Carey Beats Coldwater With its Physical Brand of Football
The fact that all three Saturday championship games feature a MAC school just goes to show the MAC hits differently. You see playoff teams every year that are stunned by the physicality of MAC schools when they play them. That wasn't the case with Carey Blue Devils. From the very first defensive possession Carey proved that they weren't going to be bullied. That physical play continued throughout the game as Carey dominated their way to a 26-14 win over the Coldwater Cavaliers in the OHSAA Division 6 State Championship game.
The Blue Devil run game was efficient. It truly was a facsimile of what Woody Hayes would want to do in 2021. Three yards and a cloud of dust. Some would wonder how a team of 16-18 year old's would have the patience to play such a grind it out style of offense. Not so. When asked about their style of offense offensive lineman Ashton Clauss responded "I think the getting that 3 yards builds our confidence, we don't care if it's 3 yards or not, we're just going to get those 3 yards, 3 yards, 3 yards).
That's exactly what Carey did. With a good mesh game between big running back Jordan Vallejo (6'1 265 pounds) and quarterback Derek Longsway the Blue Devils dominated the time of possession 34:34 to 13:26. As they say the best defense is a good offense. Vallejo led the way with 95 yards on 25 carries and Longsway added 81 yards on 21 carries. With the disadvantage in time of possession and lack of opportunities the Coldwater offense just never really had a chance to get going. What is typically a dynamic offense was held to 200 passing yards and 244 total yards.
After a high scoring first half where 37 points were put on the board, both defenses took over and allowed only 3 points in the entire second half. Again, the difference being time of possession and that physical brand of Carey Blue Devil football that simply chewed up the clock and dominated the game.
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