High school football: Missed opportunities sink Cloverleaf against Streetsboro

STREETSBORO — The Cloverleaf football team's regular-season finale will be remembered as one that was all about missed opportunities.The Colts dropped a 35-7 Metro Athletic Conference contest to Streetsboro that was the epitome of being closer than the final score indicates.Cloverleaf (6-4, 4-3) can take solace in the fact there will be a Week 11 game, as the 10th-seeded Colts will play at seventh-seeded Bay (6-4) in the Division IV, Region 14 first round for the second straight season. Streetsboro (8-2, 6-1) will host a first-round D-IV, Region 13 game against an opponent to be determined.The biggest blow to the Colts' chances against the Rockets soon after the same player that got them on the board, Ethan Gray, made a monster defensive play on the next play from scrimmage. Gray (23 carries, 68 yards) scored from 1 yard to pull Cloverleaf to 14-7. Then, when Streetsboro quarterback Colton Cox attempted to scramble on the ensuing position, Gray stripped the ball and recovered the fumble."We knew coming into the game that we needed to force turnovers," Gray said. "We were able to do that, but unfortunately not enough to win the game."The big defensive play from the Cloverleaf senior set his team up with first-and-10 from the Streetsboro 33.Two rushing attempts for 3 yards and a costly holding penalty moved the ball back to the 40. Isaac Smith's third-and-17 throw was picked off by defensive back Marcus Council, who returned it 28 yards to the 43."We had opportunities to win the game," Gray said. "We just couldn't finish drives and make the plays that needed to be made."The Rockets took seven plays to cover the 57 yards. Manny Gibson moved it the last 9 to push the Streetsboro lead to 21-7 with 28 seconds left in the half.Things went from bad to worse on the opening kickoff of the second half when the Colts fumbled. Council stung them again, taking it in from 24 yards to give his team a 28-7 edge.On the verge of being blown out, the Colts mustered one more rally thanks to some help from the Rockets, who celebrated a bit too much after Council's touchdown and had to kick off from the 25.They followed that by kicking the ball out of bounds, giving Cloverleaf possession at midfield.The Colts drove to the Rockets 16-yard line before Council picked off his second pass of the game, this one in the end zone.Council stung them again when he scampered 40 yards for a touchdown to make it 35-7 with 25 seconds left in the third quarter.The Cloverleaf defense recovered its second fumble of the game and picked off Cox in the fourth quarter, but could not get the offense untracked to narrow the gap."We got turnovers, but we didn't get the scores on offense," Cloverleaf offensive lineman Adam Gray said. "It's win or go home now, and we know that we can play against teams that are good like Norton and Streetsboro. We played with them. We just have to come out and get the dub."The Colts finished with just 161 yards of offense and were 1-of-10 on third down and 3-of-7 on fourth down.Contact Chad Grant at sports@medina-gazette.com.Streetsboro 35, Cloverleaf 7CLOVERLEAF 0 7 0 0 — 7STREETSBORO 7 14 14 0 — 35FirstS — Ayden Knueble 8 pass from Colton Cox (Logan Sadowski kick), 3:58.SecondS — Manny Gibson 13 pass from Cox (Sadowski kick), 8:17.C — Ethan Gray 1 run (Austin Sustersic kick), 3:47.S — Gibson 9 run (Sadowski kick), 0:28.ThirdS — Marcus Council 24 fumble return (Sadowski kick), 11:46.S — Council 20 run (Sadowski kick), 0:25. C SFirst downs 10 16Rushing 35/93 42/253Rushing average 2.7 6.0Passing 8/20 8/11Passing yards 68 91Total offense 55/161 53/344Punting 2/34.0 2/29.0Penalties 4/27 12/87Fumbles 1/1 3/2RUSHING: Cloverleaf — Gray 23-68, Isaac Smith 5-10, Kellen Price 5-9, Marzell Davis 2-6. Streetsboro — Council 10-122, Janiere Cook 15-82, Ayden Knuebel 4-23, Cox 6-10, Gibson 2-10, Logan Fincham 3-8, Team 2-(-2).PASSING: Cloverleaf — Smith 7-18-64-1, Price 1-2-4-1. Streetsboro — Cox 8-11-91-1.RECEIVING: Cloverleaf — Elliot Jordan 1-25, Price 4-19, David Hunter 1-19, Jimmy Tolley 1-4, Zayne Trent 1-1. Streetsboro — Gibson 3-48, Noah Hodge 1-26, Knuebel 1-8, Cook 1-5, Council 2-4.