Medina's passing game overpowers Stow football

Heading into his team's week four contest at Medina, Stow-Munroe Falls football coach Martin Poder believed the Bees' offense would be biggest challenged his team faced thus far.

Unfortunately for the Bulldogs, Poder was proven right.

Medina quarterback Danny Pollard led the Bulldogs up for 398 yards and five touchdowns, leading the Bees to a 55-21 win Sept. 9 at Dukes Stadium.

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Stow (1-3) could not keep up with Medina's relentless air attack and Poder tipped his hat to Pollard and the Bees.

"When you get into that system and the good players around you, you're going to be successful," Poder said. "Pollard was learning for [current Penn State quarterback Drew] Allard the last few years. They're not really worried about running the football. When you put a good high school quarterback in there, he'll thrive."

"I don't want to take anything away from them, but they weren't 55 points on us good. There were a lot of breakdown on our side. There were a couple of situation they converted on four and 8 or fourth and 12 that hurt us."

Medina went 4-of-5 on the fourth down conversions.

"I just think it was in the critical situations where they executed and we didn't Poder said. "We had a drive towards the end of the game where we didn't execute. Right before half we were driving and had a trick play that they ended up interception."

The double pass from Jack Smith that the Bees picked off proved to be the only turnover in the game.

The frustrating part for Poder was the fact his team's offense had a decent game.

Quarterback Jacob Harrington went 26-of-36 for 265 yards with two touchdowns and no interceptions. Harrington cut the lead to 14-7 early in the second quarter with a 12-yard touchdown pass to Jayden Gabele.

"His first touchdown to Jayden Gabele … he delivered a strike on a slant," Poder said. "He's not sitting back there and holding on to the ball too long. Jake Harrington is progressing. In the last two games, he's pretty much played error-free ball."

The Bulldogs running game, however, continues to be stuck in neutral. Stow managed just 26 yards rushing on the night.

"We're not where we need to be at up front. We were trying to get the ball out on the perimeter," Poder said. "We're trying to run the the football."

Stow was set to face Brecksville-Broadview Heights Friday at Bulldogs Stadium to open Suburban League National Conference play. Poder said he knows this is more than just a game for the Bees, given that he coached them the last four years.

"I would think they should be hungry," he said. "As I told them when I said I was leaving for Stow, 'If you're indifferent about me leaving and you're not mad, we didn't have the relationship I thought we had the last four years. There are a lot of kids over there that I got to have a great relationship with."

This article originally appeared on Akron Beacon Journal: Medina's aerial attack proved too strong for Stow football