CANTON, OHIO – Too much speed, too much skill, too much strength, oh well, you get the point.
Team USA, under the direction of Saint Ignatius head football coach Chuck Kyle ’69, made a resounding debut in Saturday’s opening round of the IFAF Junior World Championship in legendary Fawcett Stadium.
Dominating from the get-go, the United States made plays legends are made of in powering its way to a 78-0 victory over France.
Seeded second in the eight-nation international event, Team USA got an early touchdown from New Castle (DE) William Penn graduate Brian Fields, a Western Michigan recruit, and the enthusiastic and patriotic crowd was roaring from that point on.
The United States, whose 45-man roster is comprised of several of the top high school graduates from the Class of 2009, had seventh-seeded France on its heels all night.
Coach Kyle’s deep and gifted squad simply had too many starring roles, as following the first of two touchdowns by Fields, Oregon State recruit Jordan Poyer blocked a punt that resulted in a safety. Poyer, the offensive and defensive Player of the Year in Oregon while excelling as a quarterback/safety for Astoria High School, also had a touchdown off an interception return wiped out by a penalty.
The 37-point, first-half dominance also featured three impressive touchdown runs by Danville (VA) George Washington tailback David Wilson, a player we talked about on “The Corner’’ last week.
Wilson, who will be furthering his education and football career at Virginia Tech, scored on powerful and graceful runs of 6, 60 and 5 yards in the first 24 minutes, and had a fourth TD burst of 14 yards early in the third quarter. The 6-0, 192-pound Wilson rushed for 181 yards on just 12 carries.
Team USA’s final touchdown of the first half came on a 9-yard pass from Lake Hamilton (AR) High School quarterback Phillip Butterfield to Crenshaw (Los Angeles) wide receiver Noel Grigsby. Butterfield and Grigsby are bound for Arkansas State and San Jose State, respectively.
“David is just an amazing talent,’’ said Coach Kyle of the smooth and forceful Wilson. “Believe it or not, he spent his high school career running the Wing-T (offense), which is quite of a different angle in running the ball. So when he got here, he goes: ‘I never lined up as an I-formation tailback in my life.’
“And we’re going, well, you’ve got a week and a half to figure it out.
I think he did, and I think (Virginia Tech coach) Frank Beamer is going to appreciate that we backed him up (behind the line of scrimmage), let him get vision and run. He makes great cuts, has tremendous speed and is just a wonderful kid.’’
The United States was wonderful in almost every aspect of the game on Saturday night, totaling 610 yards in 60 plays and limiting France to just 7 yards in 47 plays. The quick, athletic and relentless USA defense assembled by Cincinnati St. Xavier coach Steve Specht totally shut down any attempt at a running game by the French, whose final total on the ground was negative 31 yards on 29 rushing attempts.
“With a week and a half (of practice), that’s about what you can prepare,’’ Coach Kyle said. “We’re going to play aggressive defense, there’s really no other way of doing it. Offensively we were running the ball well, but we did want to work on a passing game. So in the second quarter we decided to go out there, throw it a bit and get into a rhythm.
“I don’t like games getting like that (so lopsided),’’ Kyle continued. “But I don’t know how I can change that, if you only have 45 guys on your squad. Some of the first round games were higher scores, and certainly the second and third rounds are going to be much closer. But everybody’s OK, everybody’s playing football and I think if you noticed, it was pretty friendly out there.’’
Team USA, which was welcomed with open arms by the football-savvy fans in Stark County, will face third-seeded Mexico in a second-round encounter on Wednesday at 7 p.m. in Fawcett Stadium.
Mexico, behind the quick and accurate release of quarterback Roberto Isaias Vega, advanced with a 41-0 victory over sixth-seeded Sweden on Saturday afternoon. Vega completed 11 of 22 passes for 158 yards and two touchdowns, and also rushed for 37 yards and a touchdown.
“Mexico will be a challenge because they have some nice speed and a good, good quarterback,’’ said Kyle.
O CANADA!: Team Canada did nothing to tarnish its No. 1 seeding, as the Canadians dominated early and often in defeating the eighth seed New Zealand, 55-0, in Saturday’s opening game.
With its impressive victory, Canada advances to Wednesday’s second-round action against fourth-seeded Japan. The kickoff from Fawcett Stadium will be 4 p.m. Japan defeated fifth-seeded Germany, 10-7, in Saturday’s second game.
Team Canada rolled up 515 total yards and limited New Zealand to 53 yards. The Canadians led, 20-0, with two minutes, 45 seconds remaining in the first quarter and held a 41-0 lead at halftime.
THE DEFINITION OF JAPANESE FOOTBALL BY HEAD COACH TAKAO YAMAZAKI: “Samurai Football, heart, technique and physical! We will play with discipline.’’
Japan stayed disciplined throughout Saturday’s game and rallied from a 7-3 deficit after three quarters. The winning score came off an 8-yard quarterback keeper by Kazuma Ando. Ando’s game-winner was set up by some razzle-dazzle – a 26-yard double-reverse pass from Takushiro Hata to a wide open Jumpei Yoshimoto. The crowd-pleaser came off a second-and-5 from Germany’s 34-yard line.
A TALE OF TWO HALVES: In taking a 7-0 lead to its locker room at halftime, Germany totaled 135 yards on 23 plays and Japan managed just 31 yards on 24 plays. It was almost a total reversal in the second half as Japan gained 152 yards on 29 plays and Germany was held to 43 yards on 19 plays.
AXEL IN THE HOUSE: Taking in the Germany-Japan, Mexico vs. Sweden and USA-France games was Axel Hoyer, father of former Saint Ignatius football and baseball standout Brian Hoyer ’04. Brian Hoyer, who went on to a solid career as a quarterback for the Michigan State Spartans, is currently competing for a spot on the roster of the New England Patriots.
Axel Hoyer’s parents, his late father Edward and his mother Auguste, were born in Germany, as was Axel. Axel said he was nine months old when his family moved to the United States.
In another Hoyer tie with Germany, Brian Hoyer’s current teammate – offensive lineman Sebastian Vollmer – represented Germany at the 2002 European Junior Championship and became the first European-trained player to be selected in the NFL Draft when he was taken in the second round by the Patriots (58th player selected overall). Brian Hoyer plans to be on hand for this week’s second-round action in Canton.
IN STYLE: Also keeping an attentive eye on the USA-France game was Wildcats veteran offensive coordinator Nick Restifo. Coach Restifo was wearing a dapper white derby cap. But then all Cathedral Latin School graduates know how to make a classy appearance.
OUTSTANDING WORK AS USUAL: By Tim Rogers, my former colleague at The Plain Dealer, whose player profiles, team previews, notebooks, advances and game stories are keeping The PD readers entertained and informed. Tim has been a one-man machine while churning out great material on the IFAF Junior World Tournament.
A MEMORABLE SCENE: That’s about the best way to describe the opening ceremonies, which took place before the USA-France game.
All of the eight competing nations marched into Fawcett Stadium and lined up near the 50-yard line on the press-box side of the field, where a large American Flag flowed behind the teams. Team USA was the last competitor to enter the stadium and was led by the multitalented David Wilson, who carried the American Flag.
The National Anthem was followed by a fireworks display and, in a touching moment, Canton native Ronnie “Mazel’’ Harris, who won a gold medal in the lightweight boxing division at the 1968 Summer Olympics and went on to a professional career, entered the stadium carrying the flaming torch. Harris was greeted by a rousing ovation as he circled the entire stadium.
A huge tip of the cap, or helmet, if you will, goes out to the entire IFAF Junior World Championship staff for providing a classy and historical moment for all of us who were fortunate enough to be in attendance.
BY THE NUMBERS: And speaking of attendance, Saturday’s four games attracted a total of 10,145 fans to legendary Fawcett Stadium.