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2 News Leader Fall Sports Wrap Up 2014

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News Leader Fall Sports Wrap Up 32014

It’s not hard to see why the buzz was there: The Knights had a ton of returning starters on both sides of the ball.

The 22-man Class of 2015 might have been Nordonia’s most talent-ed football class ever. By the time na-tional signing day arrives in Febru-ary, there could be as many as eight Knights moving on to Division I col-lege ball.

After some tough years followed by two straight near misses under coach Jeff Fox, this year’s team felt like it had the potential to make a run at reaching states.

“Potential,” however, is almost a dirty word in some coaches lexicon. Potential is only good if it’s fulfilled on Friday nights.

Fortunately for coach Fox, the Knights fulfilled their potential on each occasion.

On its way to the first 10-0 regu-lar season in school history, Nordonia mowed down the opposition.

The Suburban League produced four playoffs teams this year, but the Knights made it look easy against the other three.

Need to face defending league and regional champion Highland on the

road? Nordonia won 44-21 and the game wasn’t as close at the score in-dicated.

Have to deal with an always scrap-py Tallmadge squad? A big third quarter led to a 40-7 rout.

Finally, have to beat nemesis Wad-sworth on the road? Nordonia won 41-7 in dominant fashion.

The Knights offense averaged 42.9 point a game in the regular season.

Then in the Division II postseason, almost impossibly, it got better.

After an easy win over Fremont Ross, the Knights engaged an instant classic with Perrysburg, who finished No. 1 in the final Associated Press Di-vision II state poll.

Alex Alders’ performance in the fi-nal quarter of the 56-52 win will forev-er be a piece of Nordonia lore.

I was lucky to see the Knights play probably their two best games of the season.

First against undefeated Grafton Midview in the Region 4 title game, the Knights’ offense made the Mid-dies all but submit 52-14.

Then came Mayfield in state semi-final. Those expecting another classic were disappointed, but Knights fans sure were not: 52-14.

By that point, the Knights had proven they were special.

However, even special teams can have off nights. The Knights just had the misfortune of having one in the Division II state championship game at Ohio Stadium.

The 55-20 final Dec. 5 was more a tribute to how flawlessly Cincinat-ti LaSalle played rather than the Knights’ play.

To a man, everyone associat-ed with Nordonia football believes if that game was played 10 times, there would be 10 different out-comes.

The fact Nordonia finished as Di-vision II state runner-up instead of state champions takes nothing away from the Knights.

I must give a special thank you to photographer Greg Pennypacker, who followed the Knights all season and provided most of the photos of the football in this book.

This book is dedicated to Nordonia players, coaches, family and fans as a comprehensive look back at the magic that was the 2014 season.

We’ll also take a brief look at Nor-donia’s other state qualifier: The Knights’ cross country team.

A SEASON FOR THE AGES

THERE WAS A BUZZ AROUND THE 2014 NORDONIA FOOTBALL PROGRAM from the start of two-a-day practices in August. The word on the streets was this was going to be “the team” for the Knights.

by MICHAEL LEONARD | SPORTS EDITOR


THE ROAD TO THE CHAMPIONSHIP GAMEA 10-yard touchdown re-

ception by senior wide re-ceiver Alex Alders, plus a successful extra point con-version kick by senior Jim-my Embrescia, gave the Knights a thrilling 36-35 overtime victory over May-field in the season opener Aug. 29 at Boliantz Stadi-um.

“It was a great team win,” said Nordonia head coach Jeff Fox.

“I’m proud of the way our players and coaching staff responded. They did a great job of reacting and making plays.”

Big plays were one of the hallmarks of Nordo-nia’s night, as the Knights scored their first touch-down of the season on a 72-yard kickoff return by ju-nior Tyler Soltis in the first

quarter.That score followed a

touchdown by Mayfield, cutting the Wildcats’ lead to 7-6.

Later in the opening peri-od, senior quarterback Da-vid Murray threw a 36-yard touchdown pass to senior wide receiver Denzel Ward.

In the second quarter, the Knights reached the end zone on a 19-yard scoring aerial from Murray to Ward.

The only scoring in the third quarter was a 25-yard field goal off the foot of Em-brescia. That provided the Knights with a 22-21 edge

entering the fourth frame.Nordonia kept the pres-

sure on Mayfield in the final quarter, as Murray tossed his third scoring pass of the game, a 14-yarder to senior wide receiver Alex Alders.

Embresica booted the ex-tra point, and the Knights held a 29-21 lead.

The Wildcats were not deterred, though. They embarked upon anoth-er scoring drive, eventual-ly reaching the end zone on a one-yard run. They were successful in their two-point conversion to tie the game. That, of course, pre-cipitated overtime.

Mayfield had the ball first in the extra session, and the Wildcats cashed in with a two-yard touchdown. But they missed the extra point attempt, which proved to be crucial.

On fourth and goal, Mur-ray hit Alders with a 10-yard scoring throw on the Knights’ next possession.

That gave Embrescia had a chance to win it with the extra point. A senior who also is captain of the Nor-donia boys soccer team, Embrescia split the up-rights to seal the win.

“Mayfield called timeout to try to ‘freeze’ Jimmy,” said Fox, “but he nailed it right down the middle. ”

In addition to his four touchdown passes, Mur-ray threw for 270 yards and no interceptions. Ward also racked up 134 receiving yards with two touchdowns and also intercepted a pass on defense.

Freshman running back Tye Evans was Nordonia’s leading rusher, gaining 65 yards on nine carries.

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-ray hit Alders with a 10-yard scoring throw on the

That gave Embrescia had a chance to win it with the extra point. A senior who

-donia boys soccer team,

-

“Mayfield called timeout to try to ‘freeze’ Jimmy,” said Fox, “but he nailed it

In addition to his four -

ray threw for 270 yards and no interceptions. Ward also racked up 134 receiving yards with two touchdowns and also intercepted a pass

Freshman running back Tye Evans was Nordonia’s leading rusher, gaining 65

by FRANK ACETO ASSOCIATE SPORTS EDITOR

Twinsburg — Nordo-nia improved to 2-0 overall with a 41-13 thumping over Twinsburg Sept. 5 at Twins-burg Tiger Stadium.

The game was called with 3 minutes, 38 seconds left in the game due to lightning.

The direction of where this contest was head-ed might have been deter-mined on the first drive.

Twinsburg got all the way to Nordonia’s 5-yard line and did not come up with any points.

The Knights promptly put together a 95-yard scor-ing drive to take the lead and never looked back.

They took a 7-0 lead with a eight-play drive that took a little less than 2 minutes, 30 seconds off the clock.

Nordonia had four plays of 11 yards or more during the possession and quar-terback David Murray con-cluded the drive with a 6-yard touchdown pass to

wide receiver Alex Alders. Kicker Jimmy Embrescia added the first of his five point after tries.

Murray finished with three TD passes on the night.

Tiger quarterback Ran-dy Tucker’s pass was inter-cepted by defensive back Denzel Ward, who returned it 89 yards for a score to make it 13-0.

Ward returned a kick-off 66 yards and Nordonia made it 20-7 with 4 ticks left when running back Nick Banks found the end zone from three yards away.

The Knights took com-plete control in the third quarter.

Murray hit a 21-yard TD pass to wide receiver Chase Ryba to make it 27-7.

Twinsburg made it a two-score game when line-backer Joe Leonardarides recovered a fumble for a 21-yard TD.

The point after try was blocked, but Nordonia’s ad-vantage was just 14 (27-13) with 7:26 left.

The Tigers never got clos-er.

Wide receiver Dylan Mabin made it 34-13 eight seconds later when with a blazing 89-yard kickoff re-turn.

Mabin added another score when he caught a 13-yard TD pass from Murray late in the third quarter.

Murray completed 13 of 19 passes for 221 yards. He connected with seven dif-ferent receivers.

The Knights also ran for 240 yards.

Running back Anthony Perrine led the way with 68 yards on 10 carries and running back Tye Evans finished with 62 yards on nine rushes.

PHOTO COURTESY OF GREG PENNYPACKERNordonia wide receiver Alex Alders attempts to break away from a Twinsburg defender.


The Knights improved to 3-0 on the season by demol-ishing visiting Parma by the score of 55-0 Sept. 12.

Nordonia was dominant in every facet of the game: offensively, defensively and on special teams.

Offensively, senior quar-terback David Murray threw six touchdown passes in the first half. Defensive-ly, the Knights shut out the Redmen and held them to less than 100 yards.

“Our kids played a great game, right from the get-go,” said Nordonia head coach Jeff Fox. “They played with emotion, energy and enthusiasm. They had a lot of fun while doing all of the things they needed to do to win.”

Murray tossed three touchdowns in the open-ing quarter alone. Fresh-man running back Tye Ev-ans caught the first one, a

29-yarder.Then Murray connect-

ed with Dylan Mabin on an eight-yard scoring pass be-fore hitting senior wide re-ceiver Denzel Ward with a four-yard touchdown throw.

Then Murray threw three more touchdown pass-es in the second quarter. He hit Ward again early in the frame, this time with a 22-yarder.

Then Murray tossed a pair of scoring bombs to se-nior wide receiver Alex Al-ders. Both of the passes were 50 yards in length.

When the dust had set-tled, Nordonia held a com-manding 41-0 lead at inter-mission.

Murray finished 14-of-

19 through the air for 241 yards.

Nordonia went to the ground in the second half against Parma, as sopho-more running back Antho-ny Perrine scored a pair of touchdowns in the third quarter.

First, Perrine barreled into the end zone from two yards out. Then, later in the period, he rambled 52 yards to the end zone.

Perrine ran with the ball eight times overall, gaining 103 yards in the process.

Fox also praised the Knights’ defensive unit for their performance against Parma.

“Any time you see a zero on the scoreboard and you hold a team under 100 yards, that’s awesome to see,” said Fox. “The line-men, the linebackers and the defensive backs are do-ing a great job defending the run and putting pres-sure on the passer.”

PHOTO COURTESY OF GREG PENNYPACKER Nordonia quarterback David Murray fires a pass during the Knights’ 55-0 win over Parma.

WEEK 3NORDONIA 55

PARMA 0

WEEK 2NORDONIA 41

TWINSBURG 13



Although the Nordonia High School football team’s offense puts up a ton of points and gets quite a bit of press, the Knights’ defen-sive unit could very well be the most integral part of the squad.

Evidence to that effect was on display this Sept. 19, as Nordonia held the ex-plosive Highland offense in check, allowing the Knights to beat their Suburban League rival by the score of 44-21 on the road.

It was Nordonia’s league opener. With the win, the Knights remained undefeat-ed with an overall record of 4-0.

“The defense played amaz-ingly well,” said Nordonia head coach Jeff Fox. “They played fast, they trusted their teammates and they shut down the run. Our de-fense was really the key to the victory.”

Nordonia had a 27-point

explosion by the offense in the first quarter. Sophomore running back Anthony Per-rine contributed a pair of one-yard touchdown runs, and senior quarterback Da-vid Murray tossed two scor-ing throws, one covering five yards to senior wide receiver Alex Alders and another cov-ering 68 yards to senior wide receiver Dylan Mabin.

Nordonia and Highland both scored twice during the third period.

The Knights’ scores were the result of a 64-yard pass from Murray to senior wide receiver Denzel Ward and a 22-yard field goal off the foot of senior placekicker Jimmy Embrescia.

Nordonia put an exclama-

tion point on the victory in the fourth frame with a five-yard touchdown scamper by freshman running back Tye Evans.

The Knights rendered the Hornets’ rushing attack far less effective than usual.

“Senior Vinnie Hudson, our weak side end, did a great job,” said Fox. “So did senior linebackers Connor Olczak, Noah Pennypacker and Alex Alders. Alex made 16 tackles for us.”

Offensively, Murray com-pleted 12-of-15 pass at-

tempts for 226 yards. Ward caught five of those for 158 yards, while Mabin snagged five for 73 yards and Alders caught a pair of passes total-ing 13 yards.

Also contributing recep-tions were sophomore run-ning back Daniel Banks (10 yards), Evans (eight yards) and senior wide receiver Isa-iah LaJoie (five yards).

Evans led rushing with 30 yards on 12 carries. Perrine added 26 yards on 13 at-tempts and Banks had 20 yards on five totes.

PHOTO COURTESY OF GREG

PENNYPACKER

Nordonia safety Tyler Soltis celebrates with his teammates after snagging an interception.

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Nordonia improved to 5-0 after a 34-0 thrashing of Suburban League foe Cloverleaf Sept. 26, in the Knights’ annual homecom-ing game.

“Any time you get a shut-out, it’s a great thing for your defense,” said Nordonia head coach Jeff Fox. “The kids played the way we expected them to play. We were pleased with the performance.”

Nordonia scored all of its points in the first half. Due to the 30-point mercy rule, there was a rolling clock during the second half.

The Knights tallied three touchdowns in the opening quarter, starting with a one-yard scoring plunge by soph-omore running back Antho-ny Perrine.

Minutes later, senior quar-terback David Murray hit senior wide receiver Den-zel Ward with an eight-yard touchdown strike. Then Ward caught a 53-yard scor-

ing throw from Murray.Three successful extra

points by senior placekicker Jimmy Embrescia gave Nor-donia a 21-0 lead.

In the second period, Ward snagged yet another touch-down pass, this one again covering eight yards. Senior wide receiver Alex Alders also caught a 17-yard scor-ing reception with a little over a minute left in the opening half.

Murray was extremely effi-cient throwing the ball, com-pleting 10-of-13 pass at-tempts for 210 yards and four touchdowns.

Ward caught four pass-es for 122 yards, while Al-ders also snagged four recep-tions for 61 yards. Catching one pass apiece were senior

wide receiver Isaiah LaJoie (16 yards) and senior wide re-ceiver Chase Ryba (11 yards).

Sophomore running back Daniel Banks led the Nordo-

nia rushing attack with 61 yards on nine carries, while junior running back Nate Goff added 14 yards on six totes.


Nordonia surged to a 31-0 lead by the end of the open-ing quarter en route to a 52-0 demolition of Subur-ban League rival Green on the road Oct. 3.

The Knights scored all 52 of their points in the first half.

“It was an awesome per-formance,” said Nordonia High School head football coach Jeff Fox. “The kids have developed a nice ri-valry with Green, and they played as good a half of football as I’ve ever seen a high school team play.

“They dominated their opponent on offense, de-fense and special teams. It was pretty spectacular.”

Nordonia tallied two

quick touchdowns on pass-es by senior quarterback David Murray.

First, Murray hit senior wide receiver Denzel Ward on a 12-yard touchdown throw. Then he connected with senior wide receiver Dylan Mabin on a 77-yard scoring pass.

Senior placekicker Jim-my Embrescia added a 24-

yard field goal later in the opening period to make the score 17-0.

Ward accounted for Nor-donia’s next touchdown, but this time it was on de-fense, as he intercepted a Green pass and returned it to the end zone.

Then Ward flipped over to the other side of the ball and tallied his third touch-

down of the contest on a 61-yard scoring pass from Murray.

A fourth PAT off the foot of Embrescia pushed the margin to 31-0 as the first quarter ended.

The second period start-ed in much the same fash-ion, as Murray hit Mabin with another touchdown pass, this one covering 58 yards.

Later in the second stan-za, freshman running back Tye Evans ran 12 yards to the end zone. Then Murray threw yet another touch-down pass, connecting with senior wide receiver Alex Alders on a 40-yard score.

Embrescia finished 7-of-7 on extra point attempts, in addition to his field goal.

“Green is not a team that everybody is blowing out,” said Fox. “Our team was just hitting on all cylinders. Our defense played ‘lights out.’ It was as good of a performance as you can see.”

WEEK 5NORDONIA 34CLOVERLEAF 0

PHOTO COURTESY OF GREG PENNYPACKERNordonia defensive end Vinnie Hudson sacks Cloverleaf quarterback Garrison Flora.

WEEK 6NORDONIA 52

GREEN 0

PHOTO COURTESY OF GREG PENNYPACKERNordonia’s Noah Pennypacker and Justice Alexander combine to tackle Green’s Jeremy Macaleese.



The Knights earned a convincing 52-19 victory over Suburban League foe Copley on the road Oct. 10.

Nordonia boasted a bal-anced offensive attack against Copley, gaining 310 yards on the ground and 221 through the air.

The Knights scored two touchdowns in both the first and second quarters. Then they exploded for three touchdowns in the third period before add-ing a field goal in the final frame.

Nordonia senior quar-terback David Murray completed 11-of-19 pass attempts for 221 yards and two touchdowns.

His two scores covered seven yards to sophomore running back Anthony Perrine in the first quar-ter and 66 yards to senior wide receiver Denzel Ward in the third period.

Senior Alex Alders led the Knights’ rushing at-tack with 95 yards on five carries. He scored on a 71-yard touchdown sprint in the second quarter.

In addition, freshman running back Tye Evans rushed for 69 yards on nine totes. He reached the end zone on a 20-yard scamper in the opening stanza.

Perrine added 62 yards on just four carries. He scored on a 20-yard touch-down run in the first quar-ter.

Sophomore running back Daniel Banks con-tributed 40 yards on eight rushing attempts. He also tallied a touchdown, dash-

ing across the goal line from four yards out in the second period.

Murray added 25 rush-ing yards on eight car-ries, while junior running back Donovan Nichols accounted for 12 yards on three totes.

Alders also caught three passes for 27 yards, while Ward hauled in two pass-es for 86 yards and Per-rine had two catches for 76 yards.

Also nabbing two recep-tions apiece for Nordonia were junior wide receiver Tyler Soltis (17 yards) and Banks (15 yards).

Soltis also scored a touchdown when he re-turned a punt 57 yards in the third period.

Senior placekicker Jim-my Embrescia’s field goal in the fourth frame cov-ered 35 yards.

According to Nordo-nia head coach Jeff Fox, the Knights’ offensive line played a superb game,

opening up enough holes for the team to amass over 300 rushing yards.

“All of our running backs had a lot of success, and a main reason was how well the offensive line played,” said Fox.

“Cameron Bell, Charles Meriweather, Alex Chrus-tic, Isaiah Anderson and Terek Zingale all do an awesome job in pass pro-tection, but to see them get noticed for their run blocking is great, too.”

Nordonia allowed touch-downs in the first and sec-ond quarters, the first touchdowns the Knights’ defense had relinquished in over eight quarters.

“Our defense played well,” said Fox. “They’re buying into the philoso-phy that even if they make a mistake, they should turn their focus to the next play. There were a couple of inconsistencies, but the effort was definite-ly there.”

WEEK 7NORDONIA 52

COPLEY 19

PHOTO COURTESY OF GREG PENNYPACKERNordonia running back Tye Evans breaks into the open during the Knights’ 52-19 victory at Copley Oct. 10. Evans finished with 69 yards rushing.



M a c e d o n i a — T h e Knights improved to 8-0 overall and 5-0 in the Subur-ban League after posting a 40-7 victory over Tallmadge Oct. 17 at Boliantz Stadium in Macedonia.

Thanks to a five-touch-down explosion in the third quarter, Nordonia turned a competitive game into a long lost footnote.

“We were the same team,” Knights head coach Jeff Fox said. “We just execut-ed better in the second half. I’m still proud of the kids. When you have 11 kids do their job, we’re capable of doing anything.”

The Blue Devils trailed just 6-0 at halftime as their defense had a knack for frustrating Nordonia’s ex-plosive offense.

Once the halftime fes-tivities ended, the Knights solved the defense puzzle.

Early in the third quarter,

Nordonia extended its lead after an interception by de-fensive back Denzel Ward.

Four plays later, Murray completed an 11-yard TD pass to wide receiver Dylan Mabin. Kicker Jimmy Em-brescia added the first of four point after tries to give Nordonia a 13-0 advantage.

But the Blue Devils stormed back.

Tallmadge got good field position on a short kick and went 60 yards to cut its defi-cit to 13-7.

Running back Joe Siesel concluded the drive with a 3-yard TD run and Jadon Wolf added the extra point with 7:48 left in the third quarter.

The Knights left the Blue Devils in their rearview mir-

ror after that.Murray burned Tall-

madge with runs up the middle for much of the third quarter.

His 19-yard TD run gave the Knights a 20-7 advan-tage with 5:55 left.

Murray, a two-year starter

behind center, had four TD passes and one running TD.

He completed 16 of 24 passes for 226 yards and ran for 145 yards on 16 carries.

Mabin finished with six receptions for 73 yards and the Knights outgained the Blue Devils 435-129.


Nordonia knocked off Suburban League foe Re-vere on Senior Night, beat-ing the Minutemen by the score of 34-13 in front of the home crowd at Boliantz Stadium Oct. 24.

With the win, Nordonia bolstered its overall record to 9-0. The Knights also stayed perfect in the Sub-urban League, improving to 6-0.

Revere played Nordonia tough in the opening quar-ter, as neither team could score. Early in the second period, the Knights cracked the scoreboard with a pair of field goals off the foot of senior placekicker Jimmy Embrescia.

Embrescia’s first field goal was 28 yards, and his sec-ond one covered 33 yards. The second field goal gave Nordonia a 6-0 lead with 9:33 remaining in the sec-ond stanza.

“Jimmy’s done a great

job,” Knights head coach Jeff Fox said. “He’s a soccer player who’s worked hard at his trade. He’s done well for us with field goals and kick-offs.”

Nordonia scored its first touchdown of the contest with a little over a minute remaining in the second quarter, when senior quar-terback David Murray hit senior wide receiver Den-zel Ward with a two-yard touchdown pass. Embres-cia booted the extra point to provide the Knights with a 13-0 advantage at inter-mission.

Nordonia extended its lead to 20-0 in the third pe-riod when Murray tossed a 36-yard touchdown pass to

junior wide receiver Tyler Soltis.

Later in the third stanza, Nordonia freshman running back Tye Evans dashed two yards to the end zone for a touchdown. Another PAT kick by Embrescia pushed the margin to 27-0.

Murray completed 25-of-37 pass attempts for 286 yards. Senior wide receiv-er Alex Alders caught eight

passes for 101 yards, while Ward and sophomore run-ning back Anthony Perrine both nabbed four passes, Ward for 25 yards and Per-rine for 21 yards.

Making three receptions apiece for Nordonia were Soltis (74 yards) and senior wide receiver Dylan Mabin (36 yards). Senior wide re-ceiver Isaiah LaJoie, se-nior wide receiver Chase Ryba and sophomore run-ning back Daniel Banks all caught one pass.

Murray also led the Knights’ running attack with 35 yards on 10 car-ries, while Perrine added 29 yards on six attempts and Banks and Evans both con-tributed 25 yards rushing.

Defensively, senior line-backer Noah Pennypacker had two interceptions and Ryba also picked off a pass.

“We made a lot of our big plays on defense,” said Fox. “We had a good night on de-fense and on special teams with two blocked kicks.”

WEEK 8NORDONIA 40TALLMADGE 7

PHOTO COURTESY OF GREG PENNYPACKERNordonia quarterback David Murray runs into the open. Murray had a huge game, throwing for 218 yards and four touchdowns.

WEEK 9NORDONIA 34

REVERE 13

PHOTO COURTESY OF GREG PENNYPACKERNordonia linebacker Noah Penny-packer returns a blocked punt. Pennypacker snagged two inter-ceptions.


Nordonia left tackle Cameron Bell leads chants of “Yes! Yes!” in the post-game huddle following the Knights’ 58-26 win over Fremont Ross Nov. 7.


Nordonia routed Subur-ban League foe Wadsworth on the road Oct. 31, posting a 41-7 victory over the Griz-zlies.

With the win, the Knights finished the regular cam-paign with an unblemished record of 10-0. They also captured the outright Sub-urban League champion-ship with a mark of 7-0.

The Knights finished sec-ond in Region 4 of the fi-nal Division II Ohio High School Athletic Association computer ratings with 35.95 points

The Nordonia offense was hitting on all cylinders, scor-ing at least one touchdown in every quarter against the Grizzlies.

In the first period, senior quarterback David Mur-ray hit senior wide receiv-er Denzel Ward with a 72-yard touchdown pass. Then in the second stanza, soph-omore running back An-

thony Perrine dashed four yards to the end zone.

Senior placekicker Jim-my Embrescia added ex-tra points following each of those scores to give the Knights a 14-0 lead.

With 3:40 left in the sec-ond quarter, Murray tossed another touchdown pass, this time to senior wide re-ceiver Alex Alders covering 37 yards.

As a result, Nordonia was on top 20-0 at intermission.

It was more of the same in the third period. First, Mur-ray galloped 76 yards to pay dirt, and then he threw an-other touchdown pass to Ward of seven yards.

Freshman running back Tye Evans capped the scor-

ing for the Knights in the fourth frame with a one-yard touchdown plunge. Embrescia was 5-of-6 in the extra point department.

Nordonia did an out-standing defensive job against the Grizzlies.

“The Wadsworth offen-sive system traditional-ly has a very powerful run game,” said Nordonia head coach Jeff Fox. “We had a solid defensive performance

in all three phases—line-men, linebackers and defen-sive backs. Defensive coor-dinator Bernard Russ had a great game plan, and the players executed it.”

“One of the unsung he-roes of the game was [ju-nior] free safety Tyler Solt-is,” said Fox. “He was responsible for a lot of the over-the-top help in the play-action passing game. He was solid all night.”

WEEK 10NORDONIA 41

WADSWORTH 7

PHOTO COURTESY OF GREG PENNYPACKERNordonia’s Justice Alexander, Alex Alders and Connor Olczak team up to sack Wadsworth quarterback Adam Dennison.

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PHOTO COURTESY OF GREG PENNYPACKERNordonia left tackle Cameron Bell leads chants of “Yes! Yes!” in the post-game huddle following the Knights’ 58-26 win over Fremont Ross Nov. 7.

Nordonia scored nearly 60 points in a convincing 58-26 win over Fremont Ross in the opening round of the Di-vision II state playoffs at Bo-liantz Stadium Nov. 7.

“It’s quite an accomplish-ment to get a playoff win,” said Nordonia head coach Jeff Fox. “That doesn’t hap-pen all the time. I’m definite-ly proud of what our kids have accomplished.”

Fox also commended the hometown crowd for the large turnout at the game.

“The atmosphere and c o m m u n i t y s u p p o r t throughout the entire week was incredible,” he said. “The Parents Club deco-rated the stadium, the en-tire student body showed up and the community rallied around the team.”

Fremont Ross scored first on a 14-yard touchdown pass.

Then, it was off to the rac-es for the Knights.

First, senior quarterback David Murray hit senior wide receiver Dylan Mabin on a 78-yard touchdown strike. Then Nordonia’s defense got in the act, as senior defen-sive back Alex Alders inter-cepted a pass and brought it back all the way for anoth-er score.

Two successful PAT at-tempts off the foot of senior placekicker Jimmy Embres-cia gave the Knights a 14-6 lead at the end of the open-ing period.

The second quarter was a high-scoring affair. Ross scored twice, sandwiched between three more touch-

down throws by Murray, who connected with Mabin again and Alders twice.

By the time the dust had settled, Nordonia held a 34-20 lead at intermission.

“We gave up a touchdown on a big play right before the half, but we came out in the third quarter and played well in all three phases of the game,” said Fox. “The kids executed really well, the spe-cial teams had a huge im-pact on the game and we stopped them on multiple possessions in a row on de-fense.”

Murray enjoyed a monster night, completing 15-of-27 pass attempts for 366 yards and five touchdowns with no interceptions. He also ran with the ball six times for 54 yards and a score.

Mabin had an equally huge night, hauling in five recep-tions for 216 yards and three touchdowns. In addition, se-nior wide receiver Denzel Ward nabbed five catches for 80 yards, Alders had four receptions for 58 yards and senior wide receiver Isaiah LaJoie made one reception covering 12 yards.

“[Senior lineman] Justice Alexander had a great game for us defensively,” said Fox. “He had three sacks and a couple of other big plays, and Alex Alders had some big plays for us, as well.”

Alexander registered 7.5 tackles to go along with his three sacks, while senior line-backer Noah Pennypacker recorded 5.5 tackles and se-nior linebacker Connor Olc-zak added five collars.

PLAYOFFSNORDONIA 58

FREMONT ROSS 26


Nordonia running back Anthony Perrine breaks into the open during the Knights’ 52-14 win in the Division II, Region 4 title game.

PHOTOS COURTESY OF GREG PENNYPACKERAbove, Nordonia senior Alex Alders returns a punt during the Knights’ 56-52 win over Perrysburg. Below, quarterback David Murray gets a lift from left tackle Cameron Bell after the win.


Sandusky —The Knights earned a thrilling 56-52 vic-tory over third-seeded Per-rysburg in a Division II, Re-gion 4 semifinal contest Nov. 14 at Cedar Point Sta-dium’s Strobel Field in San-dusky.

“It’s the best game I’ve ever been a part of,” said se-nior wide receiver/linebacker Alex Alders.

The humble senior did his part. He made the biggest play of the evening.

After a 25-yard field goal by senior kicker Scott Free-man, the Yellow Jackets took a 52-49 lead with 2 min-utes, 22 seconds left in the game.

On the ensuing kickoff, Alders made several stop-on-the-dime cuts and broke several more tackles on his

way to a 75-yard touchdown to give the Knights the lead for good. Senior kicker Jim-my Embrescia added the all-important extra point and Nordonia led for the first time (56-52) with 2:07 left.

“I got some great block-ing,” Alders said. “They pro-vided a nice wall in front of me.”

Knights head coach Jeff Fox couldn’t imagine what his team would be like with-out Alders.

“He’s the best player I’ve ever been around,” he said.

“We just came together as a team and finished drives,” said senior cornerback/wide

receiver Denzel Ward.Ward is one of three Divi-

sion I recruits on the team. He made a verbal commit-ment to The Ohio State Uni-versity last year. The other two Division I recruits are senior defensive end Jus-tice Alexander (Michigan State University) and 6-foot-8, 330-pound senior lineman Cameron Bell (University of Toledo).

The Knights also have a quarterback who is capable of destroying a defense every time he touches the ball.

Senior quarterback David Murray had another huge night. He completed 24 of 37 passes for 354 yards and six touchdowns.

Alders led the receiving corps with 11 receptions for 117 yards and three scores and Ward had five catches for 111 yards and two TDs.

Perrine paced Nordo-

nia’s rushing attack with 128 yards and a score on 17 carries. All told, the Knights finished with 606 yards in total offense.

REGIONAL SEMINORDONIA 56

PERRYSBURG 52



Brunswick — For the sec-ond straight week, Nordo-nia football faced an unde-feated team in its Division II playoff run.

Top-seeded Grafton Mid-view came into the contest at 12-0, averaging 42 points a game.

It turned out a big game on offense for the Knights — but the Middies were all but shut down. Nordonia scored a 52-14 win over Mid-view Nov. 21 at Judy Kirsch Field in Brunswick in the Di-vision II, Region 4 champi-onship game.

Nordonia improves to 13-0 and advanced to the Divi-sion II state semifinals for the first time since 2006.

Coach Jeff Fox couldn’t get the smile off his face af-ter the game and said the Knights’ win was far from unexpected.

“We’re a confident football team,” Fox said. “As we’ve

said, its about us and how we play. If we go play the way we’re capable of, things will take care of themselves.”

Nordonia took care of business in all three phas-es of the game, but senior quarterback David Murray was the MVP of the night.

Murray went 17-of-25 for 314 yards through the air with six touchdowns and one interception. He also ran for 69 yards on 10 car-ries.

“It was a great game,” Murray said. “Our line did a great job for me and our re-ceivers did a great job. It all makes my job easy. We had a great week of practice.”

Sophomore Anthony Per-rine finished with 69 yards

on just nine rushes. Soph-omore Daniel Banks would finish as the Knights’ top rusher with 77 yards, as the Knights piled up 231 on the ground.

Denzel Ward was Nordo-nia’s top receiver with five catches for 105 yards and two touchdowns. The Ohio State recruit also had a huge game on defense, breaking up at least six passes.

Up 21-7 after one quarter, the Knights were just get-

ting warmed up.After Ward returned a

Midview punt to the Mid-die 36, it took just one play to capitalize.

Murray threw a perfect 36-yard strike to Dylan Mabin, who found the end zone with 11:38 left in the half.

“A lot of those pass-es weren’t designed that way,” Fox said. “That was just [Murray] keeping plays alive with his feet.”

REGIONAL FINALSNORDONIA 52MIDVIEW 14

PHOTO COURTESY OF GREG PENNYPACKERNordonia running back Anthony Perrine breaks into the open during the Knights’ 52-14 win in the Division II, Region 4 title game.


by MICHAEL LEONARDSPORTS EDITOR

Solon — On Aug. 29 at Boliantz Stadium, Nordo-nia and Mayfield engaged in an instant classic. The season opener ended with the Knights edging the Wildcats 36-35 in overtime.

After the game, Mayfield quarterback Mario Monas-tero told Nordonia quarter-back David Murray, “We’ll see you in the playoffs.”

Thirteen weeks lat-er, both teams made that statement prophetic.

Nordonia met Mayfield again Nov. 28. This time, the two teams played a Division II state semifinal game at Stewart Field in Solon.

And this time, there was nothing close to overtime drama.

For the second straight week, Nordonia won by a 52-14 score, as a third-quar-

ter explosion on offense al-lowed the Knights to pull away.

With the win, Nordonia advanced to the Division II state title game for the sec-ond time in school history.

Despite the jubilation on the Knights’ sideline after the game, coach Jeff Fox admitted it had not hit him yet that he had led the Knights to the state final in just his third year as head coach.

“This week, we didn’t talk about this being the state semifinal. This was just the Nordonia-Mayfield game,” Fox said. “It’s big rivalry game for us. It’s just now

hitting me that we’re going to states.”

Once again, senior quar-terback David Murray had a huge game, racking up six touchdowns for the third straight week.

Murray finished 13-of-16 for 391 yards, five touch-downs and no picks. He also ran 11 times for 81 yards and a touchdown.

“It was amazing,” Murray said. “I have to give a lot of credit to my offensive line. They did a great job pro-tecting me. We just played our game and knew every-thing would take care of it-self.”

While Murray’s arm was huge, the key to the game defensively was the running game. Nordonia finished with an 187-2 edge in rush-ing yards. And the Knights held Mayfield running back Andy Isabella to a season-low 23 yards rushing.

Mayfield opened the scoring with a nine-play, 73-yard drive which end-ed with Monastero hitting Gage Becan with a 4-yard TD.

It took Nordonia a lit-tle more than a minute to respond, as Murray hit Alex Alders with a 31-yard touchdown pass to tie it. Kicker Jimmy Embrescia went 7-of-7 on extra points on the night.

Nordonia took the lead on the ground. With 1:54 left in the first quarter, run-ning back Anthony Perrine burst through the middle for a 46-yard scoring run to make it 14-7.

Perrine led the Knights with 12 carries for 87 yards and a touchdown.

Early in the second quar-ter, Murray went deep again, finding Dylan Mabin for a 31-yard touchdown to make it 21-7.

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for a 56-yard touchdown, cut-ting it to 21-14 with 9:31 left in the first half.

However, that would Isabel-la’s lone big play of the night.

The Knights were able to re-establish its two-touchdown lead just before halftime, as Murray hit Chase Ryba with a 39-yard bomb.

The rout began in earnest early in the third quarter. First, Murray worked a beau-tiful read-option fake, allow-ing him to run through the de-fense for a 52-yard run.

Then, Monastero threw his second interception, as Ryba made a beautiful catch at the Nordonia 41.

Two plays later, Mur-ray threw a perfect bomb to Mabin for a 57-yard touch-down.

The backbreaker came after a nice Mayfield punt pinned Nordonia at its own 9-yard line.

Murray threw a wide re-ceiver screen pass to Denzel Ward and the Ohio State re-cruit broke loose for a 91-yard touchdown.

“That’s a screen pass we run once every week,” Fox said. “We finally executed it perfect-ly in week 14. Once he was in the open, they weren’t catch-ing it.”

“It was just great blocking up front,” Ward said.

With the “running clock” en-gaged, Embrescia complet-ed the rout with a 38-yard field goal with 10:12 left in the game.

“It’s a special thing to get to the state final,” Fox said.

PHOTOS COURTESY OF GREG PENNYPACKER Above, Nordonia defensive back Tyler Soltis leaps up to intercept a pass. Below, Nordonia quarterback David Murray fires a pass. He threw for 391 yards and five touchdowns in the win.


HISTORIC SEASON LEADS TO STATE CHAMPIONSHIP

PHOTO COURTESY OF GREG PENNYPACKERThe Nordonia players rush onto the field prior to the Division II state championship game Dec. 5 at Ohio Stadium in Columbus.

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HISTORIC SEASON LEADS TO STATE CHAMPIONSHIPby MICHAEL LEONARD | SPORTS EDITOR

Columbus — The Nor-donia football team’s epic season ended with a trip to “The Horseshoe” for the Di-vision II state champion-ship game Dec. 5.

The undefeated Knights hoped to come home with Nordonia’s first state title. Though that didn’t happen (Cincinnati LaSalle scored a 55-20 win over the Knights), the team was gracious in de-feat.

“Congratulations to La-Salle,” coach Jeff Fox said. “They are a fantastic foot-ball team. … We came here expecting to win. It didn’t happen. I’m very proud of these young men.”

Both teams scored twice in the first quarter, but

the difference was LaSal-le scored two touchdowns, while the Knights settled for two field goals.

After returning the open-ing kickoff to Nordonia ter-ritory, Lancer running back Jeremy Larkin scored a 4-yard touchdown run.

Nordonia drove down the field to allow Jimmy Em-brescia kick a 23-yard field goal with 4:05 left.

LaSalle answered with a 46-yard touchdown run from Larkin.

CHAMPIONSHIPLASALLE 55

NORDONIA 20

PHOTOS COURTESY OF GREG PENNYPACKERTop, Nordonia quarterback David Murray holds the Division II state runner-up trophy and senior Dylan Mabin holds the commemorative ball. Bot-tom, Nordonia’s offensive line protects quarterback Murray.


PHOTO COURTESY OF GREG PENNYPACKERKnight players join arms to sing the Nordonia High School alma mater after the Division II state title game.

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Nordonia came back, but again stalled in the red zone, settling for a 29-yard field goal from Embrescia to make it 14-6 after one quar-ter.

“That was the start of it,” Fox said. “We’ve finished all year long in the red zone. For whatever reason, we did not tonight. That’s on me. I didn’t get our team back in gear as much as I should. In the face of adversity, this team has never wavered this season.”

LaSalle conducted an-other long drive to start the second quarter, as quarter-back Nick Watson ran in a 9-yard touchdown to make it 21-6.

However, aided by a pair of LaSalle penalties, Nor-donia then found the end zone.

Knights quarterback Da-vid Murray hit freshman running back Tye Evans with a screen pass for an 11-yard touchdown with 4:54 left in the half.

LaSalle earned two touch-downs in the final minute of the first half, putting them ahead 34-13 at halftime.

In the third quarter, La-Salle’s John Junker blocked Murray’s punt attempt. Junker recovered the loose ball and returned it 15 yards for a touchdown.

Two plays later, a 22-yard pass to Phil Anderson made it 48-13 with 7:32 left in the third quarter.

LaSalle would tack on one more score in the fourth quarter. Backup quarter-back Eric Green ran in a 4-yard touchdown with 2:32 left in the game.

Nordonia had a scary mo-ment on the ensuing kickoff, as Evans recovered a squib kick and hurt his neck. Af-ter about 15 minutes, Evans was taken off the field on a stretcher.

However, Fox said after the game Evans was con-scious and was taken to the hospital for precaution-ary reasons. Fox noted lat-

er that X-rays came back negative and Evans was al-lowed to go home.

After the injury, Nordo-nia was able to find the end zone, as Murray hit Alex Al-ders with a 26-yard touch-down with 2:49 left.

Murray finished the game going 22-of-41 for 251 yards, two touchdowns and one pick. Alders was his favor-ite target, grabbing 10 pass-es for 103 yards.

When the Associated Press released its All-Ohio teams Dec. 1, two Knights made the list: Murray for Division II offensive player of the year, and cornerback Denzel Ward for Division II

defensive player of year. Ward ended up the

Knights’ top rusher for the night, earning 20 yards on four sweep plays.

Ward finished with five catches for 89 yards. Defen-sively, he finished with six tackles.

Linebacker Noah Penny-packer led the Knights with 13 tackles.

Fox paid tribute to his 22 outgoing seniors who had led the Knights to the state final.

“It’s a testament to these young men,” Fox said. “Three of guys have been with us as starters all three years. This is their team.”

In the face of adversity, this team has never wavered this season.

- Nordonia Coach Jeff Fox

PHOTO COURTESY OF GREG PENNYPACKERNordonia players break the post-game huddle after the Division II state title game.


Two big things happened for Paul Dorsey in August.

First, he joined Record Publishing Co. as the advertising account rep-resentative for The News Leader.

Second, he got the chance to see his son, freshman lineman David Dorsey, join his alma mater as part of the Nordonia football team.

Like so many local families, David Dorsey became a second-genera-tion Knight, although he did not see any varsity playing time last fall.

A 1987 graduate of Nordonia, Paul Dorsey played wide receiver for the

Knights in high school and is now an active member of the Nordonia Football Parents Club.

A decision by the club gave Dors-ey an opportunity.

“About mid-season, we decided to buy the team sideline jackets,” Dorsey said. “They were looking for someone to manage the jackets on game day. I volunteered to do that.”

Doing so allowed Dorsey to be on the sidelines with the Knights dur-ing the Division II state title game Dec. 5 at Ohio Stadium.

“I got the opportunity to be with the team,” Dorsey said. “It was pret-ty cool to go with the kids.”

FROM THE SIDELINES

News Leader ad rep gets chance of a lifetimeby MICHAEL LEONARD | SPORTS EDITOR

I do have to say coming out of that

tunnel was chilling.

- Paul Dorsey, News Leader advertising account representative


This photo and the one on Page 19 are by News Leader advertising account representative Paul Dorsey, from his unique perspective of the Knights Division II state title game Dec. 5 at Ohio Stadium.

Despite the fact Nordonia visited the Ohio State recruiting room and dressed in the Buckeyes locker room, Dorsey said he was surprised by how relaxed the Knights were on game day.

“You wouldn’t think this was a championship game when you walked in that room, other than those kids enjoying the surround-ings,” Dorsey said.

That said, Dorsey said there was at least one “Wow” moment for him.

“I do have to say coming out of that tunnel was chilling,” Dorsey said.

Once the game started, Dorsey said he was all business, distribut-ing jackets, towels and water to play-ers and trying to help keep players’ hands on a very raining night.

“My focus was making sure the boys had what they needed,” he said.

The jackets, which Dorsey said were paid for with more than $4,000 raised by the football parents clubs, were a bit hit with the Knights.

“They love them,” Dorsey said. “In [the state title] game, they didn’t use them as much, because it was raining, but not as cold. But in the games prior, we couldn’t keep them

off them.”Dorsey said the jackets arrived pri-

or to Nordonia’s Division II, Region 4 title game with Grafton Midview Nov. 21 — which was fortunate, as tem-peratures were in the teens for that game.

Dorsey maintained stewardship of the jackets for the Knights last three games.

“I basically manage them for them for the team, with an agreement from the football parents that a parent is responsible for each of them,” Dors-ey said. “I was just making sure they weren’t destroyed when they take them back.”

His time on the sideline mark Dors-ey’s first time at Ohio Stadium.

Although he didn’t always get to watch the gave vs. Cincinnati LaSal-le, Dorsey echoed many of the play-ers and coaches’ sentiments in that he’d love to see Nordonia return to Ohio Stadium next year.

“After the game, they were looking for an opportunity to play these kids [LaSalle] again.” Dorsey said. “They truly believe if they play them nine more times, there would be nine dif-ferent outcomes.”

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Weather conditions at the Division I state cross coun-try meet Nov. 1 at Nation-al Trail Raceway in Hebron were, in a word, nasty.

Runners had to deal with temperatures in the low 40s and a soggy course due to overnight rain. The worst part, however, was wind gusts in excess of 20 mph. throughout the meet.

Given these far from ideal conditions, what Nordonia senior Charlie Korodi did at states was even more re-

markable.Korodi earned All-Ohio

honors by finishing 21st in the Division I boys race. Ko-rodi finished in a time of 15:59.08, which set a new personal record. The top 25 finishers at states earn All-Ohio honors.

Needless to say, Nordo-nia coach Mark Martin was overjoyed with his senior.

“It’s hard in these condi-tions,” Martin said. “He’s a senior, this is his last race and he runs his best ever race. You can’t ask for any-thing more than that.”

Korodi stayed in a tight pack at the front for the first two miles of the race, as he was in 10th place at the one-mile mark and 16th at the two-mile mark, just five sec-onds behind the leader.

“It was close for the first two miles and then every-body made their move in the woods,” Korodi said. “I knew I was top 25.”

Korodi was the last run-ner to break the 16-minute barrier at states.

Cincinnati St. Xavier’s Mi-chael Vitucci won the indi-vidual title in 15:34.53.

Knight girls cross country team takes eighth at states

CROSS COUNTRY


In the Division I girls race, the Nor-donia girls were looking to improve on last year’s ninth-place finish.

Despite the lousy conditions and some nagging injuries, the Knights did just that, finishing eighth in the team race with 229 points.

Centerville won the team title with 52 points. Centerville’s Lainey Studebaker won the individual title in 18:09.43.

While Nordonia coach Mark Martin said he was hoping for a better finish, he acknowledged his team was not at 100 percent and that crazy things hap-pen at the state meet.

“It’s hard to get into expectations when you get to this level,” Martin said. “A couple of weeks ago, we got a little dinged up and we’ve been run-ning through it ever since. We could have been in the top six if we had been healthy.”

Senior Jenna Dasher led the Knights by taking 53rd place in 19:16.49. Senior Heather Ross (74th, 19:38.20), junior Dana Risley (87th, 19:48.76), freshman Lizzy Gurko (91st, 19:54.15) and se-nior Leah Vasarhelyi (97th, 20:02.03) rounded out the scoring runs. Vashar-helyi was making her third appear-ance at the state meet.

Junior Jaylah Sircah (139th, 21:02.66) and junior Malerie Mysza (148th, 21:59.85) also ran at states.

Martin will lose Korodi, Dasher,

Ross and Vasarhelyi to graduation this spring, but sees no reason the pro-gram won’t continue to flourish.

“We also have an eighth-grade class

coming up that’s won the Suburban League the last two years,” Martin said. “Overall, the future is bright for the program.”

Senior Korodi earns All-Ohio honors

RPC PHOTOS / ROBERT J. LUCASAbove, Nordonia senior Charlie Korodi runs the course at the Division I boys state cross country meet Nov. 1 in Hebron. Below, Leah Vasarhelyi leads the pack in the Division I girls race at states.


coming up that’s won the Suburban League the last two years,” Martin said. “Overall, the future is bright for

RPC PHOTOS / ROBERT J. LUCASAbove, Nordonia senior Charlie Korodi runs the course at the Division I boys state cross country meet

Congratulations Nordonia Knights on your Historic Championship Run!

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