Broc Lowry leads Canfield High School football to its first OHSAA state championship

CANTON — Before Broc Lowry moved on to Bloomington, Indiana for college football, the Canfield High School senior and the rest of the Cardinals had one more mission: Bring home Canfield's first OHSAA football state title. Mission accomplished.

Lowry did a bit of everything Friday afternoon at Tom Benson Hall of Fame Stadium. Lowry accounted for touchdowns as a runner, passer and receiver in a 35-14 win over Bloom-Carroll in the Division III state final.

Lowry, the co-offensive player for the Northeast Inland District, scored on short TD runs in each of the first three quarters.. The Indiana University recruit then helped break the game open in the fourth quarter with a 69-yard TD catch on trick play before throwing a TD pass to push the Cardinals ahead 35-7. He also made some plays defensively.

The Cardinals built an early 14-0 lead, controlling the time of possession and putting the ball in the hands of Lowry. The Bulldogs avoided a first-half shutout when quarterback Ethan Thanthanavong connected with Brodyn Bishop for a 3-yard touchdown to trail 14-7 at the half. The Cardinals dominated in the second half. The defense forced two turnovers and shut down the Bulldogs' running attack to put the game away.

The Cardinals finished 14-1, winning 10 straight after a loss to Youngstown Chaney in Week 5. Along the way, they knocked off defending state champ Chardon in the regional finals.

Canfield's win, coming a couple hours after South Range won the Division V state title, gave the Youngstown area back-to-back state championships in Friday's first two games.

Here’s a look at some of the key things to know about the game:

Player of the Game: Broc Lowry, QB, Canfield

Lowry did it all for Canfield. The Cardinals gained 366 total yards of offense, and a chunk full of them were courtesy of the 6-foot-2 Indiana commit. He led the Cardinals with 121 rushing yards and three touchdowns. He was 10-of-17 for 95 yards passing, with a TD. He also had the 69-yard TD catch. Lowry also made his presence known on defense as he finished with seven tackles, second on the team, and forced a fumble.

Play of the Game: Canfields dials up a trick play with Broc Lowry

Canfield went to some trickery at the start of the fourth quarter with two quarterbacks in the same backfield. Lowry handed the ball off to his backup quarterback Paul Bindas, who headed right. Then Bindas tossed the ball back to Lowry to the left and Lowry did the rest, as he eluded a few defenders before sprinting 69 yards for a touchdown.

Three stats to a title

3 and 5: Lowry went for the triple crown on offense as he led the Cardinals in passing (95), rushing (115) and receiving (69) yardage to go along with accounting for five total touchdowns. It is a performance so rare, there is no category for it in the OSHAA record book.

.750: Canfield was efficient on offense as it controlled the line of scrimmage and time of possession. A big key in doing that was the Cardinals' success on third-down conversions. The Cards converted 75% (9-of-12) of their third-down plays, including five consecutive third-down attempts in the first half.

202 to 69: Canfield's ball control is also evidence in each team's final rushing totals, as the Cardinals outrushed Bloom-Carroll 202 to 69.

They said it

Canfield quarterback Broc Lowry ending high school career a state champion: "After my commitment (to Indiana) really it was all about Canfield. ... Our whole team goal was to win the state championship even though we said we must take it a week at a time. The ultimate goal was to win a state championship."

Canfield coach Michael Pavlansky on exceeding their goal of winning their regional: "What a great accomplishment to get this far. Boy those guys played hard against a fast and physical team. They ought to be proud. It's the first time in team history to get here and no doubt they are going to be back. Secondly, my goodness, I'm just so proud of this team. We set a goal at the beginning of the year of getting a regional title. It was never to beat Chardon but to win a regional championship. Once that was accomplished, they set their goals a little bit further down the road."

Carroll-Bloom coach Jeremy McKinney on struggling on third down: "That was the big story. They kept converting third down, and we weren't. That changed the course of the game."

More:OHSAA football live score updates: Canfield and Bloom-Carroll meet in Division III final

This article originally appeared on The Repository: Canfield football beats Bloom-Carroll in OHSAA state final