OF A COW, BABY POWDER AND WHITE SHIRTS

By Dom DiPasqua/Staff Writer

Saturday afternoon, September 20, 2014

BROADVIEW HEIGHTS – An eight-foot tall tw0-legged cow greeted fans as they entered Community Stadium for last nights Southwestern Conference football game between the Bees and visiting Olmsted Falls. The Chick-Fil-A mascot wandered aimlessly through the gathering crowd. He/she/it didn’t udder a word. Pardon the pun.

Brecksville-Broadview Heights students, all dressed in white for a staged “white-out”, were hesitant to approach the black and white mobile branding gimmick. It looked pretty intimidating. When you pass these things on a street corner they appear friendly and harmless. Up close this one was a skyscraper.

At his customary grilling station Bees head basketball coach Steve Mehalik eye-balled the mum mascot with awe. His wheels were turning. You can never have enough rebounders.

“I went up to it but I walked away because I thought he was going to cow kick me,” said Lady Bees sophomore volleyball player Jessica Toth.

And so the night began.

And it was a beautiful night. Picture-perfect for football or anything else for that matter. “Let’s bottle this weather and save it for a few weeks from now,” said Jeff Black, a member of the Bees football staff.

Kenny Ganley and Ralph DeSantis joined the conversation, which turned quickly from fuzzy creatures to the real reason why over 3,500 people showed up at the Bee Hive on Alumni Night. KG and Ralph were still seething about the Hudson game. We’ll leave it at that.

Strolling The Sideline

Fifth-graders Grant Cozza (two Z’s, never one) and Ian Anderson prepared the Bees game balls for the other two-legged animals that officiated the contest – the zebras. More on them later.

“Why do both bands play the same songs?”, the young Cozza, a veteran ball-boy, asked. His question was a good one and it brought to light the great tradition that endures in the Southwestern Conference.

Both bands take the field for pregame. They salute each other by playing the other schools fight song and then play their own. Both teams remain on the field and play the national anthem. It is always led by the visiting teams band director.

A thought came to mind. Does the Suburban League do the same thing?

The BBHHS student section filled in their rows. “The Swarm” looked like the White Sea. A large container of baby powder was passed around. Handfuls of it were sent skyward when the Bees raced out of the tunnel and toward their sideline. The BBHHS band blared the schools goose-bump inducing fight song.

How do the students all know what to wear? Asked this out-of-touch scribe. “Brandon Halupnik Tweets out what to wear and they all do it,” said sideline photographer Jeannette Weaver whose daughter Maura, a junior, is a star Lady Bees soccer player.

The sun officially set at 7:29 last night, but when it dipped behind the home stands and the school building up on the hill the temperature dropped about ten degrees on the field. However it was still very comfortable. Sweater-weather is what makes September so special in these parts.

New 25-second play clocks were installed in the Bee Hive this August. They weren’t put to good use last night. Both the Bulldogs and the Bees were called for delay-of-game penalties on their respective first plays. That kind of set the tone for a game that felt a tad strange throughout. A photographer from another website mentioned that it was an odd game several times during the contest.

Converting Turnovers Into Touchdowns

Olmsted Falls (1-3, 0-1 SWC) was its own worst enemy in the first half. An errant punt snap on its first possession was recovered by the Bees Joe Mandato. Three plays later Luke Strnad ran in Brecksville’s first touchdown from a yard out.

The evening went along.

Dan “Hacksaw” Hodous, the voice of the Bees, was a bundle of nervous energy. If only there was a bottle of aspirin in the black travel bag along with the six bags of Tootsie Pops.

The BBHHS girls tennis team was introduced on the track during the break between the first and second quarters. They won the SWC championship. Hodous read their names with zeal. The girls smiled and waved to the applauding crowd.

Troy Walter, Brecksville’s senior defensive back who has really emerged and is enjoying a tremendous season, intercepted Bulldog quarterback Aaron Zawadzki. It was Walter’s fourth INT of the campaign. His nose for the ball set up Danny Shirilla’s 12-yard touchdown pass to Tyler Tupa, which gave the hosts a 14-0 lead midway through the second stanza.

Joe Dimitrijevs, the Bees classy senior captain and linebacker, intercepted Zawadzki. That enabled the red and gold to score the third TD of the half when Strnad lofted a 40-yard bomb to Tupa who made an impressive over-the-shoulder catch in the end zone.

“Tyler Tupa!” was the repetitive chant from the students. When the group started chanting, “Start the buses!” I cringed. It was way too early for that.

Intermission Interludes 

With a 21-0 halftime lead things sure felt a heck of a lot better than a week ago when Hudson blasted its was to a 42-0 halftime advantage. The mood was good until I looked up and saw Brecksville senior Jared Schott in a shoulder harness.

Schott, one of the truly nice guys in a program chock-full of them, was shutdown for the night. He came out for the second half in street clothes. Schott made a visit to Cleveland Clinic this morning.

Two years ago, at right around this point in the season, Jared’s older brother Jay suffered a shoulder injury that ended his career. “It’s the Schott senior season curse,” Jared, who remained in a light mood despite the setback, said.

Back To Live Action

The officials, much like they did the previous week, took center stage. The flag-happy group made sure the flow of the game was disrupted at regular intervals.

Two and half minutes into the second half Falls got on the scoreboard when Zawadzki showed his arm strength on a 70-yard scoring pass to All-SWC receiver Kevin Meehan.

On the first play of the fourth frame Tupa grabbed his third scoring pass of the night when Strnad found him in the end zone. With the score 28-7, the game now in the fourth quarter and the Bees at home against a team that was playing with its second string quarterback, it appeared as though Brecksville would cruise to victory.

Barking Until The End

Olmsted Falls had other ideas. Tom DeLuca’s team did not quit. The Bulldogs had every excuse to surrender. That word is not in their creed. They scored their second touchdown when Matt Garrett went up the gut for eight yards. The score was now 28-14.

The Bees (3-1, 1-0 SWC) got sloppy. Josh Underwood’s 22-yard touchdown gallop, which you had to think would salt the game away, was called back by a holding penalty.

Brecksville, behind Underwood, had been moving the ball very well on the ground and chewing up time. For some reason after that penalty the philosophy changed.

The Bees still had a first down and the ball was on the ‘Dogs 28. There was 5:29 remaining in the game and the hosts had a two-touchdown lead. Brecksville went to the air four straight times. Garrett Patterson almost came down with what would have been a miraculous catch in the end zone. On second down “G-Pat” caught a swing pass but that ended up being a three-yard loss. Twice more the call was for Strnad to throw to Patterson. Both passes were incomplete.

Falls took over on downs. The Bulldogs drove 71 yards on eight plays. Zawadzki brought the visitors to within a touchdown at 28-21 on a QB sneak with just under three-minutes remaining.

The Final Act

With an obvious on-side kick coming, the up-until-this-point dormant yellow-clad O-F student cheering section, came to life. Meanwhile the white-clad BBHHS student cheering section had dwindled to about 20 kids. There must have been a sale on fried mushrooms at Swenson’s.

When the sure-handed Troy Walter recovered the onside kick conventional thinking was that this game was over.

But Larry, the photographer from the other website, was right. This was indeed a strange game. There was way too much drama at the end.

Behind Underwood and Strnad the Bees moved the ball on the ground. But on a third and six play Underwood was injured. He came off the field and took a seat on “Trainer Tom” Iannetta’s cart.

On fourth down and six yards to go at the Fall-Dogs 40, Brecksville decided to run for the game-clinching first down rather than punt and bury the Bulldogs deep in their own territory with a half-minute to play.

Tupa was stopped inches short. An official measurement made sure of it. The longer this game went on the stranger it got.

With the clock at 3.2 seconds Zawadzki went back to pass. The ball was thrown to no-mans-land in the middle of the field. Tupa, now playing center field like Kenny Lofton back in the day, came up with the game-ending interception.

A Little About Both Teams

Beeville head coach Jason Black was still perspiring long after the game. A game in which his young team was taught a valuable lesson in how to close out. They had to sweat out the entire second half.

But hats off to the Bulldogs for their fight and never-say-die attitude. Many teams, when on the road and trailing 21-0 at the half, run out the string. Tom DeLuca’s club opted to play football instead. Falls was the more physical team from beginning to end. And the aggressors on both sides of the line of scrimmage.

The Bees had the offensive star power in Tupa, Strnad, Shirilla and Patterson to make it work. Yes, Olmsted Falls committed four turnovers and that cost them the game. But you have to give credit to Brecksville’s defense, which has been opportunistic all season.

Mandato’s fumble recovery on the Dogs botched punt set the tone early. Walter and Dimitrijevs continue to have stellar seasons. And Tupa came up with perhaps the his biggest play on defense on a night where he scored three more touchdowns catching the ball.

Quietly Doing His Job

Lost in the shuffle of all this was the play of Danny Shirilla. Shirilla, a junior captain, has been solid in the Bees secondary since day one last year. As the teams most experienced defender teams throw away from him. He still makes tackles.

Shirilla started the season opener against Holy Name at quarterback. His snap counts at that position have dwindled because of his value on defense and Strnad’s emergence at the QB position. But it was Shirilla’s 12-yard scoring toss to Tupa in the second quarter that caught the Bulldogs off guard.

I was standing at the line of scrimmage on that play with an unobstructed view. When Shirilla came around from the left side and stopped I knew exactly what he was going to do and to whom he was going to throw the ball to. The look on Shirilla’s face at the time was one of sheer determination and focus. It is plays like that which make Shirilla such an asset to the Bees offense. And in the end Brecksville only won by a touchdown. It was the kind of game in which every one of them counted.

“We’re doing what we need to do. We just have to keep rolling,” said senior Evan Baschko, the Bees hulking two-way tackle.

 

BEE HIVE BUZZ:

Through four games Brecksville has tallied 96 points (24 ppg) and has allowed 90 (22.5). They have won three of their first four games. For a team that had to replace 20 of 22 starters that is impressive.

Last nights victory, no matter how close it became at the end, further illustrated the point that you can’t make mistakes against this Beeville team because they will make you pay. This squad has a knack for creating turnovers and capitalizing on them. Its inexperience will turn into experience at some point. But guys that have a nose for the ball and who find away to get things done is what has enabled the club to start the season at 3-1.

The Bees evened their home record at 1-1. They are 2-0 away from the Hive. Meanwhile Olmsted Falls, in the middle of a three-game road trip, slips to 0-2 away from Harding Stadium. They have dropped two straight since shutting out Canton South, 10-0, in week two.

Last nights crowd was fair.

This corner, aside from the team in Joplin, Missouri, has been keeping tabs on the upstart Bay Rockets. Bay went up on Elyria Catholic at Knights of Columbus Stadium in Lorain County last night by a touchdown with 1:20 remaining.

However the Panthers drove and scored a TD and the two-point conversion with 18 seconds to go to claim a 43-42 West Shore Conference victory over the Rockets.

Keep an eye on Bay. It is becoming a good football team. Last night they ran the ball 55 times for 281 yards. They only passed it eight times and two of those attempts were prayers in the final seconds.

Another team on this radar is Hudson. The Explorers, think what you will about them, are the real deal. There were those that thought Brunswick would give Hudson a battle royale last night in the Northeast Ohio Conference cross-over headliner.

Hudson is ranked fourth in the state in the first Division I Associated Press poll of the season. Brunswick came in ranked fifth in the same poll. Using the Explorers 41-14 victory as an indicator there is a pretty significant gap between the states fourth and fifth-ranked teams.

The Blue Devils thumping at Hudson takes a little sting out of what the Explorers did to the Bees. But just how good is Hudson? The next six weeks – and more – will answer that  question for sure. The short-term answer? Pretty darned good.

The top three teams in Division I in this weeks AP Poll were; Cincinnati Moeller, Lakewood St. Edward and Mentor. Hudson hosts Mentor on Thursday night, October 23rd. That will be must-see TV.

 

LAST NIGHT’S SCORES:

Southwestern Conference

BBHHS – 28, Olmsted Falls – 21.

A win is a win is a win. And the Bees opened SWC play with a “W”. “It doesn’t matter what the score is as long as we have at least one more point than our opponent,” Jason Black likes to tell me.

Berea-Midpark – 62, Amherst Steele – 27.

Many thoughts are going through my head about this one-sided affair. I think I’ll keep them there.

North Olmsted – 35, Westlake – 26.

The high-scoring Eagles prevail in a solid league home win. N-O is averaging 38 points per game. They are giving up 28.8. The Eagles will be Brecksville’s Homecoming opponent next Friday.

 

SWC-WSC Cross-over

North Ridgeville – 21, Avon Lake – 14.

It was another tough home loss for the Shormen who open their SWC slate next week against take-no-prisoners Berea-Midpark at Finnie.

 

OTHER GAMES OF NOTE:

Holy Name (2-1) travels to Bedford Bearcat Stadium today to take on Benedictine. This will be a tall order to fill for the Green Wave.

Parma – 19, North Royalton – 10.

It is official. It will be a long season for the Bears. On paper, at least coming in, this looked like a sure-fire NORO win. But “Papa” Nick Ciulli’s club is having trouble scoring points. And that’s not good.

Hudson – 41, Brunswick – 14.

The Blue Devils got a huge sampling of what the Explorers are all about. Toledo-bound Hudson signal-caller Mitch Guadagni riddled Brunswick for 352 passing yards and five touchdowns.

Avon – 35, Lakewood – 0.

The 4-0 Eagles were too well-rounded for the big-play Rangers in this West Shore Conference lid-lifter.

Joplin – 35, West Plains – 28.

Chris Shield’s Eagles upped their overall record to 3-2 with a nice Ozark Conference triumph.

 

Please stay tuned to the Bees website for a look inside the stats of the Olmsted Falls game and a look ahead to Friday nights Homecoming visit to the Bee Hive by high-flying North Olmsted.

 

See You at The Bee Hive!

To contact: Ddipa67834@aol.com.

Follow the Lady Bees volleyball team on-line at: beesvolleyball.com. Brecksville plays at Strongsville this evening.

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