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For the final month of the regular season, Lowellville did not earn a victory on the field. Instead, three lopsided losses and a forfeit win left the Rockets grounded going into the first round of the Ohio High School Athletic Association (OHSAA) football playoffs.
Despite the lack of momentum and one less game to build on, though, Lowellville made an 150-mile roundtrip to Independence last Friday, returning to the Mahoning Valley with a 24-20 triumph.
"It was a great game, back and forth," Rockets head coach Drew McLaughlin said. "In the fourth quarter, we got a fumble late with about three minutes left. We went down and scored with 27 seconds left. We got a game-sealing pick to end it. Our guys are very resilient. I think it was just the third or fourth time this year we were down at halftime, and we came back to win. We have that no-quit attitude, and it helps us because no matter what happens throughout the game, we know that we’re still going to be in it. And that carried us to a win last Friday."
The win was Lowellville's first since a 36-12 victory against Western Reserve on Sept. 25. After that game, which was the Rockets' third straight win and lifted them to 4-2 on the season,
Lowellville suffered losses to Mineral Ridge, Springfield and McDonald, the three Mahoning Valley Athletic Conference Scarlet Tier co-champions.
The only win in that period was a forfeit vs. Waterloo on Oct. 16 when the Vikings could not field enough players.
McLaughlin said, though, that his team never hung their heads in spite of the tough stretch.
"It’s hard when you lose a few in a row. Morale can be low, but these guys, they understand it is a long season," McLaughlin said. "We knew around the Week 7, Week 8 range that we probably did enough to make the playoffs, so that kept us up. Our spirits were pretty high, and then we just went to compete as best we could against those three teams."
With their win vs. the Blue Devils of Independence, Lowellville has advanced to the second round of the Division VII, Region 25, bracket, where it will face the Blue Devils of McDonald on Friday in a rematch of Week 8.
In the first meeting on Oct. 9, McDonald, utilizing its traditional Wing-T offense, dominated the Rockets 53-14.
"I know last time we played it didn’t go well for us, so we get a chance to right our wrongs," McLaughlin said.
"We’re very familiar with it now. The Wing-T is a very intricate and different offense, so you really got to spend time on it. We did that last time, but now we get an extra week to work on that with those guys. So we’re excited about that. Just teaching the stuff that we need to do, getting down to our basics, alignment coverages, reading our guards, reading the tackles. So we’re going to be harping on that all week and bring that into Friday night."
As the first seed in the region, McDonald had a bye into the second round. Last year, the Blue Devils similarly earned the top seed in Region 25 and defeated Warren JFK 28-13 in the second round before beating Monroeville and Mogadore en route to a state semifinals berth.
Lowellville, if it upsets the Blue Devils, would face the winner of Springfield and Norwalk St. Paul in the regional semifinals next week.
"McDonald’s really good. They’re really well-coached. Coach [Dan] Williams does a great job. They have great players," McLaughlin said. "Schematically, we got to know what we’re doing at all times. We didn’t do that last time we played them. We have to be in the right spots. We need to be aligned correctly. We need to be able to handle a hostile environment. Because it's a home playoff game for them, that place is gonna be jumping. We just got to focus on what we gotta do to beat them - and that’s just playing hard, tough Rocket football."