High school football: Medina finishes fast, blows out Shaker Heights

MEDINA — It took a half, but the Medina football team excelled in all three phases of the game after intermission Friday and blew out Shaker Heights 38-3 in Greater Conference action. At halftime, the Bees (2-2, 1-0) had run 45 plays for 195 yards and 12 first downs compared to 20 for 71 yards and three first downs for the Raiders (1-3, 0-1), but the game was 3-3 because of two interceptions, a missed field goal and some untimely penalties. After intermission, Medina put a 35-0 whitewashing on Shaker Heights because quarterback River Blomquist and his offense were excellent and the defense, which was stellar for 48 minutes, and special teams were just as good. "We knew if we eliminated interceptions and penalties, we would take control of the game," said Blomquist, who finished 28-of-45 passing for 272 yards and two touchdowns while throwing two picks and added 77 yards on 19 rushing attempts. "We just needed to finish drives. "I had to overcome some errors. We all did. We came out the second half and did our thing." The Bees ended up running 79 plays and accumulating 393 yards and 19 first downs, while Shaker Heights had just 41 plays for 109 yards and seven first downs. The Raiders were 3-for-13 for 25 yards passing and lost three fumbles against a determined Medina defense that made a ton of big plays while allowing just six plays of 10 or more yards, with a long of 18. "That was a breakout game for our defense," said linebacker Donovan Delatte, who blocked a punt, recovered a fumble and recorded a tackle for loss. "We've been looking for our identity. I think we found it tonight. "Turnovers are a big part of the game. It shifts momentum and really helps our offense score." Unless the defense does that part, too, which is what linebacker Jack Fletcher did when he scooped up a fumble and raced 38 yards into the end zone. Coupled with a 4-yard TD pass from Blomquist to Jayden Tagalicod on fourth down on Medina's previous drive, it gave the Bees 14 points in 18 seconds and turned a 17-3 game into a 31-3 blowout with 11:01 to play. When Kellen Hathaway hauled in a 6-yard TD from Blomquist, the Bees were up 38-3 and the running clock was instituted with 6:25 left. "It shifts the momentum," Blomquist said of the turnovers. "It all starts with the defense." In addition to Fletcher and Delatte, Medina got big plays from Korde Carey (fumble recovery, TFL), Lochlan Crawford (strip sack) and Johnny Nunn (TFL), plus a late-game sack from Ryan Novak. Special teams were just as good. Though he missed a 30-yard field goal in the first half, Landen Cusick hit a 29-yarder earlier to give Medina a 3-0 lead and went 5-for-5 on extra points. Beckett Vogrin boomed two punts for an average of 47 yards and Brayden Pidgeon recovered an onside kick at the Shaker Heights 35-yard line after the Bees got to kick off from the 45 following a Raiders personal foul on an extra point. That PAT came after a 1-yard TD run by Sydney Lloyd that made it 10-3 with 6:44 left in the third quarter, which was set up by Carey's fumble recovery. Pidgeon's onside kick recovery set up a 3-yard TD run by Lloyd — both his scores were out of the stack-I — to give the Bees a 14-point lead. "We couldn't let anyone talk about the last game," defensive back Carey said of a 47-0 loss to Wadsworth in which the Grizzlies led 40-0 at halftime. "We just flushed it down the toilet. We moved on to this game." Offensively, Medina got a solid all-around game from Lloyd, who caught 6 passes for 44 yards while carrying the ball 11 times for 35 yards and the two scores. Hathaway led all receivers with seven catches for 62 yards, with Tagalicod (4, 46), Vogrin (3, 43), Caleb Sherman (2, 42) and Brian Wuchter (5, 21; 2 rushes, 14 yards) also contributing. Medina had 34 rushes for 121 yards, a lot of them coming when Blomquist smartly abandoned the pass and ran up the middle for chunks of positive yardage. The defense and special teams took care of the rest. "We just had to come out and make a statement," Carey said. "We had to show them early that we were ready to play. "It feels great. We had to make everyone happy in this stadium. We had to do it for our fans and for ourselves." Contact Rick Noland at (330) 721-4046 or rnoland@medina-gazette.com. Follow him @RickNoland on X. Medina 38, Shaker Heights 3 SHAKER HEIGHTS 0 3 0 0 — 3 MEDINA 3 0 14 21 — 38 First M — Landen Cusick 29 field goal, 4:26. Second S — Andrew Mullen 36 field goal, 8:16. Third M — Sydney Lloyd 1 run (Cusick kick), 6:44. M — Loyd 3 run (Cusick kick), 4:30. Fourth M — Jayden Tagalicod 4 pass from River Blomquist (Cusick kick), 11:19. M — Jack Fletcher 38 fumble return (Cusick kick), 11:01. M — Kellen Hathaway 6 pass from Blomquist (Cusick kick), 6:25. S M First downs &emsp;&emsp;7 19 Rushing &emsp;&emsp;28/84 34/121 Rushing average 3.0 3.6 Passing &emsp;&emsp;3/13 28/45 Passing yards &emsp;&emsp;25 272 Total offense 41/109 79/393 Punting &emsp;&emsp;3/28.6 2/47.0 Penalties &emsp;&emsp;9/90 13/100 Fumbles/lost &emsp;&emsp;3/3 1/0 Individual statistics RUSHING: Shaker Heights — Rayhon Johnson 14-44, Brandon Bunkley 5-28, Jacire Eaddy 2-20, Quinn Malone 4-7, Landon Bryant 1-4, Team 1-(-4), Saint Anthony Crawford 1-(-15). Medina — Blomquist 19-77, Lloyd 11-35, Brian Wuchter 2-14, John Nagel 1-(-1), Team 1-(-4). PASSING: Shaker Heights — Malone 2-8-19-0, Crawford 1-4-6-0, Team 0-1-0-0. Medina — Blomquist 28-45-272-2. RECEIVING: Shaker Heights — Jacob Pope 1-14, Jacques Penn 1-6, Eaddy 1-5. Medina — Hathaway 7-62, Tagalicod 4-46, Lloyd 6-44, Beckett Vogrin 3-43, Caleb Sherman 2-42, Wuchter 5-21, Johnny Nunn 1-14. MISSED FIELD GOALS: Cusick 30 (WL).