By Phil Keren

Correspondent

Norton made bigs plays in all three phases of the game to secure a 28-7 road game victory over previously undefeated Field on Friday at Kenneth Lohr Stadium in Brimfield.

“I thought that was the best complete football game we’ve played special team-wise, defense-wise, offense,” said Norton head coach Glen Kruger. “This was a big one.”

After starting the season with two losses, Norton has now won three straight and will have a big showdown next week against Streetsboro.

“I think those losses have really made us better as crazy as it sounds,” Kruger said. “I think we were a little complacent coming into the season, thinking we won three league titles in a row, we can just come out and do it again. That’s not going to happen, not this year, not any year.”

Meanwhile, Field turned the ball over three times, fumbled multiple snaps and had a special-teams mistake that led to Norton’s first touchdown.

“You can’t keep putting your defense in those situations and hoping that they’re just going to fix everything,” said Field head coach Matt Furino. “The offense has to produce. We didn’t

produce tonight. You’re not going to beat the three-time league champs doing what we did tonight.”

In the first quarter, when Field lined up to punt, the snap was low and dropped by the punter, who then picked it up and quickly kicked as Panther players charged at him. The punt was very short, bounced on the ground and was scooped up by Norton’s Tyler Koger, who ran it back 36 yards to the Field 11-yard line. Three plays later, Marcus Brown scored on a 2-yard run to put Norton ahead 7-0 with 4:52 to go in the first quarter.

Kruger called Koger’s punt return a “big head’s up play.”

“He looks down the field, sees there’s nobody in front of him, so he picks it up and runs,” Kruger said. “He got us in a great spot there. Every yard was going to count tonight. It didn’t matter how we got it.”

Following a Field offensive possession that included two fumbled snaps, Norton put together a 13-play, 84-yard drive that culminated with a 13-yard touchdown run by Jason Beverly on a pitchout run to his right. The score put the Panthers ahead 14-0 at the 8:12 mark of the second quarter. The key play of the drive was a 37-yard completion from quarterback Buddy Willig to Beverly on third down and 5.

On the first play of Field’s next possession, another fumble by Field on the center-to-quarterback exchange was recovered by Norton’s Caeden Dedomenic at the Field 12-yard line.

The Falcons’ defense stood its ground, forcing a 32-yard field goal that missed the uprights.

At halftime, Field regrouped, marched out of the locker room and strung together a 15-play (14 on the ground), 76-yard drive that ended with Drexal McAmis powering into the end zone from 4 yards out. The touchdown sliced Norton’s lead to 14-7 with 3:47 remaining in the third quarter.

After the Falcons had the most time-consuming drive of the night, Norton responded with the least time-consuming one. Willig faked a hand-off to Beverly, who was running to his right, and Willig then ran to his left, got to the outside and found plenty of open field when he turned the corner. Willig raced down the sideline untouched for an 80-yard score that put Norton ahead, 21-7, with 3:27 to go in the third period.

Willig’s 80-yard touchdown was, Kruger said, “a great response to a long drive by Field.”

“It kind of put the wind back in our sails, got the momentum up,” Kruger said. “He had a great read on that play and you just saw his athleticism kind of shine there.”

Kruger noted Willig has been battling back from some injury problems.

“He hasn’t been back 100 percent yet, but I think you’re starting to see some flashes,” Kruger said. “He does a great job of managing the offense when he’s a quarterback, runs hard when he’s a tailback.”

Willig scored again in the fourth quarter on a 2-yard run to round out the scoring.

Though they were taking on a tough opponent, Kruger said he didn’t believe his team felt like they were under a lot of pressure.

“Our kids had a lot of fun this week getting ready, getting geared up for it, because we knew if we could take care of business tonight, we could put ourselves back on the map, get our name back out there a little bit on the positive side of things,” Kruger said. “I’m just proud of our kids. They played their butts off for us tonight.”

On the opposite sideline, Furino took full responsibility for the loss.

“I didn’t get us ready,” Furino said. “We weren’t ready to play tonight. We don’t blame anybody but the head football coach. We got to do better, and I will do better next week. The team will come out a different team. I know my kids will come back from this and my coaching staff will come back from it, but you can’t make that many miscues. You can’t come back from that many bad things happening to you.”

Furino noted his team is now facing some adversity that it will have to overcome.

“When you’re 4-0 and everybody loves you, everything’s going your way, it’s easy to have character,” Furino said. “It’s easy to be tough. It’s easy to be everything. Now we’re going to find out who we are. Character is who you are when life is tough, not when life is easy.”