Jefferson's stellar season all about trust

Nov. 11—The fourth quarter clock at Arrowhead Stadium, home of the Girard Indians, showed less than three minutes with Jefferson ahead 26-20.

More important than the time remaining though was the 7, as in the seven yards the Falcons needed on third down to get a new set of downs.

The Indians, a team playing in the postseason for the 13th time in school history compared to Jefferson, which was in the playoffs for just the third time, had burned their final timeout.

If the Falcons could find a way to gain seven yards, the game would be over.

If not, Girard, with dynamic quarterback Stephen Sims, who had already thrown 162 yards and a couple of scores, would have plenty of time to dial up one more and turn the Falcons' postseason into the offseason.

Conventional system would have said "throw it," or at least roll the quarterback out and look for an option-type play to catch the defense off-guard.

Instead, Jefferson's Grant Hitchcock took the shotgun snap and simply ran right up the gut for it.

Seven yards later, the game was all but over, as Hitchcock had gained the yards to make.

"Knowing he as the trust in us to follow us right up the middle is what's amazing," Mason Pawlowski said of the play.

Pawlowski is a two-way interior lineman and one of 13 seniors on the Falcons who are getting ready to meet Canton South on Saturday night at South Range High School in the Division IV, Region 13 Regional semifinal round.

If there's a key word in the Falcons playbook this season, it would be the word "trust."

In the past two weeks, Jefferson has faced plenty of moments just like the one it had to seal the win at Girard. Players believing in themselves, but more importantly, trusting each other, has been the difference for why they're still playing in Week 13.

"It's huge," coach Brandon Hanna said of the faith his players have in each other.

"We talk about family. We've been saying the last few weeks that we need to come together. Our bond has been strong and that brotherhood has been amazing. In order to get to a Week 13, it does take trust and it takes love. We never leave the locker room without telling each other we love each other. Trust is a part of love and we're seeing a lot of that right now."

"There's a lot of trust in each other for sure," senior linebacker Wade Woodworth said. "We trust the coaching staff to make a great game plan, we trust each other on the field."

The win over Girard was Jefferson's fourth in a row after getting blown out in back-to-back weeks by Struthers and South Range. The level of trust, though, really began to take shape at the end of last season.

The Falcons finished the year 4-6 and lost six of their last seven. For the 13 seniors-to-be, their career record was 8-22. They vowed to each other that next year would be a different story.

"It all started at the end of last season," Pawlowski explained. "We agreed as soon as the season ended that we were all going to come in at 6 am before school every morning to work out," "This is exactly what we've been working for, it's paid off."

"Since last December, this is all we talked about," lineman Sam Disher explained. "We made it this far because this is what we pictured and we didn't want to take anything less."

Players with the ball in their hands like Hitchcock, Trent Hodge and Kaige Bozcar may be the ones getting the headlines, but the seniors in the trenches know and appreciate their roles.

"Our line starts it all," Disher said. "Our skill guys see our line doing super well and we all work together as one unit. It starts with us being confident and playing well."

The Falcons have a huge challenge in front of them this week as they go against another tough quarterback. Canton South's Poochie Snyder has thrown for an average of nearly 300 yards a game this season to go with 32 touchdown passes.

The Falcons, though, will use the same philosophy they've gone with all season to try and slow him down.

"We'll need to get some pressure on him, he's super fast so we'll have to contain him, " Woodworth said. "He can throw it deep, but our secondary can cover anybody. Our defensive backs are great athletes, so it's just a matter of trusting everybody to do their job."

Which is the way it's been all season.