Staff photo / Brian Yauger. Canfield’s Jake Schneider drives to the basket against Austintown Fitch’s Allex Hill Friday night at Canfield High School. The Cardinals took down the Falcons 60-52 for their 13th win of the season.

CANFIELD — After a hot start by junior guard Dom Cruz, the Canfield Cardinals were able to hold off a late-game surge by Austintown Fitch to beat the Falcons 50-42 in an All-American Conference showdown on Friday.

Canfield was in control of the game early as it started off the night with an 11-0 scoring run. Nine of those points were scored by Cruz, who hit three consecutive three-point-shots, forcing Fitch to recalibrate with an early timeout. Cardinals head coach John Cullen said his team’s early aggressiveness forced the Falcons to change their gameplan.

“Dom made a couple three’s and he did a better job passing it inside also,” Cullen said. “(Fitch) has been doing a really good job in their zone lately, and that kind of took them out of their zone. They played a little combination man-to-man and zone later in the game, but that took away a lot of what they like to do best.”

Along with the shooting of Cruz, Canfield looked to get the ball to junior Jake Schneider in the low post. With plenty of space to operate thanks to the Cardinals’ shooting, Schneider took advantage and scored six points in the first quarter for Canfield. Schneider’s versatility was on display against Fitch.

“Jake gives you a lot of different things,” Cullen said. “First of all, he’s a good passer on the perimeter. He also helps break the press, he’s also got a pretty soft touch around the rim with either hand, so he can bring a lot of things to the table. We kind of used him as a pressure release guy tonight. When we were in trouble, we tried to find Jake.”

Schneider led Canfield with 14 points while Cruz followed behind with 11. With the duo’s hot start, the Cardinals led the Falcons 17-7 at the end of the first quarter. Fitch head coach Brian Beany had a clear message for his team as they began the second quarter.

“You’ve got to weather the storm,” Beany said. “When that hits you in the face, you’ve got two ways you can respond. You can feel bad for yourself, or you can suck it up and just fight through it and take it possession by possession.”

After their tough start, the Falcons battled back and remained within striking distance the rest of the game. One player who stepped up and gave Fitch a boost was junior guard Deshawn Vaughn who played in his first game of the season for the Falcons.

Prior to Fitch’s game against Canfield, Vaughn had missed every game of the season due to an injury he suffered while playing football. Back on the floor, he led the Falcons with 11 points. Beany was pleased with the production he saw from Vaughn.

“I wasn’t sure about Deshawn since this was his first game back,” Beany said. “He’s been out for three months with an injury, so we didn’t know what type of legs he would have or what he would do out there. There were a lot of times where it looked like he picked up where he left off last year. So, working him back into the rotation will be a big plus for us.”

Fitch battled back to within four points late in the fourth quarter, but the Cardinals were able to clinch the win with clutch play from junior guard Tony Russo who hit four free throws in the final moments of the game.

“Tony has hit 17 of his last 20 so he’s feeling pretty good about himself,” Cullen said. “I would say the most important thing about free throw shooting is how you feel right before you shoot it. If you have that much success in your recent past, you’re going to expect to make them.”

With the loss, Fitch falls to a 9-7 overall record and 3-2 in conference play. With the victory, Canfield improved its overall record to 13-3 and the Cardinals are 4-0 in conference play.

mcole@tribtoday.com