High school football: Highland wraps up second straight 10-0 season; gets first-round bye in playoffs

GRANGER TWP. — The Highland football team knows tougher matchups are ahead, but Friday night was a time to celebrate and everyone got in on the party.The Hornets wrapped up their second straight undefeated regular season and again won the Suburban League American Conference outright with a 62-0 throttling of last-place Cuyahoga Falls on senior night.Highland (10-0, 7-0) led 21-0 less than four minutes into the game, saw seven players score eight touchdowns, had three quarterbacks throw touchdown passes and had three kickers score points on a night when both teams agreed to implement the running clock at the start of the second quarter.Next is a Division II, Region 6 quarterfinal after a bye in the first round of the playoffs. The Hornets (10-0) earned more computer points than Wadsworth due to a 45-43 edge in opponent victories to take the top-seed tiebreaker."Obviously, it feels great, but we know we've got a lot more to come," Hornets senior quarterback Grady Gibb said. "We've got to keep our foot on the gas pedal, keep going and keep improving."After the team took a picture to commemorate the undefeated season and league championship, Gibb made sure to gather the rest of his senior teammates for another photograph to remember the night on which the Hornets gained 339 yards on 34 plays and held Cuyahoga Falls (1-9, 0-7) to minus-11 on 31."We've been a group of guys that have been playing together since youth," Gibb said. "It's just awesome to play our last regular-season home game and be able to have fun."Gibb was his usual ultra-efficient self, completing 5-of-6 passes for 63 yards, including a 16-yard touchdown strike to Lucas Gerding on his first attempt. He also ran for two touchdowns on three carries for 28 yards. He only played the first half with his team up 46-0 at the break.Following Gibb, backups Aiden Pulice and Jonathan Prucha each threw a touchdown on their lone attempt. Pulice hit Ben Radigan (2 catches, 68 yards) for a 59-yard score on a wide-open post. Prucha found freshman Greyson Heldreth for a 19-yard score with 1:32 left in the game.The Black Tigers will leave the SL American for the Metro Athletic Conference next season with a 54-game league losing streak.What type of night it was going to be became clear immediately following Gibb's 17-yard touchdown on an option keeper opened the scoring 1:14 in.Amir Haynes fumbled the ensuing kickoff twice, with the Hornets coming up with the ball the second time to set up the Gibb touchdown to Gerding, which made it 14-0 before the Black Tigers ran a play from scrimmage.Hanging on to the ball was an issue for Cuyahoga Falls, which fumbled six times but only lost one.After Highland forced a three-and-out on the Black Tigers' first offensive possession, punter Elijah Hayes was unable to cleanly field the snap, giving senior Kallen Whitling the opportunity to block the punt and return it for a 21-0 lead with 8:09 left in the first quarter.Another bad snap led to a safety just before halftime."We're just out here having fun," Whitling said. "We prepare for every team, every week. We're ready for what they're going to throw at us and we just go out there and do whatever we can."The big plays kept coming on defense, as Cooper Zielinski intercepted quarterback Gavanni Tuttle on the next possession to give Highland the ball on the Cuyahoga Falls 39.Great field position was a trademark, with Highland never starting worse than its own 37 and seven times starting on the short side of the 50.Nathan Painter also picked off Tuttle in the second half."We had a plan going into it," Zielinski said. "We're going to go in on defense and do what we do."Tuttle (2-of-9, 7 yards, 2 INTs; 10 rushes, minus-8 yards) was a converted wide receiver that mostly ran out of the Wildcat due to injuries to Cuyahoga Falls' top two quarterbacks.The Hornets also got touchdowns from Casey Myser (9 rushes, 97 yards) and Dylan Lazar. Jonah Kowza and Carson Kwiatkowski hit field goals and Kowza, Kwiatkowski and Landon Kuzma each made two extra points.Contact John Urchek at jurchek@medina-gazette.com.Highland 62, Cuyahoga Falls 0CUYAHOGA FALLS 0 0 0 0 — 0HIGHLAND 30 16 9 7 — 62FirstH — Grady Gibb 17 run (Jonah Kowza kick), 10:46.H — Lucas Gerding 16 pass from Gibb (Landon Kuzma kick), 10:30.H — Kallen Whitling 2 blocked punt return (Carson Kwiatkowski kick), 8:09.H — Kowza 42 field goal, 4:05.H — Casey Myser 3 run (kick failed), 0:35.SecondH — Dylan Lazar 4 run (Kwiatkowski kick), 9:17.H — Gibb 16 run (Kowza kick), 3:01.H — Safety (ball snapped through end zone), 0:29.ThirdH — Ben Radigan 59 pass from Aiden Pulice (kick failed), 7:15.H — Kwiatkowski 24 field goal, 1:16.FourthH — Greyson Heldreth 19 pass from Jonathan Prucha (Kuzma kick), 1:32. C HFirst downs 2 14Rushing 22/-18 25/198Rushing average -0.8 7.9Passing 2/9 7/8Passing yards 7 141Total offense 31/-11 34/339Punting 5/27.4 0/0Penalties 1/5 5/30Fumbles 6/1 2/0RUSHING: Cuyahoga Falls — Vincent Lambis 1-2, Josh Bell 2-1, Jordan Saunders 1-0, Madden Horner 7-(-2), Gavanni Tuttle 10-(-8), Team 1-(-11). Highland — Myser 9-97, Gibb 3-28, Lazar 3-26, Heldreth 2-14, Prucha 2-11, Franki Iannaggi 2-9, Gerding 1-7, Pulice 1-6, Anthony DePompei 1-0, Cooper Zielinski 1-0.PASSING: Cuyahoga Falls — Tuttle 2-9-7-2. Highland — Gibb 5-6-63-0, Pulice 1-1-59-0, Prucha 1-1-19.RECEIVING: Cuyahoga Falls — Jordan Luster 1-8, Emmet Berry 1-(-1). Highland — Radigan 2-68, Gerding 2-33, Heldreth 1-19, Jake Weber 1-18, Lazar 1-3.