Chalk another Mahoning Valley Athletic Conference victory off of the list for the Garfield G-Men football team. Garfield dominated MVAC Grey Tier and Portage County rival Southeast 42-7 to stay undefeated in league play last Friday evening at Freedom Field in Palmyra Township.
“It was a good game,” said Coach Mike Moser. “I keep saying the same thing but we played well and keep getting a little better each week. We started hot and played pretty well.”
It had been three seasons since the G-Men (5-1, 3-0) faced their former Portage Trail Conference rivals. Since joining the MVAC Grey Tier in 2021, it marked the first time that Garfield competed against the Pirates, who had just joined the MVAC Grey Tier this season.
According to the 12-year coach, it may have been three years but the familiarity of the rivalry still ran deep for each team. Now that the teams are league rivals again, the rivalry has once again been reignited.
“I think having not played them in a couple of years, there was still some familiarity there,” he noted. “Obviously we have played a lot in the past, but it was weird having not played them in the last couple of years and it was fun to go back and play them again.”
In the G-Men’s final three seasons in the PTC, they owned a three-year winning streak against Southeast and have now extended their winning streak to four games.
The G-Men took the lead in the first quarter by scoring on their opening drive on a 15-yard touchdown run by sophomore tailback/defensive back Devin Bates.
After forcing a Pirates’ punt on the ensuing possession, Garfield took over at its 1 but marched down the field to score again, this time on a 20-yard touchdown run by junior wide receiver/tailback/defensive back Brandyn Bogucki, extending the lead to 14-0.
Moser said it was not the first time Garfield overcame poor field position but perhaps the fastest they had done so.
“Field position is huge in high school football, so I think that was big momentum-swing for us early on,” he added. “We have confidence in the kids to execute the plays and everybody did their job and it worked out well for us.”
Garfield’s defense continued dominating the Pirates and the offense kept moving the chains.
After a five-yard touchdown run by the 6-foot Bates to extend the lead to 21-0, Garfield’s defense made some big plays. They forced a turnover on downs by Southeast at their own 5 and although they gave the ball back on their next possession, they forced another punt and the snap went over the punter’s head and rolled into the end zone for a safety, extending Garfield’s advantage to 23-0.
The G-Men capitalized on the short field on the next possession as Bates scored his third touchdown of the game, this time on a six-yard run, stretching Garfield’s cushion to 30-0.
Bates finished the game by rushing for 63 yards and three touchdowns on nine carries.
“He is on a nice run and is getting better every single week,” Moser said. “He has got a little elusiveness to him but he is a strong physical and downhill kid with good speed.
After adding one more touchdown on a 61-yard run by the 5-foot-9 Bogucki before the end of the half, the G-Men cruised to victory in the second half on a running clock.
“The defense was on point all night long,” Moser added. “They were active and flying to the ball and playing great team defense.”
After a start to the season when the G-Men could not execute explosive plays, those are starting to become more common for Garfield which Moser believes is another sign of the team’s growth.
“We are starting to hit some now but again we have a grinder part of the schedule coming up so we are going to have to get locked in and keep trying to get better every week,” said Moser.
Having won the first half of their league schedule, Moser said the toughest part of the MVAC Grey Tier awaits his squad in the final four games of the season.
“I think our kids are doing a good job at just going one week at a time and one game at a time, so we enjoyed the Southeast one on Friday and it is on to Liberty.”
Garfield will return home and welcome MVAC Grey Tier foe Liberty to JAG Stadium in Garrettsville this Friday at 7 p.m.
