The excitement was there, the momentum was there, and a community starving for more high school football was there too. Unfortunately for the Harrison Central Huskies and their faithful following, the #5 Garfield G-Men showed up with their undefeated record and stole the show with a 56-35 second-round victory in the Ohio Division V Region 17 tournament.
“This is a tough one to swallow. We had a very good week of preparation leading up to kickoff. Our physical effort was there, no doubt about it. We just had some miscues,” Head Coach Anthony Hayes explained in his initial comments following the game.
The Huskies flashed signs of life throughout the evening, but a quick 14-0 deficit didn’t help matters for Hayes and his squad. The G-Men came out and posted a seven-spot in the first 56 seconds of the contest and followed that up with another seven just one minute and 53 seconds after that. Not even three minutes in, and the Huskies were staring up the mountain of a two-possession climb. Against teams like Garfield, whose seniors came into the contest with an overall career record of 41-5, there is no affordability to fall off pace.
“We had some early miscues on defense, and we can’t do that against a team like Garfield. They are too good of a team for us to have unsound moments. Credit to them though, they create so many problems for your defense that it can make you want to overplay and want to do someone else’s job. That is when they hit the big plays,” Hayes described.
And the Head Coach wasn’t wrong about the big plays. The G-Men used a 32-yard touchdown burst in the ground game to open up the scoring and followed that up with an untouched 59-yard busted coverage touchdown for their second score of the night.
The Huskies didn’t quit however, as senior quarterback Hayden Cassidy found playmaker Cam McAfee on a big play of their own to cut the Garfield lead in half midway through the opening quarter. McAfee split the secondary coverage perfectly and Cassidy hit him in stride for the 57-yard scoring strike. Mykel Quito added the PAT, and the Huskies had seemingly slowed the G-Men train down. For a brief moment at least.
On the ensuing drive, which started at the Harrison 46-yard line, the G-Men cleared the tracks again. The seven-play sequence led to a nine-yard touchdown pass, giving way to a 21-7 lead that would hold through the end of the first quarter.
After sophomore Chaz Culbertson recovered a fumble for the Huskies defense to close out the first frame, Cassidy would strike again for six to open up the second. Senior Clayton Vermillion was on the receiving end of the fourth and eight touchdown toss that once again closed the Garfield advantage to one possession (21-13).
The G-Men were prepared to shut down the Huskies rushing attack, and Hayes and his staff were clearly prepared for that. “Offensively, they were set on slowing down our ground game and that’s what they did. We felt coming in that’s what they would try to do so we prepped a little extra in the passing game and we had really good success throwing the football. We finished with over 300 passing yards, but the yards don’t win games, points do,” the coach declared.
The G-Men reeled off 14 unanswered points to close out the first half, taking a 35-13 lead into the halftime break.
Parker Hutton would find the endzone twice in the second half, along with a touchdown pass from Brady Hyre to Brennan Engstrom late in the game, but the Huskies would get no closer than 16 points down the stretch.
The Huskies were outrushed 261-38. It was indeed the passing game that shined the brightest. Cassidy finished 22 of 36 for 322-yards and four touchdowns. McAfee was the main target, with eight catches for 170-yards receiving.
“In the end, they were better than we were tonight. It’s been a heck of a ride. We had a good year and accomplished most of our goals. After 24 years, we earned our first playoff victory in program history. This senior class showed strong leadership all year long. Our young players stepped up and grew up fast. It was a total team effort from top to bottom. Every single player and coach had a hand in all of our accomplishments this year. The standard has been set. It’s no longer can we win a playoff game, but rather, how many can we win,” Hayes concluded in rhetorical fashion.
Garfield advances to see the projected State Champion of Division V in the Perry Pirates this weekend.
