Buchtel triumphs for City Series title

Bill Mayville, Special to The Plain Dealer, October 31, 2009 12:22 a.m.

Suffocating defense, an opportunistic offense and two big plays were just enough for Buchtel, as the Griffins held off Garfield, 14-8, to claim the Akron City Series championship at InfoCision Stadium on Friday.

The win not only secured Buchtel's first City Series title since the Griffins shared the 2006 title with Ellet, it snapped a two-game losing slide to Garfield and, most importantly, kept Buchtel's playoff hopes alive.

"It went to what, fourth-and-10?" Buchtel head coach Ricky Powers said.

"You can't ask for a better championship game than that.

"We deserved to be playing each other in the championship, I'm proud of our kids, and my hat's off to Garfield."

John Coleman's 73-yard touchdown run - on the second play of the second half - was the difference offensively, and the Buchtel defense made the lead stand up, shutting down Garfield's powerful rushing attack.

"It's a formation we call Griffin, where I go to quarterback, like in the wildcat," Coleman said. "The play is called 'option right' but I can't pitch, because it's to the right and I'm left-handed.

"So I never had any intention on pitching it, saw the lane, and took it."

Despite a stellar defensive effort that had the Griffins clinging to a six-point lead with 15 seconds to go, the game was not over. Not when Garfield (6-4, 5-1) had the ball in Buchtel territory, just 27 yards from tying it. Garfield's final desperation pass bounced off two players and fell incomplete, and once the ball hit the turf, the Buchtel sideline erupted.

"All I heard before I got to Buchtel, and all I heard when I got here was I had to get Garfield at least one time," Coleman said. "They got me two times in a row, so it means a lot."

In addition to the City Series title, the chance to keep its playoff hopes alive, and bragging rights in a rivalry game, Buchtel (7-3, 6-0) will be going home with something else - an ugly addition to the Griffins' trophy case known unofficially as the Black & Gold Football. Buchtel head coach Ricky Powers wanted to add a little more oomph to the rivalry, so he went digging through his basement.

"I had it down in my basement and thought, ‘We gotta play for something,' " Powers said. "It's a big rivalry, and we want to make it a huge rivalry - I want to make it the number one rivalry in Northeast Ohio."

Power took the trophy to his art teacher at Buchtel, and with Garfield head coach Bob Sax's blessing, they painted the football down the middle - one half black and white, the other maroon and gold. The winner of the annual tilt between the schools will take the trophy home at the end of the game.

"We call it the ugly trophy," Powers said with a laugh.

Bill Mayville is a free-lance writer in Parma Heights.