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It reminded me of a typical Super Bowl. A week of hype and hot air, and then the ultimate letdown. Clyde senior signal-caller Pat Burkin, who had a lot to say in the week leading up to the game, suffered his worst performance of his career, as the Redmen left little doubt in the 41-14 massacre before an announced crowd of 4,109 at Bellevue Athletic Field. In fact, as the fourth quarter began, my eyes drifted to the scoreboard, which spoke in volumes. And my mind raced back to the magical season of 1993. Of course I was just a punk kid then, and had no idea what football was about, but I knew something big was going on that late October night in Richland County. The temperatures were falling consistently throughout the evening, and the frigid winds continued to blow harder down in the valley they call W.W. Skiles Stadium in Shelby. The two legends of the Northern Ohio League were meeting in week ten for two things: a playoff spot and the league pennant. Nothing big. All week long we heard about how the Whippets were made in God's football image. As I recall, some Shelby players even called the Redmen seniors forecasting the imminent Whippet triumph. Talk is cheap, and hype is costly. The image of Ryan Irons' back and the #43 growing smaller as it raced away from the return team is one that the citizens of Whippetville still have nightmares about, as Bellevue throttled a shell-shocked Shelby team and advanced to the Regional Finals. Well Friday night was a similar situation. Just substitute Burkin and the Flyers for the Shelby Whippets. The game began as a grueling stalemate, but the better and more prepared team quickly took control of the game. The young, inexperienced Redmen pounced on every opportunity presented to them by a Clyde team which was growing increasingly disappointed after every play. Pat Burkin, who won the starting quarterback job for Bob Bishop in 2000, lost his third game to the Redmen. He fell 21-7 in 2000, and 20-0 in Clyde a year ago. Burkin picked the wrong night to have his worst performance as the quarterback, going 6 for 21 with two fumbles and three interceptions, one of which was returned for a touchdown which further electrified the Bellevue crowd, as the Redmen enjoyed a 27-8 second quarter lead. The Bellevue coaches, players and sideline in general got on Burkin early and often. Burkin had made comments in the Fremont News-Messenger prior to the game virtually guaranteeing a Flier victory. The Redmen sideline barked at Burkin all night, who shot comments right back before the line judge calmed things down. Finally in the third quarter, the situation between Burkin and the Redmen boiled over. Burkin tried to corral a terrible shotgun snap, ran back six yards to pick the ball up and was tackled. Joe Tuttamore somehow couldn't stop himself in mid-air and bumped into Burkin's left side. As the game ended, head coach Ed Nasonti issued stern instructions to his squad before shaking hands, and the Redmen showed extreme class in celebrating the win. It wasn't a Super Bowl-type celebration. Rather, just a celebration by a team that expects to win, knows how to win, and now has won for the past seven years. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
