Staff photo / Brian Yauger Canfield’s Broc Lowry throws his lone touchdown pass of the state championship to fullback Dom Marzano. Lowry also tallied three rushing touchdowns and a receiving touchdown in the Cardinals’ 35-14 win over Bloom-Carroll at Tom Benson Hall of Fame Stadium in Canton.

CANTON — Canfield head coach Mike Pavlansky had a simple request for senior quarterback Broc Lowry every time the Cardinals took the field this season.

“We’ve always told him to just ‘Go be Broc,’ and that will be good enough for us,” Pavlansky said.

It was an easy request that allowed the Indiana-bound quarterback to play free in his final high school season. Over and over again, Lowry answered this year, just like he had throughout his career.

There was his superstar performance against Ursuline where he rushed for 217 yards and three touchdowns in the regional semifinals.

Then, just a week later, Lowry led the Cardinals to a gutsy win over Chardon on a cold night in Ravenna where his stats didn’t necessarily stand out but his leadership did. A forced fumble here, a key stop in the backfield there, and a couple of crucial third-down conversions throughout the game led to a monumental victory over the team that had knocked the Cardinals out of the playoffs the past two seasons.

Lowry was just warming up though.

In the state semifinals, Lowry rushed for 228 yards and four touchdowns while passing for 117 yards in a 38-21 win over Holy Name.

Then, in the final game of his career, Lowry went above and beyond. In Canfield’s state championship win over Bloom-Carroll, Lowry tallied 285 total yards and five touchdowns. He passed for a touchdown, rushed for three and also recorded a 69-yard touchdown reception to give the Cardinals a 28-7 lead.

“You put the ball into 12’s hands and good things are going to happen,” Pavlansky said.

Lowry’s special talents have been apparent since he took over under center for the Cardinals as a sophomore three seasons ago. Even at that point, his capabilities couldn’t be denied, and the upperclassmen back then accepted him and allowed him to flourish.

Then as their seasons went on, Lowry became one of the top quarterbacks in the area — and then the state. Soon, the college scholarship offers started to roll in. Iowa State offered, Indiana offered, and the same went for Western Michigan, Buffalo, Illinois State, Miami (OH), Bowling Green. Youngstown State also got in on the action.

The pressure to perform, along with the pressure to find his next home was mounting up so when Lowry committed to Indiana in May, he said it allowed him to put all of his focus on the Cardinals moving forward.

“My sophomore year and my junior year, I kind of was just trying to get recruited,” Lowry said. “Then after my commitment, I could kind of just focus on my teammates and focus on leading my high school team and enjoying it as much as possible. I think that paid dividends in the end.”

Pavlansky has always called Lowry a special leader and throughout the past three years, he’s shown that capability. One of the biggest moments came earlier this year after Canfield suffered its only loss of the season to Chaney. Pavlansky said Lowry got up in front of his teammates and said ‘If we win 10 straight games, we’ll be state champions.'”

From that point on, Pavlansky said the Cardinals were locked in, and it was due in part to Lowry’s leadership. The signal caller said that his leadership just comes from his mentality.

“It’s a mindset from the kids who went ahead of me,” Lowry said. “Chris Sammarone, Ethan Fletcher, Tony Pannunzio, those guys, and then last year it was Oliver Kovass, Drew Carrocce, Toby Smith and Nick Bowen. They really taught me how to be a leader and I just kind of shadowed what they were doing.”

Now, for Lowry, it’s on to the next chapter as he gets set to head to Indiana and according to Pavlansky, the Hoosiers are going to get a special player when Lowry arrives in Bloomington.

“I’m going to tell you when he goes to Indiana and he goes from his freshman year to his senior year, it’s going to be lightyears improvement because he knows there’s more out there for him,” Pavlansky said. “The game of football is going to get faster and more intricate for him, and he’s going to be okay.”

gmacafee@tribtoday.com