MASSILLON – Mere hours after the Van Wert Cougars Damon McCracken delivered his team a state title with a field goal Coldwater kicker Brady Klingshirn earned the Cavaliers their seventh championship with a boot of his own.
Tied at 35-35 with just :04 remaining the senior kicker split the uprights from 26 yards out as time elapsed from nearly the exact same spot on the field as McCracken had done just hours earlier on the field at Paul Brown Tiger Stadium to secure a 38-35 victory over New Middletown Springfield in the Division 6 State Championship game.
Springfield junior QB Beau Brungard, the starter a year ago in a finals loss to Anna showcased moments of sheer brilliance rushing the football on this rainy evening as he would finish with four touchdowns and 261 yards rushing that included the final three scores for his team in the second half.
Brungard’s rushing total ranks as the 10th best individual performance in OHSAA State Finals history regardless of division while his four scores breaks the Division 6 record for single game rushing touchdowns by a one player that was shared by six players previously. Brungard also breaks the division record of most points in a game with 30, a record shared by Anna’s Riley Huelskamp (2019 vs Springfield), and Evan Burgei (Delphos St. Johns vs Shadyside 2010).
Coldwater started the scoring in the first quarter on just their third play from scrimmage with a 59-yard touchdown pass from Myles Blasingame to Zach McKibben with 10:23 on the stadium clock to give the Cavs a 7-0 lead.
Springfield tied up the ballgame at 7-7 with 5:50 remaining in the opening period on a 46-yard catch and run by wideout Nick Slike who would end the night hauling in 6 passes for 79 yards and the first score for the Tigers.
The first of the four touchdown jaunts for Brungard, a 44-yard scamper with 9:21 remaining in the opening half put the Tigers on top for the first time at 14-7 as the junior sliced his way through the white jerseys and into the endzone.
Working from the Springfield five yard line after a drive that encompassed 75 yards so far, Coldwater’s duo of Blasingame and McKibben hooked up once again for a score, this time on a five yard screen pass to tie the game at 14-14 with 3:31 left.
On the first play for the Tigers at their own 32 it was McKibben who struck again, this time on the defense end by recovering a fumble to give his team their first turnover and a start inside opponent territory.
Five plays came and went quickly for the Cavs to amass a 21-14 halftime advantage thanks to a one yard rush by Blasingame, his 18th of the year to give the visitors a 21-14 lead they would carry into the break.
Led throughout the season by their signal callers, each team watch theirs put up a score early on in the second half as first Springfield’s Brungard sprinted in from 42-yards away before seeing Blasingame take the lead back at 28-21 on a 53-yard touchdown jaunt.
Late in the fourth quarter the Tigers offense picked up a pair of first downs and moved the football behind Brungard for nearly four and a half minutes before they were able to thunder in from 18 yards out for a tying score with 4:14 to go.
Brungard’s fourth score of the night into a pouring rain came from 47-yards away and put the Tigers on top 35-28 with just 2:44 remaining and the Cavaliers in possession of all three timeouts.
Trailing by a score the unbeaten Cavs marched down the field in just a minute of time off of the clock and into the endzone for a tie score at 35-35 as Blasingame hooked up with Tyler Schwieterman for a 36-yard score.
After foorcing an end to a six play drive and working with all of their timeouts and just 1:31 remaining in regulation, the Cavs extraordinary punt return man Zach McKibben struck once again as he snagged a Jake Joyce punt near his own ten-yard line and raced 73 yards deep onto Springfield territory.
Seconds before the game winning kick by Klingshirn, Blasingame moved the football to the middle of the field on a quarterback keeper and was ruled down before he was stripped of the football.
Springfield sees their season end at 11-1 while the Cavaliers finish 12-0 and pick up their fourth title at Paul Brown Stadium, the first qt the venue since they defeated Columbus Bishop Hartley there 24-7 back in 2013.
In a game that featured nearly 900 yards of total offense between the two sides the Cavaliers ran two more plays overall but were outgained 457-421. Myles Blasingame led all Coldwater rushers with 105 yards on 17 carries and a pair of scores while his counterpart Brungard totaled 392 yards on the day.
With the win the Cavaliers give the Midwest Athleteic Conference title # 37 in football and # 138 overall and represents the second of the weekend as league mate New Bremen was victorious in their first try on Friday morning.