NEW KNOXVILLE -- Junior guard Jake Allen made New Knoxville's first game against St. Marys in more than 60 years something to remember.
Allen sliced into the lane and hit a runner with less than six seconds left to lift New Knoxville to a 43-42 comeback win over St. Marys on Saturday night.
When St. Marys guard Dustin Fisher's long heave from the right side clanked off the side of the iron, New Knoxville's bench cascaded onto the floor and mobbed Allen at mid-court.
"I think a new rivalry has started," Allen said after the game.
MASSILLON — The white screen-printed 34 on Christian Hauber’s Kirtland Hornets jersey is cracked and faded like a distressed t-shirt. Everyone else’s numbers are crisp and intact.
It’s no fashion statement, though. The 6-foot-1, 218-pound fullback earns every bit of the jersey’s degradation with a tough running style that has his team celebrating its first-ever state championship.
Kirtland captured the Division V state crown with a 28-7 win over Coldwater on Friday to cap a perfect 15-0 season.
The St. Marys Roughriders got the 1961-62 boys’ basketball campaign off to a promising start with a 46-40 victory over the Greenville Green Wave.
It was St. Marys’ first win over the Wave on the basketball court in five years.
Using their noticeable height advantage, Greenville held complete control of the boards in the first half and pushed out to a 23-18 lead at intermission.
Minster senior linebacker Daniel Gusching earned the Division VI Defensive Player of the Year award in Division VI and Minster head coach Nate Moore was named Division VI’s top coach in the Associated Press All-Ohio football team.
Gusching, a 6-foot-3, 217-pound senior outside linebacker, made 89 tackles this season with 11 sacks in 13 games.
Gusching schared the honor with Youngstown Christian’s Kaevon Green.
COLDWATER — The common link between Coldwater and Kirtland coming into Friday’s Division V state championship game is a team that didn’t even make the playoffs this season.
Both teams bowed out of the playoffs the last two seasons at the hands of private school power Youngstown Ursuline. Coldwater lost the last two Division V title game to the Irish. Kirtland fell earlier in the playoffs the last two years to Ursuline.
The two squads meet at Massillon’s Paul Brown Tiger Stadium on Friday morning at 11 a.m.
St. Marys running back D.J. Manning earned second-team All-Ohio honors and St. Marys senior center Austin Rupard was named Special Mention All-Ohio when the Associated Press released its Division III All-Ohio teams on Tuesday afternoon.
The teams are based on the recommendations of a state media panel.
Manning, a senior, rushed for more than 2,000 yards this season — setting the school rushing record and the single-game rushing record against Sidney in the season opener.
The Marion Local at New Knoxville boys basketball game scheduled for Friday, Dec. 16 has been postponed because of the Flyers' run to the state championship football game and Homecoming has been pushed up a week at New Knoxville.
The make-up date for the Marion Local game now set for Tuesday, Jan. 31, with a 6 p.m. junior varsity tip-off.
Homecoming activiies will now be held on Friday, Dec. 9 against Waynesfield-Goshen. That game is a 6:30 p.m. JV tip-off.
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