H. S. Football: Medina celebrates homecoming with a stinging win over Euclid

Chad Grant The Gazette MEDINA — The Medina football team's defense is trying really hard to get one up on its offense. The Bees' sometimes overlooked "Darkside" was absolutely dominating Friday in a 42-0 Greater Cleveland Conference mauling of Euclid. But this one ended up being a draw, as Medina (4-2, 1-1) imposed its will on both sides of the ball to crush the Panthers (1-5, 0-3). As the offense rolled to five first-half touchdowns behind another impressive performance from quarterback Danny Stoddard (22-of-29 passing, 214 yards, 2 TDs, INT; 8 carries, 95 yards, 4 TDs), the defense suffocated a punchless Euclid offense. "Having one of the best offenses in Northeast Ohio is amazing," Medina defensive lineman Logan Peters said. "We sometimes get overlooked on defense. But we are just as good as our offense, and we have a bunch of ballplayers on this side." The Panthers had 46 total yards on 25 offensive plays — a 1.8-yard average — and 48 yards in penalties in the first half. Not surprisingly, they had just two first downs and their longest plays were a pair of 7-yard passes on the same drive. "We harped on it all week," Peters said. "We worked as a team and we were more focused on our energy this week. We just wanted to be able to go out there and attack every play. We have a saying to 'storm the castle,' and we've been rebuilding our defense this year after we faced Mentor. We've just been trying to rebuild and storm the castle." Euclid's longest play of the game was a 16-yard run in mop-up time in the fourth quarter and it was its only double-digit gain of the night. Euclid's deepest penetration was the Medina 42 on two occasions. one of those drives ended on a punt and the other on a fourth-down sack by Jaivon Williams late in the game. It took more than 3½ quarters for the Panthers to finally gain more offensive yards than they were penalized for. "We're unstoppable if our defense plays like that," Stoddard said. "The offense will do what we need to. Like it is said, 'Defense wins games.'" Ball-hawking defensive back Tallen Hulvey picked off two passes to maintain his Medina County lead with six on the season. Medina held the Panthers to 88 total yards for the game, while the Bees just missed the half-a-thousand mark with 495. The total included an unusual 202 yards on the ground, as seven players toted the rock. The normally five-wide Bees actually ran 10 times for 40 yards to just 11 passing attempts with nine completions for 102 yards in the first quarter. "We saw what defense they were in," Stoddard said. "They were in a three(-man) front with one linebacker. We were just taking what they were giving us." Stoddard and the rest of the offense sat down for the night after the 6-foot-2, 190-pound signal caller put the final nail in the coffin on a 57-yard touchdown run in which he broke several tackles while running right up the gut of the Euclid defense. It was the second consecutive game where the Medina starters played little to no time in the second half after blowing out Brunswick 56-14 last week. Stoddard and backup quarterbacks Chris DePasquale and Beckett Vogrin spread the ball around, with 10 receivers hauling in passes. Jack Wojciak led all players with seven receptions for 81 yards. The senior also finished second to Stoddard with 24 yards on the ground. Medina did not punt on the night. Contact Chad Grant at sports@medina-gazette.com. Medina 42, Euclid 0 EUCLID 0 0 0 0 — 0 MEDINA 14 21 7 0 — 42 First M — Danny Stoddard 1 run (Finn Kelps kick), 6:34. M — Dylan Whitehill 16 pass from Stoddard (Kelps kick), 0:00. Second M — Nathan Angus 2 pass from Stoddard (Kelps kick), 5:26. M — Stoddard 16 run (Kelps kick), 1:59. M — Stoddard 3 run (Kelps kick), 1:05. Third M — Stoddard 57 run (Kelps kick), 10:42. E M First downs 4 26 Rushing 21/57 25/202 Rushing average 2.7 8.1 Passing 7/18 27/37 Passing yards 31 293 Total offense 39/88 62/495 Punting 6/37.7 0/0.0 Penalties 8/53 2/25 Fumbles 1/0 0/0 RUSHING: Euclid — Chris Jones 3-33, Jordan Rallings 5-8, Marquise Hall 7-7, Nylan Thompson 2-6, Dajahn Telfair 3-2, Zeeon Thomas 1-1. Medina — Stoddard 8-95, Jack Wojciak 6-24, Hayden Chenevey 4-22, Chris DePasquale 3-19, Kaeden Kostilnik 2-16, Whitehill 1-13, Beckett Vogrin 1-13. PASSING: Euclid — Thompson 5-10-23-2, Rallings 2-6-8-0, Hall 0-2-0-0. Medina — Stoddard 22-29-214-1, C. DePasquale 5-7-79-1, Vogrin 0-0-0-0. RECEIVING: Euclid — Hall 3-10, Jamal Jefferson Jr. 3-16, Josiah Clark 1-5. Medina — Wojciak 7-81, Jay DePasquale 1-54, Angus 5-42, Whitehill 3-34, Austin Knowles 2-31, Camryn Hathaway 5-26, Caleb Sherman 1-12, Braylon Schramm 1-8, Aiden Stallings 1-3, Brian Wuchter 1-2.