Twinsburg football endures tough season finale at Wadsworth

It has been a challenging fall for the Twinsburg football team and a robust schedule has not helped.

The season came to a close Friday as underrated Wadsworth posted a 47-7 win in the regular season finale and in a Suburban League National Conference game at Art Wright Stadium.

The Grizzlies, who showed their potential earlier this year by handing league champion Stow-Munroe Falls a 21-20 loss, made plays on defense and on special teams to go with a diverse offense.

Head coach Mike Bell saw his club finish 1-9 overall and 0-6 in the league while Wadsworth (3-7) ended with a pair of league wins in 2021.

“I think Wadsworth is in the same boat as we are in that some of the teams in the league have to deal with a grind of a schedule,” said Bell.

A similar trend happened for the Tigers on the road as Bell’s troops got behind early and just couldn’t fight back on the scoreboard as things ballooned out of control.

After a dropped pass forced a punt on the Tiger’s opening drive of the game, Maverick Blackburn blocked a punt that recovered in the end zone by Skyler Kries for the initial touchdown by Wadsworth.

It appeared that Kries may have secured the football while he was beyond the end zone for what would be a safety, but it was ruled a TD and it was 7-0.

Despite a big fourth-down conversion run by Quincy Newsome, Twinsburg punted again on its next drive and Wadsworth responded quickly with a 37-yard pass and then running back Kyle Figuray (14 carries, 90 yards) ran for a three-yard TD.

“We started the game with the blocked punt and then two plays later, Wadsworth scores and it’s 14-0 before a blink of the eye,” pointed out Bell. “It makes it tough to have to play from behind and sometimes do the things you want to do when you get down big so early.”

Having a second straight drive starting in Tiger territory, the Twinsburg defense responded when senior linebacker Joe Bova recovered a fumble at the Tiger 34-yard line that was caused by end Declan Melanchek.

After another Tiger punt, Wadsworth’s ground attack was taking control.

The Grizzlies made it 21-0 at the 11:53 mark of the second quarter when versatile wide out Anthony Cirino had a three-yard rushing touchdown on a jet sweep.

Cirino amassed 230 all-purpose yards in a huge game as he also had a 93-yard kickoff return for a score and an 83-yard catch!

Twinsburg’s senior quarterback Trevor Horvath had a solid outing despite being harassed by a Grizzly defense all night. Horvath was sacked seven times in the first half alone!

Horvath connected with senior wide receiver Griffin Willmott on a 12-yard touchdown pass with 1:54 remaining in the game. Senior Cameron Church booted the extra point.

“That was Griffin’s first varsity touchdown,” said Bell, of Willmott, who has played on defense, special teams, and on offense in his career. “He has come a long way with his development and helped us on both sides.”

For the game, Horvath completed 10 of 18 passes for 170 yards unofficially, with a TD and one interception. The Tigers had several dropped passes in the loss.

After starting 0-for-4, Horvath connected on 10 of his next 14 passes in the contest.

“We gave up a great number of sacks and Trevor has developed the ability to move well around in the pocket, but it makes it tough when defenders are coming from all over,” noted Bell. “Trevor played hard.”

Bell and his staff will miss the senior class and does have some talented underclassmen to look toward next season.

“I have to give our seniors a lot of credit – we challenged them to develop leadership early in the year and they did a great job in that respect,” explained Bell. “What will define them is how they carried themselves as players and as people, and how they treat other people. We will miss them.”

Newsome, a 6-foot-1, 200-pound junior back, has great promise. Unofficially, he had a career-high 30 carries in the game for 102 yards against the Grizzlies.

In addition, sophomore wide receiver Steve Cammack is the club’s leading receiver on the season. At Wadsworth, Cammack had three catches for 70 yards.

Malenchek is a promising two-way end who is 6-foot-6 and 190 pounds. Sophomore Payton Jones also played well on defense and on special teams.

“We have about a dozen or so sophomores and one freshman to go with our juniors, who give us some young talent to be excited about,” said Bell.