By Tom Nader

Publisher and Editor

Rootstown accomplished something in 2022 and 2023 that was accomplished only one other time in Portage County football history.

More than a century of football and the Rovers were just the second school to ever produce back-to-back 2,000-yard rushers.

The first time it ever happened was with Patrick Boggs at Field in 2010 and 2011 (2,245 and 2,272 yards, respectively) under head coach Patrick Youel, who is now the head coach at Southeast.

For Rootstown, Cody Coontz rushed for 2,322 yards in 2022. A tremendous season that Dawson Morgan encored with 2,195 yards in 2023.

As talented as those backs were for the Rovers, with speed, toughness and vision, they were also the product of a special offensive line and blocking backs.

Players like Tony Karp, Kyle Kuharich, Dominic Siglow, Brian Youngblood, Braden Wright, Dominic Duvall, Tristan McKibben, among others.

The group of blockers had strength, speed and intelligence — and it was rare for them to lose any battle in the trenches.

“There is an old saying in football that if you control the line of scrimmage, you control the game,” Rootstown veteran coach Tom Hannan said.

Over the last two years, the Rovers would be graded out at an A-plus rating on that motto.

“To be a great football team, you must be able to run the ball and control the clock,” Hannan said.

Hannan, who begins football coaching year No. 43 in 2024, wants to mirror the old adage this season, with offensive linemen returning that include Youngblood, Wright and McKibben.

Hannan, though, expects his offense to be “a little more balanced than the previous two years.”

“We will be running by committee,” said Hannan, who does believe that junior Damien Reuting has the ability to continue the long list of great Rootstown running backs.

The next chapter in the Rovers’ prolific run game will unfold on Aug. 23, when the team opens the year at home at Robert C. Dunn Field against Crestwood. — a familiar opponent for Hannan, who spent 16 years as the head coach of the Red Devils from 1994 to 2010.

“It’s a little ironic that after 14 years (since resigning at Crestwood), my first game back is against Crestwood. It is a place that I love and will always have great memories of my 16 years there. I had great coaches and good, tough, hard-nosed players. My son graduated from there and my three sons grew up on the sidelines in beautiful Mantua, but Week 1 is not about me, it is about the players from both schools and they will decide what happens.”