McDONALD — Western Reserve and the McDonald renewed their rivalry Friday night with the visitors from Reserve prevailing, 26-15.

There was no shortage of interest as the stands were packed, and former standouts from McDonald’s 2018 undefeated regular season squad, Josh Celli and Alex Cintron, were in attendance.

Although McDonald once again has a force running the ball in junior Dominic Schadl, who entered the game third in the area with 593 yards rushing, it no longer has the one-two punch of Celli and Cintron, which made the offense so lethal last season.

As a result, McDonald (2-3), which averaged close to 40 points per game last year, has a young team that is still figuring things out.

Unfortunately for McDonald, Western Reserve (4-1) has an experienced team that was eager to avenge last season’s 21-6 defeat at the hands of McDonald.

Reserve did just that by getting on top early. It was 8-0 Reserve at the end of one quarter after a 69-yard touchdown drive to start the game.

The visitors took a 14-0 lead with 1:30 left until halftime on a touchdown run by junior Austin Nabb. McDonald appeared as though they would get on the scoreboard when they put an impressive drive together on the next possession. However, with 18 seconds left in the first half and McDonald on the Reserve 16-yard line, Reserve senior Luke Kilbert grabbed an interception and returned it to midfield.

Senior Cam Tucker started McDonald’s best drive of the game with a 14-yard run to begin the third quarter. Sophomore Nathan Gilligan followed with a huge 36-yard run down to the Reserve 7. Gilligan was all over the field on defense as well finishing the game with 15 tackles. Schadl finished off the drive on a beautifully designed play. He faked a pitch out to the left, which tricked the defense and opened up a big hole in the middle of the field. Schadl kept the ball instead and ran it in for an easy 6-yard TD run, making the score, 14-7, at the end of three quarters.

McDonald forced a punt, but nearly had a disaster when Schadl fumbled the return. He was able to recover the ball, but not before it rolled back another 10 yards and the entire Western Reserve team came crashing down on him. McDonald had to punt the ball away, and Schadl blasted it 40 yards down the field. Western Reserve now had an answer. A 14-yard touchdown run up the gut all but put McDonald away. Western Reserve was up, 20-7, late in the fourth.

With 38 seconds left in the game, Western Reserve called timeout. If they would have knelt on the ball, time would have run out on a solid victory, but coach Andy Hake decided to take the rivalry approach of former Ohio State coach Woody Hayes, who was once asked about why he went for 2 in a blowout victory over rival Michigan. He answered, “because I couldn’t go for three.”

Western Reserve senior Hunter Kiesewetter ran it in from 1 yard out to put Reserve up 26-7.

Western Reserve still had to kick the ball back to McDonald, and Tucker may have wanted to make them pay for not running the clock out when they had the chance. He returned the kick all the way for a touchdown. Schadl called his own number for the 2-point conversion and the 26-15 final.