CVCA football keeps focus, edges defending PAC champ Fairless

Blocking out all of the noise and keeping things simple enabled the defense on the Cuyahoga Valley Christian Academy football team to help knock off co-league champion Fairless.

Football:CVCA wins overtime thriller over Canton South

Producing big plays and limiting long plays by the diverse Falcon offense propelled CVCA to defeat visiting Fairless 22-20 and handing the defending Principal’s Athletic Conference co-champion its first loss of the fall.

The Royals, who moved to 5-1 overall and to 3-0 in the PAC, held Fairless in check with 272 total yards. The Royals limited the aerial attack to just 5.2 yards per pass attempt by a dangerous quarterback and also held Fairless to just 3.5 yards a rush.

One of the biggest plays by the Royal defense came after standout Falcon quarterback Carson Collucci hit Brody Pumneo on a 10-yard touchdown pass to slice the CVCA lead to 22-20 with 3:52 left in the contest.

At that point, Fairless (5-1, 2-1) attempted to tie the game with a two-point pass play.

That’s when Collucci went to the air on a quick whip route in the end zone, but the CVCA secondary teamed up to cover the quick, reversing pattern, and the athletic Collucci was forced to scramble and run the ball, but the Royal defenders converged and stopped him shy.

CVCA recovered the onside kick and ran out the clock for the victory.

“Our corner and safety did a nice job getting into a two-versus-one on that whip route and we were able to deliver a nice hit on him (Collucci) and keep the ball out of the endzone,” said a thrilled CVCA head coach Nick Cook.

Pumneo burned the Royals for 11 catches for 94 yards and the touchdown reception, plus had a 26-yard touchdown pass of his own to another playmaker in Luke Yoder, but CVCA did limit his yards after catch to a minimum.

A solid dual threat QB, Collucci was held in check with 170 yards passing on 19 of 33 passes and was intercepted twice.

“We kept things simple for our kids, we didn’t want our kids’ eyes to respond to all of their movement, shifting, and motion,” said Cook. “Our kids did a nice job of getting tight to routes and we were able to generate some nice pressure in key moments that helped the guys down field.”

The freshman duo of cornerback Charley Levak and outside linebacker Joey Kopec each intercepted Collucci.

Levak’ pick set up what would be a 2-yard touchdown run by sophomore quarterback Ryan Wiehe to make it 7-0 in the first quarter with 1:19 left.

Kopec went back into coverage and intercepted Collucci. In addition, Cook credited star senior linebacker Kyle Snider, junior strong safety Ricky Levak, and junior outside linebacker Logan Scranton with strong play on defense.

Scranton was the primary defender in stopping Collucci on the two-point run.

“Snider, Charley Levak, Kopec, Ricky Levak, and Scranton led the charge defensively,” said Cook.

“Joey (Kopec) made a college level play picking off a 12-yard out route behind him as he dropped into the flat,” added Cook.

It was a massive win in the league along with bringing big implications for CVCA in the Division III Region 9 computer standings. Final results of Friday’s key league game at Canal Fulton Northwest (4-2, 2-1) weren’t available as of press time.

“Triway and Fairless were co-champs and taking down the defending conference champs in back-to-back weeks is something our kids should be proud of,” stressed Cook. “Fairless is a good program and we have a lot of football left to play, so we were pleased to come out with a victory.”

CVCA hosts Orrville (2-4, 1-2) in league play Oct. 7.

“Our big emphasis during the week was that no moment is too big to focus on the fundamentals,” said Cook. “So, we doubled down this week on who we are, our focus on Christ-likeness, our preparation process - and we put as much focus on that during the week as we did the Falcons - and it paid off.”

After Fairless tied the game 7-7 at the 9:38 mark of the second period on the double pass from Pumneo to Yoder, CVCA and Snider came up huge on the next play from scrimmage.

Snider, who ran 24 times for 181 yards, broke loose for a 43-yard burst and was ruled down at the Falcon one-yard line. That set up another TD run by Wiehe.

Snider added another one-yard touchdown run with 14 seconds left in the first half, which was set up by the Kopec pick.

CVCA pushed the lead to 22-7 with a two-point pass from Ricky Levak to freshman Dirk Geiger.

To open the second half, CVCA’s defense forced Fairless to give up the ball on downs and then starting the chew up the clock with its ground game.

That led to a 25-yard field goal attempt that was blocked by Fairless and Yoder changed the momentum of the game by racing 95 yards for a touchdown to make it a one possession game at 22-14 with 1:07 left in the third.

However, CVCA held onto the win behind strong defense, fundamentals and another strong effort in the running game, which produced 259 yards.

CVCA’s offensive line has done a great job all season and includes senior Dillon Byars (6-foot-5, 300 pounds), senior Seth Nerone (5-11, 205), senior David Glover (5-9, 215), sophomore David Grimes (5-10, 250), and senior Tony Collins (6-1, 260).

Ricky Levak had two catches for 38 yards, plus the 2-point conversion while Kopec added 58 yards rushing, and sophomore Dreylin Price added 16 yards rushing on three totes.

This article originally appeared on Akron Beacon Journal: CVCA football edges defending PAC champ Fairless