Those types of quality team accomplishments are not achieved without top-notch individual players.

Those players from both Ravenna and Kent Roosevelt were recognized on Monday when the Division II All-Ohio teams were released.

Leading the way on the All-Ohio First Team were Kent Roosevelt junior offensive lineman Ryan Anderson (6-foot-4, 300 pounds), senior quarterback Evan Shimensky (5-11, 180), along with Ravenna senior Stephen Wilmington (6-0, 190). Wilmington was a two-way star for Ravenna. He did a little bit of everything and did it at the highest standard.

Defensively, Wilmington was a defensive back and on offense he was a running back, but also took snaps as quarterback. He was named the PTC Metro Division Player of the Year.

Meanwhile, Shimensky was named the PTC Metro Division Offensive Player of the Year.

Additionally, Ravenna junior D.J. Jones and senior Greydon Pavlik, along with Kent Roosevelt senior Joey Bradley also made the All-Ohio team as Special Mention selections.

Original article can be found at: http://www.recordpub.com/news/sports_article/4939683?page=0

The Ravens (3-2, 2-0 Metro) ran for 415 yards on the ground, with junior D.J. Jones going for 297 yards on 21 carries with two touchdowns. He has now rushed for 716 yards in the past three games alone.

Stephen Wilmington was no slouch himself, gaining 103 yards on seven carries and scoring three touchdowns.

Ravenna coach Jim Lunardi credited his offensive line with the big numbers on the ground.

“With Greydon Pavlik at center, Nick Winn and (Ricardo) Meija at the guards and Matt Benson and Auston Reaser at tackles, we have put some big numbers up the last three weeks,” said Lunardi. “It all starts with the line, and these guys do an outstanding job.” The Ravens defense was also solid, intercepting two passes and recovering one fumble.

“This was a meeting of two teams that have similar types of kids,” said Lunardi. “I told our players that, with Southeast moving over to the County Division next season, we might not play them for a long time. We had to make this game a memorable one.”

The game opened quickly in Ravenna’s favor with an interception, and the Ravens jumped out to a 13-0 lead. Southeast could have had the early lead if not for the hand of fate.

The Pirates (3-2, 1-1) received the opening kickoff. On the first play, quarterback Noah Kainrad found Nick DeJacimo open on a 15-yard hook play.

DeJacimo spun to the outside, broke a tackle and raced to the Ravenna 10-yard line.

A holding penalty moved the ball back to the 18. From there Kainrad tried another pass in the right flat, but the ball was tipped and Brandon Holt intercepted the pass. It was a big bullet that the Ravens dodged.

Four plays later, Wilmington outraced the Southeast defense for a 75-yard touchdown, and Trevor Stankavich made the PAT for a 7-0 lead.

Ravenna then held the Pirates and forced a punt. Nine plays later, after Jones and Wilmington each broke off big gains, Deiondre Mack burst into the end zone from the 3. The kick failed, but the Ravens still led 13-0.

Ravenna and Southeast then traded punts twice. After the second punt by the Pirates, the Ravens return man fumbled the ball at the Ravenna 42 and Eric Stone recovered for Southeast.

It took 13 plays, including two pass completions for 21 yards, for the Pirates to get on the scoreboard as Sean Stone scored from the 1. Gregg Miller made the PAT to cut the lead to 13-7.

“That interception was a big play for the Ravens,” said Southeast coach Steve Sigworth. “The air went right out of our confidence. Yet I have to credit our kids with not quitting. We came back and scored.”

Following the Pirates score, the Ravens stayed on the ground on the ensuing drive, with Jones ripping off gains of 31, 15 and eight yards. Jones finally scored from the 5, then ran for the 2-point conversion to give Ravenna a 21-7 advantage.

The Ravens added two touchdowns in the third period to expand the lead to 35-7.

An alert play by Wilmington on the opening drive after halftime created the first score. Holt threw a pass to Wilmington in the right flat. It was low, and a Southeast defender tipped the ball. Wilmington caught it on the sideline and sprinted to the goal line, breaking four tackles on the way for a 41-yard tally.

Wilmington added another score on the next possession.

“They put a better product out on the field tonight,” said Sigworth. “They were bigger and they were able to run through tackles. They executed better and made fewer mistakes. When you do that, it’s generally going to be a long night for the other team.”

In the final period, Jones made a spectacular 75-yard run to the 5 before Southeast defender Ravonne Lawrence made up five yards and brought him down from behind.

“That was a typical effort by our kids, proving that they never quit,” said Sigworth.

Original article can be found at: http://recordpub.com/news/sports_article/4900950

Just days after peppering the All-Metro Division team, the Ravens placed six on the All-District team led by First-Team selection Parnell Taylor.

Taylor was the team’s leading rusher, finishing with 1,393 yards rushing and 17 touchdowns.

Another pair of Ravens joined Taylor on the All-District First Team, with Greydon Pavlik earning a spot on the offensive line and Dan McCoy on the defensive line.

Pavlik helped create the holes for Ravenna’s backfield, which powered the team’s offense that averaged 31.3 points per game.

Meanwhile, McCoy was the anchor to the Ravens’ defense that allowed only 12.4 points per game and owned five shutouts during the regular season.

Two other Ravens were named to the Second Team All-District, with quarterback Zach Thomas and offensive lineman Matt Benson earning the spots.

Meanwhile, linebacker Deiondre Mack and receiver Colton Collage  were the final Ravens to make the All-District team as an Honorable Mention selection.

As for the champions of the PTC County Division, both the Wildcats and Bulldogs were well-represented in their respective divisions.

A quartet of Mogadore standouts were named to the Division VI First Team All-District. The group includes offensive lineman Kevin Pollock, wide receiver Matt Traugh, running back Jake McAvinew and linebacker Kodey Chance.

McAvinew was a part of a two-headed monster for the Wildcats on the ground, along with Chance. McAvinew finished with 1,024 yards and scored 10 touchdowns, while averaging a staggering eight yards per rush.

Also gaining Honorable Mention All-District from Mogadore was linebacker Zach Glagola, along with defensive lineman Andrew Monea and kicker Alex Roebken.

For Woodridge, the 2009 season was a special one because it was the best the school has ever seen.

The team won its first-ever league title and qualified for the state playoffs for the first time ever.

They are currently the only PTC team still alive in the postseason and will take on No. 1-seeded Chagrin Falls tonight at Twinsburg High School at 7 p.m.

The Bulldogs had four players land on the Division IV All-District First Team, led by offensive standouts Anthony Kelly and Anthony Westren.

Kelly and Westren are now the proud owners of practically all of the school’s offensive records, with Kelly finishing the year with 1,648 yards rushing this season on 191 carries, while he also scored 19 touchdowns.

For Westren, the season finished with him completing 135-of-218 passes for 2,353 yards and passing for 29 touchdowns against only six interceptions.

Westren’s favorite target, wide receiver Brandyn Peters, was also named First Team All-District. Peters hauled in 41 passes this year for 798 yards and reached the end zone 11 times.

The fourth Bulldog player to earn First Team All-District was linebacker David Charles. Charles was named the PTC County Division Player of the Year after raking down 117 tackles this year, along with four sacks and 21 tackles for a loss.

Woodridge also placed Cameron Hilling, Brennan Owens and A.J. Graham on the Honorable Mention team in Division IV.

For the team’s best season ever, head coach Eric Ervin was named the Division IV Coach of the Year. The 2009 season was Ervin’s fifth at Woodridge and his career record now stands at 29-33.

In Division II, the Kent Roosevelt Rough Riders placed four standouts on the All-District team, with offensive lineman Ryan Anderson, quarterback Evan Shimensky and linebacker Marcus Rogers all earning First Team.

On the Division II Second Team was linebacker Marcus Wright for the Riders.

The long list of other PTC players named to the All-District team includes (see the complete Northeast Inland All-District team to the right of this story):

Division VI

Windham — Running back Allen Blake (Honorable Mention)

Division V

Rootstown — Linebacker Jon Park (First Team), kicker Scott Kearley (First Team) and running back Tyler Williams (Honorable Mention)

Division IV

Garfield — Linebacker Brent Marshall (First Team), defensive linemen Mike Haehner (Honorable Mention) and running back Bobby Bright (Honorable Mention).

Division III

Field — Offensive lineman Jim Cercek (First Team), linebacker Mike Boosinger (First Team), kicker Aaron Polasky (Second Team) and defensive lineman Zach Moore (Honorable Mention)

Southeast — Punter Anthony Pennington (Second Team) and linebacker Sean Stone (Honorable Mention).

Streetsboro — Offensive lineman Jason Cook (Second Team), wide receiver Steve Magic (Second Team), linebacker Brandon Gency (Honorable Mention) and offensive lineman Nate Mountain (Honorable Mention).

Crestwood — Running back Dakota Long (Honorable Mention).

Original Article can be found at: http://recordpub.com/news/sports_article/4715447

That might be an exaggeration, but high school football fans in Ravenna are still raving about Davis’ performance last Friday when the talented running back broke a school record that had stood for 59 years by scoring seven touchdowns in a 52-34 victory over Southeast.

Davis, a 5-11, 180-pound senior, finished the game with 356 yards rushing on 21 carries. That means he scored a touchdown every third carry and gained 16.9 yards on every attempt.

“It was amazing,” said Ravenna coach Jim Lunardi, whose team improved to 4-1 overall and 2-0 in the Portage Trail Conference’s Metro Division with the victory. “They had no answer for him.”

Like all smart running backs, Davis credited his offensive line of tackles Jake Bell and Dan McCoy, guards Chris Hudson, Greydon Pavlik and Chad Groves, and center John Boettler.

“They just kept opening up holes, play after play,” said Davis, who now has rushed for 737 yards and 12 touchdowns on 102 carries. “This was a team record. I can’t take all the credit.”

The seven touchdowns broke the old record of five, set by Bob Loftin in 1949 and equaled by Sonny Ray Jones in 1987.

Davis, who rushed for 1,010 yards and nine touchdowns last season, missed tying the school rushing record, also held by Jones, by 89 yards. Double doses: Quarterback Michael Mosley, wide receiver Mikey Bickley and a pair of triple-digit rushing performances sparked Akron East to a surprising 38-21 victory over Firestone in the City Series. Mosley, a 5-11 senior, threw four touchdown passes. Bickley, a 6-0, 170-pound sophomore, caught three of those covering 8, 39 and 55 yards. Senior Lonnie Wilborn rushed for 219 yards on nine carries, and senior Jackie Adams had 129 yards, also on nine carries. Black Tigers roar: Jackson Jones caught touchdown passes of 12 and 19 yards from Dylon Leymon, and junior Chris Shaffer made the play that turned the game with a 92-yard kickoff return to lead Cuyahoga Falls to its first victory of the season with a 28-20 win over North Royalton. Cuyahoga Falls, under first-year coach Mike Miller, had a 14-0 lead when North Royalton got itself into the game with a long scoring drive. That’s when Shaffer got into the act with his decisive return. The victory gave the team a fresh look at the second half of the season.

“That’s what we stressed all week before the game,” said Miller, who inherited a team that was 2-8 last year. “The kids knew we had played a pretty good nonleague schedule and that it was important for us to get the league schedule off on the right track. We told them everybody was 0-0.”

Original article can be found at: http://www.cleveland.com/hssports/index.ssf/2008/09/summitportage_ravenna_back_wow.html

Tough to question the Rockets’ strategy, what with the night the Ravens tailback was having.

Davis ran for 141 yards and a touchdown, caught a pass for 17 yards, threw for a touchdown and set up another with a 56-yard run. That was just in the second quarter of Ravenna’s 34-7 nonleague victory over host Streetsboro at Glinatsis Stadium.

“I’m just a little bit happy for a win,” said a tired Davis, who also went nearly the entire way at linebacker. “It was really important to stick it to these guys. Last week [in a season-opening loss to Louisville], we didn’t play too well.”

Davis added a pair of second-half touchdown runs and finished with 245 yards and three touchdowns on 28 carries.

Davis worked out of the I-formation, out of the shotgun, split outside. When Davis didn’t run the ball, the Rockets (1-1) chased him anyway.

Play-fakes to the tailback led to sizable gains for quarterback Zach Thomas (59 rushing yards, one touchdown; 68 passing yards), be they on keepers or through the air.

“His presence on the field, if I’m the defensive coordinator at an opposing school, I’ve got to know where he’s at,” Ravens coach Jim Lunardi said. “We never line him up at the same spot.”

Davis got a lot of help from his offensive line. Seniors Jake Bell, Josh Boettler, Chad Groves and Chris Hudson, and junior Dan McCoy, overwhelmed their Streetsboro counterparts all night.

“A lot of due needs to go to those five guys,” Lunardi said. “Blayre Davis is a talented kid … but those five guys had to open up holes.”

On defense, Ravenna’s McCoy, Hudson, senior Anthony Witherspoon, senior Darnell Howard and sophomore Greydon Pavlik kept the Rockets from going anywhere.

“The guys up front played well,” Lunardi said. “I couldn’t be any more proud.”

The teams played a scoreless first quarter, but Ravenna (1-1) dominated from that point. Davis ripped off a 56-yard run on the first play of the second quarter, setting up a 1-yard TD plunge by Thomas.

After a Parnell Taylor interception on the Rockets’ next play gave the Ravens the ball near midfield, Davis broke off a 35-yard sprint. He followed that by lofting a 22-yard TD pass to a wide-open Jamiran Mack after the entire Streetsboro defense bit on what looked like a sweep.

Davis finished his prolific quarter with a 1-yard scoring run. By halftime, he had more than 240 yards of total offense. The Rockets had 52.

The Rockets’ lone touchdown came on a 4-yard pass from Carrington Hanna to Cory Lanterman midway through the third quarter.

Original Article can be found at: http://highschoolsports.cleveland.com/game/news/152334/article/19742/