Spartans look to keep up the momentum at Garfield in second round of playoffs

Thanks to an 18-12 thrilling come-from-behind home playoff victory in overtime over Chagrin Falls last Friday, the magical season for Conneaut gets to continue Friday night.

The win — the first playoff victory in school history — advances the No. 5 Spartans to take on No. 4 Garrettsville Garfield in the second round of the Division V, Region 17 playoffs at Jag Field at 7 p.m. at Garrettsville Garfield High School.

“Everyone’s excited, and it is a big deal for the community,” Conneaut coach Rocco Dobran said in describing the excitement around the team after last the win over Chagrin Falls. “Winning on our home turf, and also getting the first playoff win in school history … yeah, people in the community are excited, the students are excited, and obviously the team is and is ready to keep moving this forward.”

Each round of the playoffs is expected to get tougher, and Garfield will undoubtedly provide a challenge for Dobran’s crew

The G-Men have qualified for the playoffs the last eight years under coach Mike Moser, who is 114-41 in his 14 seasons leading the program.

Garfield finished the regular season undefeated at 10-0, and captured the Mahoning Valley Athletic Conference Gray Tier championship in its last season in the conference.

“The biggest thing is, they’re just a successful program and they’ve been there before,” Dobran said. “They have a lot of seniors on their team, so they’re a very experienced team not only playing-wise, but in the playoffs, they’ve been there before. They know how it’s done, and you can tell they have that confidence when you watch them play on film.”

Garfield earned a bye as a top-four seed in the region.

The G-Men last played Oct. 23, and snared a 21-13 win at Brookfield to end the regular season.

That was the only time Garfield scored fewer than 37 points all year. The G-Men are averaging more than 44 points per game.

“If you look at their scores, that’s what they’ve done to most of the teams they played,” Dobran said. “I think they only had two close games, so just very impressive in the way they’re coached and the way they play.”

Of course, the Spartans have also been impressive — posting a 10-1 record on the season. It’s Conneaut’s best year since 1985.

Dobran believes the team’s only loss this year — 48-0 against state power Kirtland Sept. 18 — will help his team in preparation for Friday.

“Playing a team like Kirtland does get you prepared to play a team like Garrettsville,” Dobran said. “It is kind of at another level and our kids have now seen what the best is. I felt like after the Kirtland game we’ve gotten a lot better offensively. We have on both sides of the ball, but offensively we feel like we’ve gotten a lot better since that game.”

Dobran hopes the offense can control the time of possession, and keep the Garfield offense off the field as much as possible.

“We have to hold the ball on offense and try to not give their offense the ball,” he said. “We know they’re going to score some points, but we got to at least make them work for it. We have to get some stops whether it’s turnovers or making them punt.”

Garfield is led by senior quarterback Collin McGranahan, who has completed 61% of his passes in throwing nine touchdowns, to go with 13 rushing scores.

Junior running back Ryder Cain is also one of the G-Men top playmakers, rushing for 21 TDs.

Dobran said Garfield’s offensive attack is like Kirtland in terms of simplicity and execution.

The coach said it was a goal of this year’s team to get past where other Conneaut teams have not been able to go.

Now that the Spartans have accomplished that goal, Dobran hopes the wave of momentum created from a first-round playoff win will carry over to Friday.

“We haven’t been this far before, but we are definitely playing with that momentum,” Dobran said. “The kids are truly starting to believe in themselves and what they are capable of.”