MCDONALD OVERWHELMS THE ROCKETS
By Eric Hughes
LOWELLVILLE OH- McDonald defeated Lowellville, 42-14, in their third consecutive win.
The Blue Devils started fast with a 6-yd TD run by Casey Miller. James Hipple made the PAT to give McDonald an early 7-0 lead. The Rockets first drive ended in an interception by Casey Miller, but Josh Pazel was able to intercept McDonald at the goal line to stall the Blue Devils offense momentarily.
Casey Miller intercepted another pass the following drive, which set up a 3-yd TD run by Tobias Domitrovich to give McDonald a 14-0 lead with 8:05 left in the first half. McDonald pushed their lead to 21-0 before halftime thanks to a 60-yd TD run by Jayden Taylor and another PAT from Hipple.
Lowellville scored their first points halfway through the third quarter with a jump pass from RB Geno Perry to TE AJ Boehlke to cut the deficit to 21-6. The two-point attempt was no good. Jayden Taylor found the end zone again on McDonald’s next drive from six yards out to push McDonald’s lead to 28-6.
McDonald kept their foot on the gas to start the fourth quarter, as Drew Zajack scored a 2-yd touchdown to help push the lead to 35-6. Ricky Wilrich threw a 43-yd touchdown pass to Josh Pazel halfway through the fourth quarter to cut the deficit to 35-14. Jayden Taylor delivered the knockout blow on McDonald’s next drive with his third rushing touchdown of the night.
Casey Miller capped off his dominant two-way performance with a forced fumble on Lowellville’s last drive. The Rockets recovered the fumble, but McDonald’s defense got the stop they needed to ice the game.
McDonald improves to 5-2 on the season and will travel to Campbell next Friday in a battle of the Blue and Red Devils, while Lowellville falls to 4-3 and will take on Jackson-Milton next week in the final game of their three-game road trip.