the Cardinals held them to just seven points. Pavlansky said that their defensive effort simply came down to staying disciplined.

“It was just reading our keys,” Pavlansky said. “If your eyes are in the backfield looking for the football, you’re never going to find it. They are magicians with the football and our guys, without even looking at the tape, had to read their keys tremendously tonight, trust in them and come up with plays.”

With the clock ticking away in the fourth quarter the Canfield defense had to come up with one more stop as the Hilltoppers were driving with just over a minute left in the game. Facing a 4th and 1, they ran the ball to the right side, and just like they had all night long, the Canfield defense stood strong.