All season long the Garfield G-Men football team has needed to learn several lessons to stay at the top of the Mahoning Valley Athletic Conference Grey Tier to follow in the footsteps of their predecessors. The G-Men proved to be good students, defeating MVAC Grey Tier foe Brookfield 41-14 in the regular season finale to secure outright ownership of the league banner last Friday evening in Trumbull County.
“It is special and it feels really good,” said Coach Mike Moser. “I am really proud of these kids. It is a young team and a team that grew up all season and got better and found a way to get some close games and in some hostile environments, so we are pretty pleased.”
By defeating the Warriors, Garfield (9-1, 7-0) secured the fourth seed in the Ohio High School Athletic Association Division V, Region 17 postseason, guaranteeing them home field advantage in the first two rounds. The G-Men will try and capitalize on their home field advantage when they host Trinity at JAG Stadium this Friday at 7 p.m.
“We are real excited to be getting to work on Trinity,” said the 12th-year coach. “It is always special, and it is one of our goals and we have accomplished that goal to qualify for the playoffs and now we reassess our goals and can hopefully move forward.”
Not only did the G-Men win their third MVAC Grey Tier banner in the last four years, but they also finished the season with their second consecutive undefeated record within the league. Garfield has not lost a MVAC Grey Tier contest since the Warriors defeated them for the conference title the 2022 season. Since then, the G-Men own a 15-game winning streak inside the league.
“I think it is impressive and it is a testament to the kids,” noted Moser. We have played some really good programs in this league and in some tough environments and some tough games, so I think it speaks really highly of them.”
After Garfield’s winning streak of 12 regular season games was snapped with a loss against former Portage Trail Conference foe Warren John F. Kennedy on Aug. 30, Moser said it served as a nice reminder to a young team about what it truly takes to have a successful regular season.
“You can learn how hard it is to win and how many things you have to do right to win on a weekly basis,” he said. “You don’t have to do a whole lot wrong to lose and maybe our kids learned a valuable lesson that night. We did not play well for a half, and we lost focus a couple of times and that is what happens. Hopefully that was a lesson that was learned.”
Last Friday, the G-Men got off to a slow start, falling behind 7-0 after the Warriors engineered a long drive on their first possession of the game.
According to Moser, Brookfield did a nice job at packing the box in an effort to slow down the G-Men’s rushing attack. Garfield turned to junior quarterback/defensive back Jack Neikirk to spark the offense, and he delivered.
The 6-foot-2 junior helped the G-Men respond by delivering a 42-yard touchdown pass to senior wide receiver/linebacker Aiden Hill in the first quarter, trimming the lead to 7-6 after Garfield missed the extra point. Neikirk pushed the G-Men ahead for good when he connected with junior wide receiver/tailback/defensive back Brandyn Bogucki in the second quarter for the go-ahead touchdown, giving Garfield a 14-7 advantage after a successful two-point conversion.
“We had to get them out of there with something and Jack put the ball on the numbers a couple of times,” Moser said. “It was nice to see, he is a kid who works hard at his craft all week long and it was nice to see that nice hard work transfer over to a Friday night.”
Neikirk completed three passes out of four attempts for 134 yards and two touchdowns.
The G-Men carried their lead into the half and extended their advantage when sophomore running back/defensive back Devin Bates scored a rushing touchdown in the third period, widening the lead to 21-7.
After the Warriors responded with another touchdown to cut into Garfield’s lead, 21-14 the G-Men outscored Brookfield by a 20-0 margin to cruise to victory and another league title.
“They moved the ball a little bit and we would get a stop but somewhere we started to get it cranked up a little bit heading into halftime,” Moser said. “We got the ball first to start the third quarter and put a nice drive together and then started to take control a little bit.”
