CANFIELD HITS CRUISE CONTROL AGAINST BULLDOGS
By Matt Maher
CANFIELD, OH – Another season, another installment of the Battle of 224 this time it was Canfield’s turn to host Poland and boy did these two teams bring their A game. Canfield saw a well balanced offense with two players reaching double digits and Poland played well in the paint allowing three players to score 10 or more. Thursday night brought a fun matchup and the rivalry game ended with a 58-47 victory for the Cardinals.
Both teams came out with a fast start with Poland winning the tip and scoring first but Canfield responded immediately after and set the tone of both teams staying on top of each other and matching each other for the bulk of the night. Poland had two scorers on the night in Todd and McCully who both put up 4 points each. Canfield saw 15 points as a team including a three from Castarnova and two and-1’s from Castarnova and DeLisio.
Canfield kept up the pressure and managed to outscore the Bulldogs 19-15 in the second frame. Poland saw Todd add 3 more points from beyond the arc and McCully added 4 more points to his total. Tukalo would score his first 5 of the night and Hayes would put up a bucket and 1. Weaver would lead his team this quarter with 7 points and DeLisio would follow with 4.
Halftime came and went and Poland showed heart, putting up 17 points to Canfields 12. Poland would put up the first 4 points of the quarter before Canfield would get their response but offensive rebounds helped Poland in a big way. The Bulldogs saw Todd and Nittoli both score 6 points and Tukalo would find 3 from beyond the arc. Canfield saw Cruz join the party with 6 points and McCune and Russo both shot impressive 3’s.
While Poland had momentum in the 3rd it would be Canfield who made necessary tweaks and would walk away with 12 points to Polands 7. The Bulldogs saw Tukalo add 4 more points and Nittoli got the other 3 with a made free throw and a 2. Canfield had Castarnova put in 4 and their other four scores each put in 2.
The cardinals may have come in with the lesser record but the way they played they looked like a team that could be undefeated with 7 or more points for 5 players including 10 for Russo and 13 for Castarnova. Poland turned the ball over a ton in this one and as a result didn’t see the ball as much in the offensive zone as they should have but when they did they got it to either McCully who scored 10, Tukalo who scored 12 or Todd who put up 13 points.
The Bulldogs move to 6-2 while Canfield improves to 5-2. The Bulldogs won’t play again until 2024 when they host South range on January 5th at 7:00PM while Canfield has one final matchup in the calendar year when they travel to West Branch on December 30th at 7:00PM.
