CANTON — There are some dogs on that Canton McKinley defense, and it showed in Friday night’s season-opening win against the Warren Harding High School football team.
Even the Bulldogs’ soccer-player-turned-kicker can get people on the ground.
McKinley’s defense dominated a sloppy Harding team and the Bulldogs rolled 33-0 at Benson Stadium on Aug. 21.
“That’s what we want to do,” senior safety Dwoyne Robinson said. “We want to make this defense one of the hardest to score on in Ohio.”
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The Pups received impact plays from a variety of players as they limited the Raiders to 53 total yards and three first downs.
There were big hits from linebacker Antonio Stevens. There were big losses suffered by Harding on plays from linemen DaRicko Jordan Jr. and Ball State commit Amare Mitchell. There was the biggest of plays served up by Robinson, a 98-yard interception return for a touchdown that effectively took the life out of Harding in the third quarter.
And of course there was senior Henry Snyder, a soccer player out there to just kick for McKinley, making an open-field tackle on a Division I college recruit.
Matt Richardson, a Central Michigan commit, took the second-half kickoff and broke into the open for Harding. Only Snyder stood between him and six points.
Snyder looked like he belonged in the back half of McKinley’s defense as he chopped his feet and made a quality hit to bring Richardson down at the McKinley 33.
“I had no idea he had that in him,” McKinley head coach Renzy Parnell said with a laugh. “We definitely didn’t practice doing that with him.”
Harding ended up punting and McKinley went on to notch its first shutout since a 38-0 win against GlenOak in Week 4 of last season.
Parnell was surprised by Snyder’s play. He was not surprised by Robinson’s.
Just after Richardson’s interception set up Harding at McKinley’s 10 later in the third, the 5-foot-5 Robinson picked off QB James Jones on a fourth-and-goal slant play.
Robinson took off down the sideline, juked one would-be tackler and was gone.
“They ran that a couple of times, so that time I trusted my instincts and I just happened to jump it,” Robinson said. “Two of my guys, Shad Davis and Antonio Stevens, ended up smashing the receiver and leaving me open for the pick. And I took it home. I felt like that took all the air out of them.”
Harding hung in the game early. McKinley led 7-0 as the first half wore on and its offense sputtered.
Hurry-up mode sparked something in the Bulldogs.
Junior QB Braylon Crook hit Darius Hill for 16 yards, then went over the top to 6-5 Legacy Lee, who made a leaping 30-yard catch over a Harding defender. That set up Crook stepping up in the pocket and throwing a 27-yard touchdown pass to Hill, who beat Richardson in a 1-on-1 hand-fighting duel. McKinley led 14-0 with 10 seconds left in the half.
“It just swung the momentum,” said Matt Richardson, Harding’s coach and the father of the younger Richardson. “You’ve got to get them off the field.”
All-Ohio running back Kyelin West gave McKinley a 7-0 lead with an 18-yard touchdown run on the game’s opening possession. West didn’t play the second half for precautionary reasons due to some leg soreness and finished with 47 yards on nine carries.
That gave McKinley a chance to showcase some of its depth at running back. DeMarlo Rozier Jr. ran for 87 yards and a TD on 16 carries. Derrick Gordon Jr. ran for 33 yards and a TD on seven carries.
McKinley also took out Crook for precautionary reasons in the second half and had Hill run QB. Crook, in his debut as McKinley’s starting quarterback, was 9-of-18 passing for 156 yards, one TD and one interception. Sophomore DeMarco Richardson Jr. caught five passes for 72 yards.
“If the score was different, you might’ve seen different decisions,” Parnell said about West and Crook.
Parnell had no intentions of doing much celebrating for the Harding win. He already was talking about St. Edward. The Bulldogs head to Lakewood to face the Eagles next week.
“You have to. They’re a perennial state contender,” Parnell said. “I’m used to playing them because I coached at Hoban for a long time, so I have a lot of respect for them and their program. You have no choice. You’ve got to move on.”
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This article originally appeared on The Repository: How Canton McKinley D stonewalls Harding ahead of bigger test next week
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Reporting by Josh Weir, Canton Repository / The Repository
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By Josh Weir, Canton Repository | USA TODAY Network
