Garaway football extends playoff tradition with dominant win over Crestview

For many teams, the high school football season consists of 10 games.

For the Garaway Pirates, that number has been traditionally much greater, with the Pirates making lengthy playoff runs every season over the past decade.

This year is no different, with Jason Wallick’s crew again reaching the Division VI Sweet 16 with a 34-0 throttling of two-seed Columbiana Crestview on Crestview’s home turf.

“We talk about the standard all the time,” Wallick said. “Our guys understand what’s at stake, and they work hard all offseason long for that. We don’t want to play 10 games; we want to play 13, 14, 15 games. It’s been a really fun run.”

This year’s season seemed to turn the corner, not after a big win, but rather after a humiliating 49-7 loss to Girard, a Div. V team with its own high hopes of capturing a state title.

Wallick said that game kind of helped his team refocus after getting humbled.

“We needed to experience that,” Wallick said. “It was early in the year, and it was one of the worst games we’ve played in recent memory, but it was something we needed to experience. We’re not the same team we were then.”

Senior co-captain Brady Miller has had a sensational season, and he said after the team came together after the Girard loss, everything fell into place.

“We’ve been cruising since then, playing with a lot of energy, pushing each other to compete every day in practice, and the focus has just been to continue to get better together,” Miller said.

Fellow co-captain Micah Yoder agreed.

“I think we were a little full of ourselves early on,” Yoder said. “Girard handed it to us, and it was a good reality check for us. We realized we had to up the intensity in our practices.”

He said the captains and seniors had some meetings, and things changed for the better.

That, along with getting to play perennially strong programs like defending Div. IV state champion Indian Valley, Ridgewood and Norwayne, helped prepare them for the playoff challenge.

Wallick said that regular-season schedule against those quality opponents may have been the difference when it came to playing Crestview.

“We set a tone early and were very physical, and I think it was the first time they’ve been punched in the mouth, and they didn’t quite know how to respond. We knew their quarterback was a real dude, and we never really let him get going.”

Miller agreed, noting the Pirates know how to punch a team hard to apply pressure, but they also know the feeling of getting beat around by teams like Girard and Indian Valley, which has helped them understand how to respond when adversity hits.

Like always, the coaching staff had the Pirates prepared, a quality that has driven this program to success.

“Our kids have bought in year after year,” Wallick said.

“Our coaches do all of the hard work,” Brady Miller said. “All we have to do as players is buy in and gel together. We all know we have one responsibility, and that is to do our job.”

This senior group is winding down on a sensational career, and the group has grown together in unity and a willingness to push each other.

Miller said they have grown to understand what it means to play for something greater than the individual.

“An innate part of being a human is finding a place where you fit in,” he said. “Being a part of something as special as the Garaway football program is a great example of that. There’s a legacy of great players, great teams and winning tradition. It took us a few weeks to recognize that nothing was going to be given to us, that we had to go out, work hard and take it. But the support here in Sugarcreek is incredible.”

Yoder agreed, noting this senior group is close-knit and full of leaders.

Being a part of it is especially rewarding to him because he suffered a lost season his freshman year due to illness from Lyme disease, and after almost quitting football because of it, he is grateful he was talked into returning.

“We’ve been able to bond together and progress and develop into who we are today,” Yoder said. “I think as seniors we realize it’s close to coming to an end. This program has meant a lot to me. It’s taught me how to grow up and handle adversity.”

A year of lessons and learning has led to another lengthy playoff run that continues to be a tradition on The Hill in Sugarcreek.

Grady Miller finished 18-of-30 passing for 203 yards and three touchdowns with an interception to lead the Pirates against Crestview. Jaxon Garber caught six passes for 90 yards and a score, Trey Miller caught three passes for 12 yards and two scores, and Micah Yoder caught six passes for 67 yards. Matthew Frey led the rushing attack with 139 yards and two touchdowns on 28 carries.