Central, McComb earn Division II, VI victories

Central Catholic's Keith Trowbridge (89) runs the ball against Avon defenders Zack Torbert (19), Cory Ohradzansky (30) and Kevin Maloney (47) during a Division II regional final football game in Clyde, Ohio. Central Catholic won 42-14.

Irish roll in 42-14 win

CLYDE -- The Central Catholic football juggernaut kept right on rolling Friday night, using three touchdowns in the final 3:33 of the first half to break things open and pave the way to a 42-14 victory over Avon in the Region 6 championship game at Clyde’s Robert Bishop Stadium.

“I’ve had the pleasure of doing this before [during 2005 D-II championship run], so to see these kids do it is just phenomenal,” Irish coach Greg Dempsey said of Central’s first advancement to a state semifinal in seven years. “They’re playing great. Monday through Thursday, this is how they practice, and they’re really locked in. It shows up on Friday night. They’re just a great group of kids.”

The Irish will face fifth-ranked Aurora (12-1) in a D-II semifinal Friday at 7:30 p.m. at a site to be determined. Read more...

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Panthers roar back, earn win

FINDLAY — The mag­i­cal sea­son con­tin­ues for No. 1 McComb.The un­de­feated Pan­thers over­came a 14-point fourth quar­ter def­i­cit to Del­p­hos St. John's and scored a 28-21 vic­tory in a Divi­sion VI re­gional fi­nal Fri­day night at Don­nell Sta­dium.

McComb, which trailed 21-7 early in the fourth quar­ter, scored 21 un­an­swered points dur­ing the fi­nal 10 min­utes to earn a place in the state semi­fi­nals. The Pan­thers will face Mar­ion Lo­cal, which de­feated St. Henry 28-21 in a re­gional fi­nal.

"We were down and we came back," said McComb run­ning back Jerry Brown, who rushed for 63 yards on 22 car­ries and scored the Pan­thers' fi­nal two touch­downs on runs of four and two yards, re­spec­tively. Read more...

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