By Tom Nader

Publisher and Editor

Entering Friday night, the Garfield G-Men had an outside chance of earning a Mahoning Valley Athletic Conference Grey Division championship.

First and foremost, they needed to win.

They took care of that part, bouncing back from a slow first quarter to run away from visiting Liberty 56-27.

Secondly, they needed Champion to upset the Brookfield Warriors.

The Flashes fell short in that attempt, losing to Brookfield 42-7, thus ending the G-Men’s hopes of sharing the MVAC title with the Warriors.

Instead, the G-Men finish as division runners-up.

However, Friday’s win for Garfield did secure a playoff spot.

The team’s final ranking, however, will not be determined until after Saturday’s results. The G-Men could finish as high as ninth.

In the first quarter of Friday’s game, the G-Men trailed 7-0 and 14-7 before they asserted their dominance and took control of the game.

After falling behind 14-7, Garfield scored 49 unanswered points.

It started on a 4-yard run by Keegan Sell, which tied the score 14-14. Sell got bak at it on the G-Men’s next possession, this time scoring from 13 yards out to give Garfield a 21-14 lead that they would never give back.

Three touchdowns in the third quarter blew the game open.

The first was a 17-yard run by Vinnie Grandizio, which was followed by a 9-yard passing score from Eric Geddes to Leo Grandizio. The third touchdown was an interception return by Deacon Sommer, which made Garfield’s lead 42-14 by halftime.

Garfield built a larger lead in the third quarter thanks to Carter Bates’ 14-yard touchdown and Sommer scoring offensively on a 15-yard run.

Ethan Bittence was a perfect 8-for-8 on his extra points on Friday for the G-Men.

Garfield improved its record to 8-2 overall and 6-1 in the MVAC.

For the game, the G-Men totaled 265 yards on the ground on 41 attempts. Five different runners had at least 40 yards rushing including Sell (11 attempts, 59 yards), Bates (3-54), Jesse Grace (9-48), Geddes (5-45) and Vinnie Grandizio (5-42).