That changed Saturday as the Blue Devils opened the postseason strong with a 37-14 victory over Columbiana.

With the win, Western Reserve (4-3) coach Jason Lude picked up his first postseason win as well as his first win at home as the coach of his alma mater.

“It still doesn’t seem real,” Lude said. “It hasn’t seemed real since I got the job. Fourteen years ago I left this place with the goal of coming back and now that I’m here it still doesn’t seem real. I can’t thank these guys enough, I’ll never forget this moment.”

The Blue Devils came out of the gate hot, scoring on their first two drives. David Altiere broke off for a 35-yard run to score and, two minutes later, Nick Cavoulas hit Alex Mayorga on a 19-yard strike to go up 14-0 with four minutes left in the first.

Staff photo / Brian Yauger Blue Devils senior Seth Phillips leaps in the air to try and deflect a pass from Columbiana quarterback Anthony Kocanjer.

After that second score, the Columbiana offense responded, knotting the game in a 26-second span. The Clippers marched down the field and capped off their drive with a Xathon Cross 2-yard run.

On the following Reserve drive, Cavoulas threw a pick to Colin Schick. Columbiana made the most of that opportunity with quarterback Anthony Kocanjer hitting Cross on a 47-yard bomb on the first play of the drive to tie the game at 14. Cross was Kocanjer’s main target, tallying 176 receiving yards on the night.

Later in the second quarter, Cavoulas hit Altiere on a 67-yard strike to retake the lead. Neither team allowed a score until the fourth quarter, when Cavoulas hit Mayorga once again to take a 30-14 lead. Cavoulas, who had three touchdowns in the air and ran in the final score later in the game, finished the night with 279 all-purpose yards.

“I thought this was a really good team win for us,” Cavoulas said. “After not having a home win all year, that’s really huge. I thought everyone played good, I thought our offensive line killed it today. Our receivers were catching everything, it was just a great win for everybody.”

After ringing the bell, you could hear members of the team yelling ‘We want the Tigers.’ They’re getting what they want as they travel to New Middletown next week to take on Springfield in a rematch of last season’s first-round playoff game.

“These guys set a goal in the preseason, the first day I got here,” Lude said. “Their goal was to beat Springfield. We gave them everything we could for a half the first time we met them. When we left that day we said ‘We hope we get another shot at them.’ I know our guys are excited about it and I look forward to that opportunity next week.”

As for the Clippers (3-4), even though their playoff journey is over, they’re looking to meet up with the other Eastern Ohio Athletic Conference teams when the time arrives.

“We want to get to 10 games,” coach Bob Spaite said. “These seniors deserve 10 games. We played hard, they played hard … Hats off to the Western Reserve coaching staff, they did a great job. We’ve got to do a little bit better execution-wise, but those are things we’ll work on.”