High school football: Medina's high-flying air game grounded by St. Edward

PARMA — It wasn't often — in fact, it hadn't happened until Friday — that the high-octane offense of the Medina football team came even close to meeting its match. It came in the form of top-seeded St. Edward, which dispatched the second-seeded Bees with an incredible defensive front and an even better secondary. The unit had quarterback Drew Allar in duress in a 41-6 Division I, Region 1 win by the Eagles. Allar was 27-of-69 for 297 yards with one touchdown and two picks. Anyone who has watched the Penn State commit this year knows those are very un-Allar like numbers. "I think they did a really good job of putting six up on the ball," Allar said. "They were dropping and we didn't necessarily know who was dropping. I think they had a great plan and we kind of got behind the chains a couple of times, which we can't do against a team like that. We moved the ball pretty well, but we couldn't convert from the 40-yard line and in." The six points scored were the fewest by Medina since state semifinalist Mentor beat the Bees 63-7 on Sept. 27, 2019. The the Eagles (13-1) showed they were coming and then put multiple players from the line of scrimmage back in coverage after the snap. When St. Edward wasn't doing that, it would show a three-safety set, leading to countless coverage incompletions and five sacks. "Coach (Pete) Pappas and our staff did just a tremendous job in preparation," Eagles coach Tom Lombardo said. "The amount of studying they did was great. We got pressure on them, and we had to. After that first drive, we made plays in the secondary, batted some balls down and got a couple of picks early. That was gigantic. "I'm just so proud of our guys, our team, our staff. It was awesome. This was huge. We knew we could do it. I think we were challenged all year. We had given up pass yards early, but you hold them to six points and that's pretty darn good. That's a credit to our defense." Things didn't start out that way for St. Edward. Te Bees needed just 2:32 to go 80 yards in nine plays, with Allar capping the opening drive with a 26-yard touchdown pass to Drew Hensley (6 catches, 78 yards). After the opening drive where Allar went 5-for-7 for 77 yards, the Eagles bent but never broke again. With receivers covered all night, it put a strain on the Medina line, which allowed pressure to get through and forced Allar into some tough situations. That's a credit to Michael Kilbane, Matt Oudeman, Wyatt Gedeon, Zyion Freer-Brown, Matt Molnar, Andrew Hass and Dwight Harvey, who showed multiple looks for the Eagles. "Their coverage was good," Bees center Patrick Gillespie said. "We just weren't making the plays that we needed to make on offense. If we caught some more of those balls and checked them a little bit longer, it would have been a little bit different." Instead, penalties and various schemes kept Medina off balance on a night when it trailed 21-6 after the first quarter.That's what you get with an Eagles team that allows 71.1 yards rushing on average and just 226.7 yards per game. "It's insane for us," said Eagles defensive tackle Harvey, who led the way with 2½ sacks. "We stopped the pass and forced them to run the ball. We shut it down as a team. We just came together and did our thing as a team to win the game. That first quarter really set the tone. It let us play like we were supposed to." Contact Brad Bournival at bournival929@gmail.com.