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Game of the Millennium October 2, 1999 by Dick Ross |
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Mount Union Football comes to Cleveland once a year, either to Berea (B-W) or University Heights; the one time each year that my trip is shorter than the players, coaches and fans coming from Alliance. While John Carroll, in "the Heights," is a short and easy trip, in miles, from my home in Westlake, it tends to be a journey through time, for me, going back to the East Side, where I grew up. Heading east on the Shoreway we pass Downtown and the new Cleveland Browns Stadium on the site where the old Municipal Stadium stood for 60 years; the site of many memories. In 1931 Mount Union met John Carroll on this site: Carroll won 13-0 and No, I wasn't around for that one! Although there are many bright new buildings along the way, Captain Frank's is gone from the East 9th Street Pier and the Steamer "William J. Mather" is now permanently moored to the quay, as a Museum. From Muni Light to the C. E. I. plant the Lake is a gray blue, with a slight chop and a few scattered sail boats.
Exiting at East 152nd, the
road passes up and over the yard throat of the Collinwood Yards. The Collinwood
Shops of the old New York Central once employed thousands here in railroading, and the
maintenance, building and rebuilding of steam and electric locomotives, in the huge
roundhouse and the A few blocks further, is the
intersection known as "Five Points," dominated by Collinwood High School, home
of the "Railroaders" and Alma Mater of college roommate Jack Yoder. Taking
the "soft" left, to Ivanhoe, which becomes Belvoir Blvd., as we climb into the
East Cleveland, we pass near Shaw High, the "Old School" of E. Karl Schneider,
another "roomie" who is now a Trustee of the College. Further along the
Boulevard enters the South Euclid-Lyndhurst District, home of Brush High "Arcs"
and site of Carroll's last victory over Mount, in 1989, 31-7. Further up the hill we
skirt the edge of my old neighborhood, in Cleveland Heights. John Carroll played
their home games at our field, on the corner of Cedar and Lee, during my years at Heights
High. With a bus pass, about a dollar in cash and nothing else to do on a Saturday,
I remember attending one of those games during the early sixties, but I couldn't tell you
the opponent or the score. Walking up Belvoir the first building we come to is the "Don Shula Sports Complex." A painting in the lobby portrays Shula as a Carroll player, as Coach of the Baltimore Colts and his days on the Miami Dolphins sidelines, surprisingly his years as a Browns and Colts player were not included. Among other famous Carroll Alums is Tim Russert of NBC's "Meet the Press." The entrance to Wasmer Field
is a very nice Tudor archway in the middle of a pair of modern dormitories. You'd
think that the ticket booths would be in the gateway and that the field would be directly
beyond, but instead the "Balsam Artificial Turf" field is up the hill to the
right, and the ticket booth is a plywood shack. The real entrance to the stadium is
a hole in the fence shared by all "fans" and both teams - the source of some
troubles, in the past. The home stands at JCU are high rise steel angle iron, with
wooden seats. The only rest rooms are in a brick building under the home stands; the
very limited visitors seating, across the way, is also of wood and steel construction. For two teams who have played each other regularly only since 1989, the rivalry is amazing and can only be described as "Intense Dislike." Mount is 9-1-1 in the recent series including the 1989 loss, a 1991 tie, and one post season game in 1997. Last fall "Tony" DeCarlo stepped down after 12 seasons as a head coach to devote full time to his position as athletic director. The new coach of the Blue Streaks is Regis Scafe whose coaching career included seven years as an assistant under DeCarlo, and four years as head coach at CWRU. At least two of his graduate assistants have names familiar to Raider fans: Sean Gorius, brother of Ryan Gorius, running back on Mount's three most recent championship teams and Nick Caserio, JCU quarterback for the last several seasons. In spite of the intense rivalry, this week's "T" shirt contest had much more class than Ohio Northern's orange shirts of last Saturday. Mount's cheerleaders were selling shirts which read: "The Streaks are Purple - Not Blue" listing Mount's championships and "Streaks." JCU's shirts had representations of both team's helmets and "MUC vs. JCU: The Game of the Millennium." They hadn't even guessed the half of it, when they were screening those shirts!
John Carroll took the opening kickoff and ran the field in convincing style, #21 TB Bobby Kraft of Milwaukee dove the final yard of a seven-play 68-yard drive to open the scoring. For the rest of the afternoon the two teams went toe to toe like heavyweight fighters, never separated by more than a touchdown. Mount's first drive sputtered after 33 yards and Carroll held the ball temporarily until # 19 QB Tom Arth, "Frosh" from Westlake/St Ignatius, fumbled. After the ball was kicked or touched by half the men on the field Mount's # 49 Jr. LB Jesse Pearson of Columbus/Troy hauled it in and rumbled 33 yards for a TD. Last week Pearson became the first defenseman in Raider history to score in two consecutive games: this week he extended his personal streak to three. "Conversion" by # 1 Soph. Rodney Chenos of Galloway, Ohio, tied the score at seven. With the wind behind him, # 19
Sr. Brandon Bakos of North Royalton was able to contain Carroll's awesome kick returners
by regularly putting the ball deep in the end zone. JCU's next possession was a
"three and out" and Mount was able to capitalize with runs by # 31 Soph. RB Dan
Pugh of Norwalk and catches by # 10 Chuck Moore, Soph. RB from Mogadore, and # 9 Sr. Nate
Chester of North Canton. Dan's personal cheering section, led by his sister, was
directly in front of me; I wasn't quite sure if they were "woofing" or yelling:
"Pugh," "Pugh," "Pugh." I'll ask next week! The
drive ran out of steam and downs at the 25-yard line but Chenos was able to put a
"wind assisted" three pointer through the uprights with three seconds left in
the quarter. With the wind now behind the
gold topped "Streaks," the next kickoff was run back to the Mount 30. The
saving tackle by the kicker Bakos postponed the Carroll TD by one play, Mount's lead held
only 23 seconds: 21-17 JCU, with 5:58 to play. After an unusual exchange of punts
the "good guys," put on a nine-play 85-yard drive, using the clock, moving the
sticks and dipping into the Kehres "bag of tricks" with a reverse to # 2,
Jr. Adam Marino of Cuyahoga Falls, finishing up with a two-yard TD run by Chuck
Moore. This put the Raiders up by three, again, and left only 36 seconds remaining
in the half. This is the point where Ohio Northern "took a knee" last week
to end the half - not these guys. Starting on their own 27, after a defensive
bouncing Bakos kick off, the Streakers used three plays, including a "flea
flicker" off of a reverse, to move to their own 44 with one-point-something seconds
left. Carroll QB Tom Arth took the snap, ran left, then right, then wound up and
threw a REAL "Hail Mary" to the right corner of the end zone. At least
eight players, from both teams, surrounded the ball, it bounced above them once, then
twice, then Larry Holmes, of Cleveland/St. Edward, # 85 in Blue, came down with the ball,
well after time expired. This time Mount's lead lasted for 36 seconds and it was the
home team going into the locker room with a four point lead. The third quarter turned into
a defensive slugfest. Mount's best drive so far ran out of downs on the JCU
two-yard line, with six minutes left. Carroll made it only to their own 11 before
they punted back. Ominously it began to cloud up and get cooler as Mount stalled,
but hit "restart" with a fake punt, taken by #3 Soph. DB Todd Smargiasso of New
Wilmintgon, Pa. Todd entered his name on the "all time" rushing list with
one carry of 17 yards and a first down, while Rod Chenos got himself an Emmy nomination
leaping high in the air for the nonexistent high snap. Unfortunately, the offense
ran out of downs, on the 11 and Chenos was called out, again, for a 28-yard field goal,
which narrowed the margin to one.
This time the Mount Union lead held for 39 seconds: a kick off, and two plays later # 24 WR Jeff Lerner, a Soph. from North Olmsted/St Ignatius pulled in a TD pass from Arth. This time the Streaks went for the "killer" two pointer and failed. JCU 34, MUC 33. The John Carroll lead then held for 38 seconds. After a long afternoon of hitting the middle of the line for short gainers Chuck Moore broke one around left end and came down the near sidelines on a 66-yard-TD run. This time the two pointer was successful to Marino, putting the teams back into scoring synch, a fact which was to extend the afternoon, considerably. MUC 41, JCU 34. This time our guys held the
lead for almost ten minutes, before their Larry Holmes out jumped a defender, again, to
polish off an 82-yard drive, tying the score at 41, with 59 seconds left. This time
it looked like the Blue team might have scored to soon. Mount moved the ball from
their own 20 to the JCU six in seven plays using only 48 seconds, but a couple of
uncharacteristic "miscues": a sideline pass to the left and a squandered
timeout, placed the ball on the left hash mark with 11 seconds to go, and no time outs.
Even though there were downs remaining, the guys in white had to kick it now, as
any kind of problem with a scrimmage play might end the game without the opportunity to do
so. The "spot" was a right footed kicker's worst nightmare: close in, left
side and into a cross wind coming from the front and left side. The spot was good;
the hold was good; the kick was strong and looked good, till it twanged off the right
upright and back onto the field of play. The Mount side groaned; the Carroll side
went nuts and the Carroll offense came out to "take a knee" and initiate what, I
believe, was the first overtime for either side. As far as I'm concerned, a regular season game should have ended at this point, as it had in two previous ties between the schools. With the expanded playoffs, and a formalized coaches poll why risk injury to these student athletes, after they have already given their all? Both teams had played their hearts out and both teams deserved a victory, or at least a share of one, but I don't make the rules.
Overtime in NCAA football consists of "periods" where each team gets the ball on the opponents 25-yard line, with four downs and the opportunity to make first downs and any normal scoring play, in the regular fashion. In today's game both teams used the East end of the field on all possessions. Just as the teams regrouped
and took the field a colder wind hit us from behind, in the South stands. Mount had
to go first, in the first overtime. The clock was "dark" and the
"period" light read "5" I didn't know that they could do that!
Mount ran four plays and gained one yard. Chenos came out, with the wind behind him,
and made a 43 yarder, for three points. MUC 44, JCU 41. John Carroll now had
the chance to meet or beat us. They made one first down, but the Purple
"D" held. Their # 3 Sr. David "the Toe" Vitatoe of Cuyahoga
Falls/Walsh Jesuit split the same uprights for his three. For the second overtime the
Streaks went first, and struck quickly. On the second play, after much running
around, Arth found Larry Holmes for a third time, standing in the left corner of the end
zone. The Raider defender apparently lost track of him, with the growing crowd
pressing in towards the end line down there. Vitatoe added the one-point conversion.
It was now up to the Raiders to meet or beat the new total. The Raider
offense worked methodically, no need to hurry now. Four plays; one first down later,
Chuck Moore scored his third TD of the day and Chenos added his point to retie the score. The announcement was made that beginning with this period, teams would now be required to go for a two-point conversion, to increase the chances of a "death blow." It was now Mount's turn to go
first: how long could this go on? Wasmer Field has no lights and, with the later
start, it would start to get dark soon. Mount took three plays to go the 25 yards.
Smeck found # 81 Adam "Big Red" Irgang in what had been Larry Holmes'
corner of the end zone, for six. On the two-point conversion, Adam Marino was
knocked flat, and Smeck's pass fell incomplete. Marino lay on his back, still, on
the turf for what seemed like forever. The Trainers were called and finally, he was
helped to his feet Was history on our side? Irgang was the guy whose TD beat Carroll last year, in Alliance.
First Down: Incomplete. Exaltation and exhaustion - the Mount players and students surrounding the end zone pour onto the field, but not to tear down the goal posts - everyone wants to hug one of the guys on the field. What an ending. What a relief: Times Square: "War Ends" No one on either side wants to leave. After the teams line up and exchange hand slaps, almost every player on both sides is surrounded by a knot of family, friends and fans. Up in the booth, they are already calling it "the greatest game in the history of Ohio College Football." Certainly in the history of OAC football, if not in all of Division 3. Oddly, bitter rivals united in a sort of hostage psychology. 108 total points; 1,120 total yards; 14 touchdowns: four field goals; records, statistics and "personal bests" that it will take the rest of the week to evaluate. Win number 46 in a row, the
toughest one of them all. The good news is that even though it's only week #4, the win should virtually assure us of another OAC "Crown," a playoff berth, with home field advantage and a first round "bye." The bad news is that Carroll QB Tom Arth is only a Freshman and that we will, most likely, be seeing this team again, in late November, or early December. Next week: Heidelberg
"under the lights" at Tiffin Columbian Stadium 7:30 P.M. kickoff. Sorry
for the length of this week's letter - the game took 3 1/2 hours. Next week's should
be much shorter.
Dick Ross
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Towards East 55th Street the Nicholson Terminal Building, which once received automobiles
from Detroit by boat, is now an empty skeleton, pending redevelopment. The scheduled
opening date is long since past. Past East 72nd Street "Liberty Boulevard"
is now "Martin Luther King" and has been for more than a generation. The
"Cultural Gardens" have been restored, but very few, of the original Sycamores
remain. Each tree had been planted with a brass plate commemorating a casualty of
"The Great War."
Today is Homecoming for the "Blue Streaks," cooking fires are burning at several
locations around campus, many of the booths and activities are similar to the ones we saw
last week, except for the beer tent on the tennis courts, west of the Stadium. The
Blue Streaks took the field wearing Notre Dame style gold helmets, gold trousers and blue
jerseys with white numerals. The Raiders arrived wearing purple pants and road white
jerseys with purple numbers. The teams were kept carefully separated to prevent a
recurrence of the pre-kickoff brawl which preceded the last meeting in Cleveland, in 1996.
Scoring resumed, in earnest, in the fourth quarter. Mount opened the period with a
five-play 35-yard drive, with runs by Moore and a reception by # 88 Jr. Rob Sondles of
Wadsworth. Dan Pugh went spinning for the final nine yards to put the purple and
white guys up by five. Following the dictates of coaching, Coach Kehres called for
the two-point play, but was seen frantically attempting to call "Time" when he
saw something in the opposing alignment. The Smeck to Marino conversion was
unsuccessful. MUC 33, JCU 28.
Carroll came out, Arth under center. On each play he seemed to have an eternity to
pass - our line never caught him all day.