Vikings clinch at least a share of the Federal League title this season.

Josh Weir, Canton Repository

 

GREEN — The Hoover High School football team limped out of Week 1 with a black eye of a loss and all kinds of uncertainty at quarterback and beyond.

On Friday night, the Vikings finished off Week 9 with their sixth straight win and a Federal League championship.

The Vikings short-circuited a potent Green offense and controlled the game on the ground in a 17-7 win at Green’s Memorial Stadium.

It wasn’t pretty. It was brutally physical. It was quintessential Hoover.

And it gives the Vikings (7-2, 5-0) at least a share of their first league title since 2018 and just the second since 2008.

After losing quarterback Cade Henne days before the season opener and then getting routed 48-28 by Cleveland Heights, a trophy of any kind was difficult to envision.

Now, Hoover can win the outright league championship by beating Jackson in North Canton next week. A loss, and Hoover shares it with Jackson (8-1, 4-1) and McKinley (6-3, 5-1).

“We’ve come a long way,” said Hoover senior Drew Logan, a defensive end and offensive battering ram. “We have a lot of kids in this senior class and we’re not satisfied yet. We still have one more Federal League game. We want to be selfish. We don’t want to share it.”

Hoover jumped out to a 17-0 lead at halftime, at which point it had run 35 plays. Thirty-four of them were on the ground.

Junior Luke Roach ran for 119 of his season-high 162 yards on 33 carries in the first half, while the 6-foot-4, 230-pound Logan added two touchdown runs out of Hoover’s short-yardage triple-I.

Hoover head coach Brian Baum gave a lot of credit to the retooling of the run-heavy Vikings to offensive coordinator Mike Sigler and offensive line coach Justin Stutz.

He gave a lot of the credit for Hoover not folding after the ugly opener and falling to 1-2 in a loss to Mansfield Senior to the guys in uniform.

“I’m real proud of the players, the way they rallied together,” Baum said.

Hoover completed two passes for 5 yards Friday. Logan finished with six carries for 39 yards, while sophomore quarterback Carson Dyrlund added 70 yards on 20 carries.

On defense, the Vikings were dominant as usual.

They held Green to a season low in points while beating the Bulldogs for the seventh straight year. Hoover has allowed a total of 36 points during its six-game winning streak.

The defensive front of Logan, Mike Shimek, Christian Greco and Brady Sullivan was downright disruptive, sacking Green quarterback Trevor Van Horn multiple times, batting down passes and drawing a number of holding calls.

“Trevor is a really good QB, probably the best one we’ve seen all year,” Logan said. “We had to get in his face and not give him much time.”

On one play, Shimek engaged with Green’s offensive tackle. The Viking senior got off of the block and somehow ran down a wide receiver screen for minimal gain.

“That’s a talented group,” Green head coach Mark Geis said. “I think Shimek might be one of the better defensive ends I’ve seen in a while. He’s phenomenal.”

Zander Bugara returned and gave the Vikings a boost after missing the last two games with an elbow injury.

The senior cornerback covered Green’s Trey Martin and kept him out of the end zone. Bugara broke up at least three passes as Martin finished with five receptions for 106 yards.

“Trey Martin is a really good player and Bugara was out there in his hip pocket all night,” Baum said.

The game was only 3-0 — thanks to a 34-yard Robby Smart field goal —early in the second quarter when Green made a costly mistake.

The Bulldogs fumbled and Hoover’s Daelen Campbell recovered at their 43. After three Roach runs got Hoover down to the 2, Logan plowed in for a touchdown to put the Vikings up 10-0.

Hoover got stuffed on a fourth-and-goal from the 1 later in the quarter, but that just led to Green punting from deep in its own end zone and giving Hoover the ball back on the 20. Four plays later, Logan scored on a 9-yard TD run to put Hoover up 17-0.

Green got on the board late in the third quarter when Van Horn found Jack Schaal on a 7-yard TD pass. Van Horn completed 20 of 42 passes for 241 yards, the one TD and no picks.

The Bulldogs played better in the second half on both sides of the ball. Schaal seemingly was everywhere, finishing with 13.5 tackles on defense and eight catches for 88 yards on offense.

But Green (6-3, 2-3) just wasn’t sharp enough. The Bulldogs lost two fumbles overall. One possession was ruined when they lost 14 yards on a wild snap.

“That was frustrating offensively the entire game,” Geis said. “It seemed like every time we got something going we’d shoot ourselves in the foot with a turnover or a negative play. Kind of unlike us this season.”

Hoover 17, Green 7 

Hoover – 3 – 14 – 0 – 0 — 17 

Green – 0 – 0 – 7 – 0 — 7 

First quarter 

H—R.Smart FG 34, 5:52 

Second quarter 

H—Logan 2 run (R.Smart kick), 9:37 

H—Logan 9 run (R.Smart kick), 3:35 

Third quarter 

G—Schaal 7 pass from Van Horn (Noirot kick), 1:11 

TEAM STATS 

                     HOO     —     GRE 

First downs: 20     —     12 

Rushes-Yds: 65-288     —     10-8 

Passing Yds: 5     —     241 

Comp-Att-Int: 2-5-0     —     20-42-0 

Punts-Avg.:  4-34.8     —     4-44.3 

Fumbles-Lost: 1-1     —     2-2 

Penalties-Yds: 5-40     —     4-30 

INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS 

PASSING—Hoover, Dyrlund 2-5-5-0. Green, Van Horn 20-42-241-0. 

RUSHING—Hoover, L.Roach 33-162, Dyrlund 20-70, Logan 6-39, Ashby 1-6, Baxter 2-6, Bugara 1-3, Griguolo 2-1. Green, Van Horn 8-17, Just 1-3, TEAM 1-(minus 14). 

RECEIVING—Hoover, A.Roach 1-9, Bugara 1-(minus 4). Green, T.Martin 5-106, Schaal 8-88, Budziak 2-26, Just 2-15, A.Martin 3-6. 

Records: Hoover 7-2, 5-0; Green 6-3, 2-3.