No. 15 Medina scores early, finishes strong in 38-0 domination of No. 22 Strongsville

MEDINA, Ohio – In a game between two Division I playoff hopefuls, Medina scored early and never looked back in a 38-0 home win over Strongsville in a Greater Cleveland Conference matchup Friday night.

With the calendar reading October, Medina (5-2, 2-2 Greater Cleveland) reached into its bag of tricks on its first play from scrimmage with a double pass. Quarterback Ryan Gillespie threw laterally to his right to Kyle Maruna, who then fired downfield to Nick Yanky. The play resulted in a 70-yard touchdown and gave Medina the lead it never relinquished.

Backup quarterback Drew Allar entered the game in the second quarter for the Bees and scored on an 11-yard keeper to make it 17-0 at halftime.

“I saw the outside linebacker on the right go out,” Allar said. “Our center and guard did a really good job of blocking and I had a hole to run through.”

Medina, ranked No. 15 in the cleveland.com top-25, put the game away in the third quarter. Allar completed seven of his nine attempts for 179 yards and three touchdowns in the quarter, with scores of 57 yards and nine yards to Jacob Nanosky sandwiched around a 50-yard score to Jacob Kasmarcak.

“We all came out and we knew we had to execute,” Allar said. “The offensive line did their job to give me time to throw to receivers and the receivers made things happen after the catch.”

Allar finished 11-of-16 for 233 yards and the three touchdowns, along with the rushing touchdown. Nanosky led the receiving corps with eight catches for 182 yards and two scores.

“The big thing is you have to have the trigger men to run this offense and we are lucky enough to have three of them,” Medina coach Larry Laird said. “Drew stepped in and did what we expect Drew Allar to do.”

Medina’s defense flustered Strongsville. Running back Garret Clark entered with 1,134 yards rushing but was held under 100 on this night. When they weren’t stopping the running game, the Bees were in the backfield dragging down the quarterback.

“The big thing is we got hats to the ball,” Laird said. “Our guys knew that their offense runs through Clark and our kids did a great job. We were getting four or five hats to the ball almost every play.”

The win bolsters the playoff resume for Medina, who entered the week at No.10 in Division I, Region 1, with the top eight teams in each region making the playoffs.

“Like I told our kids, every game is a playoff game from here on out,” Laird said. “We have already started the playoffs. We need to win pretty much every week.”

As for Strongsville (4-3, 1-3), the Mustangs will have some work to do. They entered ranked No.12 in Division I, Region 1.

Next week, Medina will go on the road to face Solon, while Strongsville returns home to face Elyria. Both games are Friday, Oct. 18 at 7 p.m.

Ryan Isley is a freelancer from Akron.