Springfield's Marco Gentile, left, is congratulated by Dante Gentile after scoring a touchdown during the first half of their game, Friday night at Western Reserve High School. (David Dermer/Warren Tribune Chronicle)
The Springfield Tigers have won 11 times in a row against Western Reserve after beating the Blue Devils 12-0 in Berlin Center on Friday.
The Tigers have outscored the Blue Devils 174-7 over the last five meetings, and the latest victory came with first place on the line in the Mahoning Valley Athletic Conference Scarlet Tier.
"Football is about alignment, assignment and execution," Springfield coach Sean Guerriero said. "To be a playoff team, you have to beat good teams. Our kids were disciplined, and they played the game the right way. It was a great effort."
Reserve got the ball first and after each team exchanged a pair of punts, the first quarter ended scoreless.
The Tigers were on the move to start the second. After a big run by senior Dante Gentile, and nice reception from senior Wyatt Kuboff, sophomore Marco Gentile came in at quarterback to finish off the drive with a 1-yard touchdown run. The Devils blocked the extra point and it was 6-0.
Springfield tried adding more points before halftime. However, junior Hunter Taylor made a couple of huge tackles and fellow junior Caleb Sinn ended the first half with a quarterback sack for the Devils.
The Tigers received the second-half kickoff, but quarterback Brayden Baird fumbled when they began the drive. Senior Nathan Hemberger recovered for Western Reserve (6-1, 3-1).
Quarterback Chris Pater tried ripping the ball downfield to senior Jack Darney. Unfortunately, for the Devils, Carson Cunningham intercepted the ball for the Tigers (5-2, 4-0).
Then, Dante Gentile refused to go down on a 42-yard touchdown run. He broke multiple tackles on his way into the end zone. The two-point attempt was no good and it was 12-0 with 5:30 left in the third quarter.
Western Reserve senior Parker Namie made a big stop on a fourth-down-and-1 play. However, the Tiger defense came up huge all night. Seniors Thomas Sheely and Kaesen Kosek had multiple tackles for loss during the shutout.
Dante Gentile had another long run, and he could have scored another touchdown late, but he knelt down at the goal line before the team lined up in the victory formation to end the game.
He finished with 37 rushing attempts for 266 yards and he now has 1,159 yards rushing on the season.
"I don't stop until I hit somebody or somebody hits me," he said. "There's bigger things coming. We've got a lot more to work on. The first goal, every year, is to win the league championship. Tonight was a big step towards achieving that."