Nordonia football blasts past Brecksville in Suburban League finale

With Joey Palinkas looking like anything but a first-year starter at quarterback, Nordonia cruised to a 45-7 league victory over Brecksville Friday as Craig Aiken and Palinkas were among the seniors who stood out in the final regular season contest at home.

While the Knight defense shut down the Bees after the first quarter, Palinkas and Aiken connected often as the Knights took one more step to securing a division II state playoff berth at the comforts of Boliantz Stadium in week 11.

During a stretch in the third quarter, Palinkas found the rangy Aiken on four consecutive passes on a scoring drive that was culminated by sophomore running back Rocco DeLorenzo’s two-yard touchdown run that pushed the lead to 38-7 at the 8:50 mark.

Aiken snagged a pair of 23-yard catches and had a highlight one-handed snag near the sideline for the Knights.

A wide receiver, Aiken also had a clutch 11-yard touchdown catch across the middle in the second period to help extend the lead to 24-7 with 4:40 left in the first half.

In all, Aiken had seven catches for 86 yards as he was featured in the victory.

“It was great to see Craig have so much success,” said Knight head coach Jeff Fox. “He really was a difference maker for us.”

“Craig is a great kid and one of our senior leaders, and he gets all of the credit as he has worked extremely hard,” added Fox.

Aiken, the 6-foot-5, 210-pound veteran, also plays on defense and is a placekicker along with Collin Rafferty. Aiken, who added an extra point late against the Bees, has been used at end on defense, but the Knight staff moves defenders around and Aiken has been used in the middle of the line at times to negate passing lanes.

Fox continues to love the progress that Palinkas has made and liked the way Nordonia responded after an underrated Bee offense struck first.

Palinkas hit 21 of 29 passes for 314 yards with two touchdowns and one interception. He added two rushes for 42 yards.

After a Knight punt, Brecksville scored on its second series in the game as strong-armed quarterback Colin Seibert passed for a pair of first downs to move the Bees 75 yards in eight plays and had a 17-yard touchdown pass to receiver Montee Doubler to make it 7-0 at the 5:25 mark.

Seibert (163 yards) was picked off twice by the Knights on huge plays, but has a quick release and a potent arm.

The Brecksville offense has some weapons with do-it-all Logan Doskocil, Seibert and Doubler, who excels in the red zone and on out patterns. Doubler had six catches and Doskocil had five.

Nordonia’s defense excelled and made plays against the Bees (2-7) to help the Knights move to 7-2 overall and to 4-2 in the Suburban League National Conference, where Brecksville slipped to 1-4.

“Our conference will make you have to take a punch and Brecksville came out to play, but I was extremely pleased with how hard we played in what was a team victory,” said Fox, who praised his club afterwards by stressing the team win on defense, offense, and special teams.

A 28-yard field goal by Rafferty cut the lead to 7-3 at the 2:16 mark, but it was a superb interception in the flat by 205-pound senior linebacker Logan Villamagna that changed the momentum at that point.

Three plays after the Villamagna pick, Palinkas found a wide open Israel Petite on a 27-yard touchdown strike on a crossing route.

Petite helped Nordonia gain a 10-3 lead with 57 seconds left in the first quarter. The speedy junior had three catches for 64 yards and has been a big threat recently and also played well on defense.

Following a Bee punt, Nordonia scored again with a 72-yard drive that ended when junior Brendan Hermensky powered for a one-yard touchdown run to make it 17-7 with 7:48 left in the first half.

That’s when Palinkas and Aiken then connected on the TD pass, which was set up by a 51-yard pass to junior wide out Mike Ebert, who had a great run on a short crossing route.

An opportunistic Nordonia defense struck again on the Bees’ second play on the ensuing drive when sophomore Vince Natali stepped in front of a receiver and intercepted Seibert and sped to a huge 47-yard return for a touchdown.

Natali’s pick six was damaging to the Bees, who trailed 31-7 with 3:40 left in the first half.

The defense answered the call once again as Brecksville immediately drove the ball and threatened to Nordonia’s six-yard line on the next drive, but on fourth down, sophomore lineman Jordan Jackson sacked Seibert for 19-yard loss!

“Our defense played hard and forcing turnovers was really great – I thought our defensive line created pressure against their quarterback and our secondary continues to play well,” pointed out Fox.

Undersized senior lineman Vinnie Schiavone continued a great season with a few tackles behind the line while Villamagna, Hermensky, senior linebacker Jeremy Olszko, Petite, senior defensive backs Nolan Cribbs and Tucker Rusk, Jackson, senior linebacker/end Kieran Bell and Natali.

Junior end Asher Wilson also has made huge contributions this year with his pass rush after helping West Jefferson High last year to the Division VI state semifinals.

Fox was also happy to see junior running back Gino Perrine make some big plays as standout senior back Zach Zender recently had a season ending injury.

Perrine led the Knights with 68 yards rushing on 13 carries, had a five-yard touchdown run and had a big 53-yard screen pass catch and run that was beautifully orchestrated in the final plays of the first half.

As the Knight staff emptied the bench, other tackles behind the line were made by juniors Vince Hack and Myles Fountain, plus sophomore Caleb Aiken.

In all, 10 different ball carriers got touches for Nordonia while sophomore backup QB Ben Chesser got some important work and executed with 4-for-4 passing for 20 yards and nine yards rushing on three attempts.

Senior Devin Tufts also played well on both ends of the football and on special teams as he finished with six catches for 48 yards. Cribbs had four receptions while Olszko, Rusk and sophomore Owen Smotek added one catch each.

Outside of a change in routine, Fox doesn’t expect much of a change in approach in a short week for the final regular season non-league clash on Thursday against a struggling Cleveland Benedictine unit (0-9) at Euclid’s stadium.

This article originally appeared on Akron Beacon Journal: Nordonia football manhandles Brecksville in league finale