Hoover 31 - Uniontown Lake 24

September 28, 2012

The Vikings delivered Friday

Cliff Hickman, Canton Repository

NORTH CANTON  When the Hoover offense needed to put together a clutch drive late, the Vikings delivered Friday.

​The Vikings held on for a  hard-fought 31-24 win over Lake at Memorial Stadium, using a six-minute drive in the fourth quarter that saw them convert two fourth downs and score with two minutes left.

​Hoover drove from its own 14 to score on the key possession to take a 31-17 lead with just over two minutes left. The Vikings converted a third-and-14, a fourth-and-4

and scored their final touchdown on a fourth-and-13 when Austin Feinberg caught a TD pass from quarterback Dom Iero.

​“Dom did a great job keeping the ball in our hands and making good, safe throws,” Hoover head coach Don Hertler Jr. said. “He hit some big ones and our guys did a good job catching the deep ball. They doubled Austin most of the game and he did a good job staying patient. They got in a six-man line and he got single coverage and we were able to get him one on that last touchdown.”

​Feinberg had three catches for 116 yards.

​Hoover also got strong contributions from senior Sam Woods at running back, as well as sophomore Luke Grandjean at wide receiver.

​Woods was the primary running back for Hoover in the second half and moved the chains well. Woods had 14 of his 15 carries in the second half, finishing with 65 yards and a touchdown.

​“Sam is a senior and you win with seniors,” Hertler Jr. said. “Alex (Welsh) does a heck of a job running up in there. Sam is just a year older and a little stronger and a little faster and once the defense wears down that helps. Alex wears them down a little bit and Sam can come in a little more fresh.”

​Woods credited his teammates for his second-half performance.

​“The lineman opened up some great holes,” Woods said. “It was just easy from there on out. I was just getting easy yards out there.”

​Grandjean took advantage of all the attention on Feinberg. Grandjean caught eight passes for 96 yards and a TD. Grandjean also recovered the final on-side kick attempt by Lake. Grandjean believed the team was primed for success this week.

​“We really stepped it up in practice this week,” Grandjean said. “We really knew everything we were going to do this week. We really executed and played our game.”

​For Lake it was a battle to the bitter end. The Blue Streaks scored with 15 seconds left in the game on an 11-yard TD pass from Adam Dadich to Damian Maglione to pull within seven. But they were unable to gather the ensuing onside kick attempt.

​“We played hard, but we have to make some plays,” Lake head coach Jeff Durbin said. “We didn’t knock a ball down in the secondary all night and we didn’t get enough pressure on the quarterback. We gave the guy too much time. I give them (Hoover) credit. They were a different team tonight than what I saw last week.”

​A bright spot for Lake was the performance of running back Matt Blasiole. Blasiole had 14 carries for 90 yards and a touchdown. Blasiole also scored the first TD of the game on a 68-yard blocked field goal return.

​“He had a good night, but we didn’t give him much space in the second half,” Durbin said. “We need to give him opportunities and we didn’t do that.”