High school football: Casey Myser has record-setting night in Highland rout

GRANGER TWP. — Running back Casey Myser and the Highland football team's defense put up video game numbers Thursday night in a 41-0 Suburban League American Conference win over outmanned Revere. The unstoppable Myser set a school record with 324 yards rushing on 21 carries, a whopping 15.4 yards per attempt, to break the mark of 301 set in 2008 by Chris Snook, who carried the ball 48 times in a double-overtime game with Cloverleaf. Myser's rushing total — he sat the final 15:41 — tied for sixth in Medina County history. Wadsworth's Dru Jones set that mark on Oct. 5, 2007 at Green with 378 yards. A 6-foot-2, 205-pound junior, Myser also scored four touchdowns while running behind left tackle Carson Noonan, left guard Josh Messina, center Ryan Zywiec, right guard Brady Bendau, right tackle Ben Coyne and H-back Evan Foust. That gave him 29 TDs on the year, breaking the school season record of 28 set by Jake Rogers in 2018. Myser also has scored 174 points, breaking Rogers' 2018 mark of 170. "The linemen, the tight ends, the wide receivers, I love them all," the running back said. "I'm going to go thank them all as soon as I get in there (to the locker room). "They're huge kids always looking to knock someone on their butt. It's amazing." Highland's defense was just as good against the Minutemen (5-3, 2-3) as the Hornets improved to 8-0, 5-0. Revere ran just 36 plays for 79 yards, including 21 rushes for 27 yards (1.3 average), as Highland recorded its third shutout of the season. Opponents are averaging a meager 8.1 points per game against the Hornets. "We want a shutout every week," said end Matthew Dean, who had two tackles for loss. "It's our goal. It's becoming the standard of our defense. "All week in practice we line up against each other and go at it. We watch film, pick up tendencies and go out and play hard." Myser, who has 1,284 yards rushing and 1,606 yards from scrimmage on the season, opened the scoring by taking a handoff from quarterback Dylan Borla, bouncing left behind the 6-foot-3, 270-pound Noonan and outracing the Revere defense for a 61-yard TD on the third play of the game. With its top two healthy kickers playing in a soccer game, Highland lined up to go for two, was called for a procedure penalty and went for it again from the 8-yard line, but failed. The Hornets finished 1-for-3 on two-point attempts before coach Mike Gibbons went to sophomore kicker Chris Metzger, who went 3-for-3 on extra points. Highland made it 14-0 when Borla (7-for-11, 58 yards) hit Nick Dobkowski with a perfect 19-yard strike across the middle, then found Dobkowski again for the two-point conversion. Aside from an 8-yard TD run by Dylan Lazar late in the game, the rest of the night was the Myser show. A 47-yard score, again after he bounced outside and raced down the left sideline, made the score 20-0 with 31 seconds left in the first half. "It's really special to have an athlete and kid like him playing for us," Dean said. "It's so awesome to have a kid like that on our team." Myser made it 27-0 with 9:29 left in the third period when he hit the middle, again bounced left and went 80 yards to the house. At that point in the game, he had 17 carries for 284 yards. "I'm proud of him," Noonan said. "He's such an athlete. He puts the work in every day. I'm still blocking and he's way downfield. It's crazy." Myser, who still wants to play baseball in college, capped his night with a 1-yard plunge with 3:41 left in the third. He did not play after that. "Everyone says I have football speed," said Myser, who was clocked at 4.6 seconds in the 40-yard dash in the spring. "I may have gotten faster, too. "The O-line opens a hole, I see it, maybe make one guy miss or break a tackle and run the rest of the way. As soon as I see green, I'm running as fast as I can." The Hornets defense rarely allowed Revere quarterback Luke Farris (6-for-14, 52 yards; 8 carries, minus-2 yards) to see much of anything. Running back Johlil Blanchard, seeing more action with Rowan Klein out for the season, didn't fare much better, rushing for 29 yards on 13 attempts. Zywiec had 1½ sacks for Highland and Noonan had two tackles for loss and a half-sack, with a number of others making big hits as well as the Hornets posted another shutout. "It's important to us," Noonan said. "That's the main goal every single week." Contact Rick Noland at (330) 721-4046 or rnoland@medina-gazette.com. Follow him @RickNoland on X. Highland 41, Revere 0 REVERE &emsp;&emsp;0 0 0 0 — 0 HIGHLAND &emsp;&emsp;6 14 14 7 — 41 First H — Casey Myser 61 run (pass failed), 10:58. Second H — Nick Dobkowski 19 pass from Dylan Borla (Dobkowski pass from Borla), 8:00. H — Myser 47 run (pass failed), 0:31. Third H — Myser 80 run (Chris Metzger kick), 9:29. H — Myser 1 run (Metzger kick), 3:41. Fourth H — Dylan Lazar 8 run (Metzger kick), 0:21. &emsp;&emsp;R &emsp;&emsp;H First downs &emsp;&emsp;6 &emsp;&emsp;16 Rushing &emsp;&emsp;21/27 34/390 Rushing average &emsp;&emsp;1.3 &emsp;&emsp;11.5 Passing &emsp;&emsp;6/15 &emsp;&emsp;7/11 Passing yards &emsp;&emsp;52 &emsp;&emsp;58 Total offense &emsp;&emsp;36/79 45/448 Punting &emsp;&emsp;7/41.7 2/33.5 Penalties &emsp;&emsp;3/21 &emsp;&emsp;7/65 Fumbles &emsp;&emsp;0/0 &emsp;&emsp;1/0 RUSHING: Revere — Johlil Blanchard 13-29, Luke Farris 8-(-2). Highland — Myser 21-324, Grady Gibb 3-25, Lazar 4-19, Borla 3-13, Lucas Gerding 1-11, Aiden Pulice 2-(-2). PASSING: Revere — Farris 6-14-52-0, Team 0-1-0-0. Highland — Borla 7-11-58-0. RECEIVING: Revere — Harrison Drvenkar 1-15, Nicholas Hall 1-13, James Perry 1-11, Aaron French 1-8, Blanchard 2-5. Highland — Dobkowski 3-37, Evan Foust 1-12, Myser 2-5, Luke Berkmeyer 1-4.