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Canfield tops Poland, 24-12, in ‘Battle of 224’ rivalry game

Staff photo / Brian Yauger Canfield junior quarterback Broc Lowry runs the ball Thursday night against Poland in the “Battle of 224” rivalry game. Lowry scored two rushing touchdowns to help Canfield pull away in the second half.

POLAND — It’s not too often a coach’s mom does the opening coin toss for a game.

But with Canfield coach Mike Pavlansky and Poland coach Tom Pavlansky standing on opposite sidelines for the first time, in a rivalry contest, there was plenty of hype surrounding the game.

After all the pregame pomp and circumstance however, just like Mike had said in the months leading up to the game, it was all about the 22 kids between the white lines.

Both teams battled for 48 minutes and it took until the very end for Canfield to wrestle away a comfortable lead, beating the Bulldogs 24-12 in their season-opening tilt.

“It was just a great ball game,” Mike Pavlansky said. “A great opener, rivals for the first time in three years, and both teams just played exceptionally hard. They pretty much dominated that first half. I’m just proud of our defense to hold them to two field goals.”

Staff photo / Brian Yauger From left, Canfield coach Mike Pavlansky, mother Bernie Pavlansky and Poland coach Tom Pavlansky pose after the opening kickoff.

That first field goal came on a goal line stand on the first drive. Poland powered down the field, culminating in tight end Dom Parker landing just shy of a touchdown. Canfield’s defense held strong forcing the Bulldogs to settle for three points on a Wyatt Bobbey field goal.

Canfield continued to respond to everything that was thrown at them though as the Cardinals opened the second quarter with a score. Canfield quarterback Broc Lowry hit Gavin Ramun on a 27-yard strike to take a 7-3 lead.

On the ensuing drive, Bobbey hit his second of two field goals to cut it to 7-6.

For Poland, it was missed opportunities. They had no shortage of scoring chances, but weren’t able to capitalize. Coach Tom Pavlansky however, looks at it as a building block.

“I couldn’t be more proud of our kids,” he said. “We played like crazy and it comes down to little things. If we get the ball in the endzone, that’s six points instead of three and that’s a difference in the ballgame. That’s the biggest thing that I take away from it.

Staff photo / Brian Yauger The Poland Bulldogs run out of the tunnel before Thursday's rivalry tilt against Canfield

“I’m really proud of our kids. They busted their butt and now. Now the challenge is for us to take from this and learn from it and improve. We got a great opportunity to learn about ourselves coming up.”

Whether it was holding Poland to two field goals early in the game, or answering every Bulldogs score with one of their own, Mike was glad to see the team’s resilience off the bat.

“Obviously, we’ve got a lot of corrections to make,” he said. “We’re gonna watch this tape tomorrow, but it’s a long year. They’re a good football team, there’s no doubt about that.

“They got some guys who can play, obviously they’re well-coached, and they’re gonna have themselves a great year. We’ve got to concentrate on us and get better.”

A well-timed timeout gave Canfield the chance to enter halftime with a 10-6 lead after hitting a short field goal.

Staff photo / Brian Yauger Poland's Dom Parker is stopped at the goalline, preventing an opening drive touchdown for the Bulldogs

The second half is where Lowry began calling his own number and taking over the game.

The junior, described by Tom as one of the best quarterbacks in the state, called his own number twice for scores to help his team pull away. Canfield’s final scoring drive of the game also ate 10 minutes off the clock.

“That’s just what we need to do,” Mike said. “We want to finish games. We told our guys ‘Don’t give them the ball back. Let’s get a two-score lead.’ That was the mindset. … Broc read the coverage very well and we were able to hit people in the fourth quarter. When you need to make a drive, that’s what we expect and our guys came through.

Both teams host in Week 2, with the Bulldogs (0-1) welcoming Louisville, and the Cardinals (1-0) hosting Dover.

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