McKinley hands Fitch ‘disappointing’ playoff defeat
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AUSTINTOWN -- For Austintown Fitch, the program's 100th season was meant to be filled with fanfare and celebration. But instead, it ended in "disappointment" on Friday night.
After looking like they were in control in the first half, things got away from the Falcons in the second half. No. 7 seed Canton McKinley exploded in the third quarter, rallying back from a halftime deficit to knock off No. 4 seed Fitch 27-22 in the Division I regional quarterfinals at Falcon Stadium.
"I think we'll always measure our program by how we do in the playoffs and in games like this," Falcons head coach TJ Parker said. "So on that side, it's disappointing. But to get here, to get where we were and set that up, it was special. I think these guys really took that to heart, just by the way they played. I couldn't be more proud of them, and it's a special team for the 100th season.
"The kids kept fighting. I just think they made more plays than we did tonight. That's a really good football team."
McKinley earned its 900th win in program history, as the Bulldogs became just the 11th high school football program in the country to reach the mark.
Both teams struggled to possess the ball, combining for eight total turnovers throughout the night. Fitch and McKinley each finished with four.
"Ebbs and flows. Then where those turnovers happen, for both teams they were killers," Parker said. "They were momentum shifts. You're riding the wave of that, and I think McKinley just did a better job of taking advantage of those than we did. We had opportunities, we just didn't convert them."
Perhaps no opportunity loomed larger than the Falcons' final possession late in the fourth quarter.
With McKinley driving to possibly put the game out of reach, Fitch recovered a Bulldogs fumble at its own 10-yard line with just under five minutes left, trailing by five.
After several chunk plays, the Falcons had driven the ball all the way to the McKinley 30-yard line. But instead of ending the drive with the game-winning touchdown, Fitch quarterback Colin Kalaher was strip sacked on fourth down and the Bulldogs recovered the loose ball to seal the victory.
"We made some nice plays to get there, but then you gotta continue to make them," Parker said. "I think we put ourselves in a tough position on the last drive and we didn't convert. They did a good job of mixing up their coverages and pressures. ... They made more plays than we did at the end. We had a great look on the pass from Colin to Wayne [Holloway] in the corner of the end zone. We thought it was there, and we just didn't convert it."
In the first half, Fitch quickly went to work on its opening drive. Deon'Dray Richard took the game's first play from scrimmage 81 yards, which set up Kalaher's 1-yard touchdown run on a tush push by the Falcons on fourth-and-goal.
Fitch almost immediately got the ball back by picking off McKinley quarterback Braylon Crook. But the Falcons fumbled the ball right back on the interception return.
The Bulldogs punted on the possession, and Fitch ended the first quarter with the ball, holding onto a 7-0 lead. On that possession, the Falcons completed a fake punt pass from Kalaher, which turned into a 25-yard field goal from K.B. Myers to grow their lead to 10.
After McKinley finally forced Fitch into a three-and-out, the Bulldogs got on the board with a 40-yard touchdown scramble by Crook.
The Falcons added to their lead just before halftime though, as Kalaher hit Al-Tahire Illuono over the top of McKinley's secondary for a 43-yard touchdown to give Fitch a 16-7 advantage at the intermission.
However, momentum completely flipped on its head in the second half when the Bulldogs outscored the Falcons 20-6 during the third quarter.
Crook led three McKinley touchdown drives during the period. The first came at the end of the opening drive of the second half on a 7-yard touchdown run by Derrick Gordon III.
After an 86-yard kickoff return for a touchdown by Illuono to push Fitch's lead back to nine, Crook ran in a 15-yard touchdown two plays after picking up a teammates' fumble and taking it 53 yards.
From there, things snowballed for the Falcons. A Kalaher fumble at the end of a 13-yard run was recovered by McKinley's Shad Davis, and the Bulldogs turned that takeaway into a 16-yard touchdown pass from Crook to Darius Hill for their first lead of the night.
Fitch's third turnover came on the final play of the third quarter when Kalaher was picked off at the goal line by McKinley's Chase Ivory, ending a promising Falcons drive.
"Every time we got something going, we were hit with a penalty away from the play," Parker said. "I gotta watch the film to see what those were, but that was tough. It felt like the defense was on the field a long time and that third quarter made it really hard to get a rhythm."
McKinley advances to face No. 3 seed Mentor next week. The Cardinals downed sixth-seeded Strongsville 45-14 on Friday. Meanwhile, Fitch ends its season at 8-2.
"I just told the seniors, thank you for everything they've given to me. I can't thank them enough for everything they've poured into this program," Parker said. "I never questioned their heart and effort. They left everything out there tonight. They gave this game everything they had. I told them I don't want these to be the best years of their lives. They gotta go on, be great in life and that's my wish for them. Been four years through the program with these guys and I care deeply about them. I just want to see them be better men than they are football players."