Portage County Week 4 football previews
Mogadore (3-0) vs. Liberty-Benton (2-1) | at Ashland University
The state-ranked Wildcats are making the first of back-to-back Interstate 76-to-71 jaunts. (They'll make a very similar trip in Week 5 to Lucas.) Stemming from Hancock County, the Eagles are chasing a fourth straight winning season, with their lone loss thus far coming to undefeated Arlington. Kam and Lincoln Garlock are a duo to watch for Liberty-Benton as they connected numerous times in that close setback against Arlington, while Kam Garlock (who completed 20-of-29 passes for 209 yards) also found Seth Elchert on a number of occasions. Mogadore, which sits seventh in Division VI after an impressive win over Manchester, has scored at least 27 points in all three games thus far, led by bruising fullback/tight end Mason Williams and quarterback Zeke Cameron.
Rootstown (3-0) at Pymatuning Valley (0-3)
The Rovers, ranked 10th in Division VI in the first state poll, have been one of the area's top stories thus far, with a dominant Week 1 victory over Crestwood followed by fourth-quarter comeback wins over Champion and Field. Running back Cody Coontz and the Rootstown offensive line have wreaked havoc in all three victories, including the senior runner's 26 carries for 184 yards against a Falcons team that is plenty strong up front. Meanwhile, the Lakers have struggled to get anything going offensively, with just 20 points combined through three games, but they do boast an experienced offensive line to help QB Ryan Croston and RB Ty Vickery, who are both sophomores.
Ravenna (2-1) at Cloverleaf (2-1)
The Ravens went up against a team that loves to play power football last week and that will be the case once again in Lodi as the Colts have a big, powerful line and they know how to use it, including 188 rushing yards on 31 carries last week against Black River and 426 yards the previous week against Keystone. Cloverleaf quarterback Oakley Kemp ran for 281 yards and three touchdowns on 28 carries against the Wildcats while running back Connor Hitchcock added 131 yards and two touchdowns on 16 carries. Like Cloverleaf, Ravenna has won two straight (over Howland and Roosevelt) and had its own offensive explosion late in the third quarter against the Rough Riders as quarterback M'Kell Williams and running back Pavel Henderson showcased all sorts of big-play ability. Last year's clash between the Colts and Ravens was certainly epic with Ravenna pulling off a late comeback for a 28-27 win.
Streetsboro (2-1) at Norton (2-1)
The Rockets seek revenge against a Panthers team that snapped their 20-game regular season win streak a year ago. Both Norton and Streetsboro dropped their 2022 openers before winning their last two games, with the Panthers topping City Series foes Garfield and Firestone by a combined 74-7 margin. That included Luke Dobbins and Corey Beddow combining for six touchdowns against the Falcons, with the Panthers also returning QB Toby Tatka from last year's 10-1 squad. Meanwhile, Rockets junior running back Preston Hopperton is averaging 131.3 rushing yards per game and has already found the end zone 10 times.
Waterloo (1-2) at Sebring McKinley (0-3)
The Vikings chase the National Guard Hometown Hero trophy as they face off with a Trojans team that was outscored 140-28 in non-conference play. Last year's contest was a thriller, arguably the best in the history of this relatively new rivalry, as Waterloo drove down the field late for the game-winning touchdown and a 30-22 victory. A lot of the leading actors in last year's game, including the Vikings' Mason Duncan and Bobby Makin and the Trojans' Elijah and Noah Frederick, have since graduated, but Jayden Hakin (60 carries, 399 yards, 5 TD) has been a force running the ball behind a stout Austin Wise-led offensive line for Waterloo.
Aurora (2-1) at Copley (1-2)
The Greenmen's traditionally stingy defense, which has yielded 57 points over the last two weeks, will be challenged in their Suburban American opener. Win or lose, the Indians had little trouble scoring in non-conference play, averaging nearly 50 points per game (48.7 to be exact). In Copley's highest-scoring game yet, last week's 67-54 loss to Buckeye, quarterback DaOne Owens passed for an absurd 360 yards and six touchdowns while rushing for 161 yards and another score. Luke Brenner, meanwhile, turned 13 catches into 249 yards and four touchdowns, to go with a 74-yard kickoff return to the house. The issue for the Indians was that they struggled against the dominant left side of the Bucks' offensive line, which provides a potential game plan for the Greenmen, who also boast a very stout left side for dual-threat quarterback Matt Geier (27-52, 352 yards, 4 TD, 0 INT; 42 carries, 294 yards, 3 TD) and lead running back Alex Tenorio (35 carries, 229 yards) to run behind.
Barberton (1-2) at Roosevelt (1-2)
The Rough Riders were very much in Friday's rivalry contest, knotted at 14 with Ravenna late in the third quarter, before the Ravens ran away with four touchdowns in just over five minutes of game clock. Roosevelt has now yielded 42 points in back-to-back contests as it enters Suburban American play against a Barberton team that went 1-2 against a non-conference gauntlet (Barberton, Stow-Munroe Falls and St. Vincent-St. Mary). Against that loaded schedule, the Magics struggled to score, with just 27 points combined in those three games, including being held to five first downs and -12 rushing yards by the Irish.
Garfield (2-1) at LaBrae (0-3)
Friday's MVAC opener features the top two finishers in last year's Grey Tier with the 6-1 Vikings finishing just behind the 6-0 G-Men. It also features a trio of 100-plus tackle standouts from last season in LaBrae's Jay’Marion Jethroe and Garfield's Jesse Grace and Keegan Sell. The G-Men have impressed win or lose this season, including last week when they held a 21-14 lead against powerful Warren JFK before the Eagles struck back in Friday's final minutes. Through three games, Garfield's ground game has been as powerful as ever, averaging 286.7 yards per contest, led by Keegan Sell (45-311), Jesse Grace (42-230) and Carter Bates (14-113). LaBrae, in contrast with last year when it averaged a whopping 40.2 points per game, has tallied a total of 19 points through three games.
Springfield (0-3) at Field (1-2)
The Falcons are a bit of a misleading 1-2 with their two losses, to 3-0 Mogadore and Rootstown, coming by a combined seven points. Field has been able to run the ball, win or lose, thus far, including 41 carries for 237 yards in last week's loss to Rootstown. That included another stellar performance by sophomore running back Drexal McAmis, who turned 19 carries into 169 yards against the Rovers. The Spartans, who fell 28-0 to the Falcons last season, are still chasing their first win after falling 49-8 at Orrville a week ago. They are led by dual-threat QB Anthony Berger.
North (1-2) at Southeast (1-2)
Both the Pirates and Vikings are hoping to bounce back from 30-plus point losses last week. For North, which picked up only its second win since 2015 in Week 2, Darrin Jenkins has established himself as a threat, with a rushing touchdown against Cuyahoga Falls and taking the opening kickoff to the house in the Vikings' win over Wickliffe. (Those are the Vikings' lone touchdowns of the season thus far.) The same could be said of Pirates quarterback Randy Williams, who turned 15 carries into 68 yards against Champion and completed 7-of-12 passes for 136 yards and two scores, both to Case Myers. A key will be filling gaps after the Pirates yielded 345 rushing yards to the Golden Flashes.
Harvey (1-2) at Crestwood (1-2)
Last year, the Red Devils lost their Chagrin Valley Conference opener to the Red Raiders and then didn't drop a CVC game the rest of the way en route to a league title. Harvey, which has made strides year after year from 1-9 in 2018 to 5-5 last season, was dominant last week in its first win of the 2022 campaign, topping Wickliffe, 49-0. The Red Raiders dominated up front, with Blaise Collins running for 173 yards (the team tallied 332 yards on the ground) while they held the Blue Devils to just 18 yards. The Red Devils can't let that happen as sophomore running back Nate Blasiole (62 carries, 286 yards on the season) is a key piece of their offense.
Windham (0-2) at St. John (2-1) | Saturday
A shortage in numbers forced the Bombers to cancel their Week 3 game against Jackson-Milton and they'll still have a small number (likely 14) on hand when they travel to Spire Saturday to take on the Heralds, putting a premium on health. Chase Eye and Lucas Churchill have formed a dominant duo for Windham, which has plenty of pop on offense (23.5 points per game) but yielded 40 points in each of its first two games. St. John's offense finally got going last week after the Heralds were shut out in their first two games, with Vinnie Narducci tallying three first-half touchdowns.
This article originally appeared on Record-Courier: Portage County Week 4 football previews
