High school football: Flexbone befuddles Brunswick in loss to Olmsted Falls

BRUNSWICK — Long live the flexbone. Using an offense that was at its highest popularity in the 1970s but has been utilized by colleges like Air Force, Georgia Tech and Navy in recent years, the Olmsted Falls football team ran over and around Brunswick en route to a 27-3 non-league victory Friday night at Brunswick Auto Mart Stadium. The flexbone utilizes a quarterback under center, with a running back only 3 yards behind him and a slotback tucked tightly on each side of the offensive line. The key is taking away the fullback dive, but Brunswick (0-2) had no luck doing that against a rugged Bulldogs (2-0) offensive line that opened holes all night while getting called for just one holding penalty. "If one person doesn't do his job, everything falls apart," Blue Devils linebacker Eli Nichols said. "If one person doesn't do his job, they can score or get a really big play. "You just have to fill every gap. Everyone has to go 100% and you can't have any mistakes." With quarterback Jimmy Rosol (10 rushes, 55 yards, TD; 2-for-5 passing, 39 yards) making all the right decisions and executing perfect pitches when he needed to, the Bulldogs didn't throw their first pass until running a hurry-up offense with less than 30 seconds left in the first half. Olmsted Falls racked up 20 first downs and 456 yards total offense, including 417 on 54 rushing attempts, a nifty 7.7-yard average. Fullback Owen Singleton was the man Brunswick needed to stop but couldn't, as he rushed 23 times for 178 yards and two touchdowns. When the Blue Devils concentrated too much on clogging the middle, slotback Logan Connelly got free on the outside, rushing 10 times for 141 yards and adding a 19-yard reception. "It's tough to prepare for, and they're very good at what they do," Brunswick linebacker Collin Kavulic said of the flexbone. "You have to stop the dive first. Then it forces them to pull the quarterback. If you don't take away the dive, nothing else is going to work." Nothing did. Olmsted Falls rushed 11 times for 84 yards on the first possession of the game — the Bulldogs started at their own 20 and had one penalty for 5 yards — but the drive stalled at the 1-foot line. On fourth-and-goal from the 1, Mason Cerovac took a handoff up the middle and appeared to break the plane, but he also bobbled the ball at some point. Brunswick came up with the football in the end zone, but the officials ruled Cerovac down 12 inches shy of the goal line. The Blue Devils responded with their best drive of the night, racking up five first downs behind the passing of Sean Barnett (15-for-35, 127 yards, INT), running of Cooper Neel (9 carries, 52 yards) and pass catching of Hayden Swarm (5 catches, 59 yards). The drive stalled at the Olmsted Falls 31, but Vincenzo DiTeodoro boomed a 48-yard field goal to give Brunswick a 3-0 lead with 12 seconds left in the opening quarter. That was as good as it got offensively for the Blue Devils, who finished with 203 yards (76 on the ground, 127 through the air), though DiTeodoro proved to be a valuable weapon. Both his kickoffs were touchbacks and he averaged 40 yards on four punts. "We just need to come out more ready," said Nichols, who rushed five times for 23 yards. "We did a lot more last week (against Berea-Midpark). We need to get in a rhythm and not let what happens on defense affect our drives." The rest of the game was all Olmsted Falls. The Bulldogs went up 7-3 on a 4-yard run by Singleton with 3:16 left in the first half, then made it 10-3 at halftime on a 26-yard field goal by Callen Kaufman with four ticks on the clock. That kick would not have happened had Brunswick utilized the clock better before punting on its previous drive. Another Kaufman field goal, this one from 29 yards, made it a 13-3 game with 3:03 left in the third quarter, with a 31-yard jaunt by Singleton upping the ante to 20-3 later in the period and Rosol's 5-yard TD run capping the scoring with 7:30 left in the game. "We just couldn't execute up front with staying low," Kavulic said of his team's defensive struggles. "That really killed us. We couldn't stop the dive. "I don't think we took a step backward (from Week 1), but we need to take a few steps forward in Week 3 against Highland." Contact Rick Noland at (330) 721-4046 or rnoland@medina-gazette.com. Follow him @RickNoland on X. Olmsted Falls 27, Brunswick 3 OLMSTED FALLS 0 10 10 7 — 27 BRUNSWICK 3 0 0 0 — 3 First B — Vincenzo DiTeodoro 48 field goal, 0:12. Second O — Owen Singleton 4 run (Callen Kaufman kick), 3:16. O — Kaufman 26 field goal, 0:04. Third O — Kaufman 29 field goal, 3:03. O — Singleton 31 run (Kaufman kick), 0:55. Fourth O — Jimmy Rosol 5 run (Kaufman kick), 7:30. O B First downs &emsp;&emsp;20 13 Rushing &emsp;&emsp;54/417 20/76 Rushing average 7.7 3.8 Passing &emsp;&emsp;2/5 15/35 Passing yards &emsp;&emsp;39 127 Total offense 59/456 55/203 Punting &emsp;&emsp;3/32.7 4/40.0 Penalties &emsp;&emsp;4/25 4/33 Fumbles &emsp;&emsp;0/0 1/0 Individual statistics RUSHING: Olmsted Falls — Singleton 23-178, Logan Connelly 10-141, Rosol 10-55, Charlie Krupka 1-32, Brendan Hearns 4-9, Joey Salamone 1-3, Evan Might 1-2, Kyhe Gilbert 2-0, Mason Cerovac 1-0, Team 1-(-3). Brunswick — Cooper Neel 9-52, Eli Nichols 5-23, Sean Barnett 5-2, Hayden Swarm 1-(-1). PASSING: Olmsted Falls — Rosol 2-5-39-0. Brunswick — Barnett 15-35-127-1. RECEIVING: Olmsted Falls — Connelly 1-20, Hearns 1-19. Brunswick — Swarm 5-59, Aiden Konopinski 4-38, Neel 4-18, Ryder Kern 1-7, Collin Kavulic 1-5.