HOWARD – Few teams can draw upon the experience that East Knox brings into this season’s football playoffs. Fifteenth-seeded Toronto will face East Knox in this Friday’s Division VII, Region 27, contest at Chet Looney Stadium at 7 p.m.
The second-seeded Bulldogs had an incredible ride last season that took them to the state semifinals. The close, pressure-packed, exciting games the Bulldogs managed to win last season have given them something of an advantage in this season’s playoffs.
“It’s nice, having been through this situation before,” East Knox coach Cody Reese said. “Moving forward, it comes down to fundamentals and making sure we do things the right way. We need to focus on us and focus on improving.”
The Bulldogs, who knew their share of hard luck until last season, are confident but take nothing for granted.
“A lot of us played last year,” East Knox senior Weston Melick said. “It helps us to slow everything down in our minds. Coach (Reese) always said, ‘If you get excited or nervous, just slow everything down.’ And it has helped us in our close games this year. We’ll see if we can keep that going into the playoffs.”
Toronto defeated New Philadelphia Tuscarawas Central Catholic, 26-12 in their first round playoff game last Friday, rolling up 418 yards of total offense. Running back Garrett Dozier had 183 yards on 20 carries for the Red Knights. Dozier also ran for three touchdowns, including a 69-yard scoring run. In all, Toronto had 301 yards on the ground.
“(Dozier) has good vision and he’s a patient runner,” Reese said, “Their line does a good job of blocking up front and they come off the ball, pretty well. We have to make sure we’re sticking to fundamentals.”
On the defensive side, Toronto stopped Tuscarawas Central on fourth down at the 1-foot line on the game’s first drive. The Knights held TCC to only 45 yards on the ground for the entire game. The Saints scored their 12 points in the fourth quarter, mostly against Toronto’s reserves.
With Bulldogs running back Ian Toller sidelined with a leg injury, freshman Cole Delaughder has taken over his spot. He will be surrounded by a solid line, quarterback Peyton Lester and receivers like Melick, Braden Kannady, Shane Knepp and Carson Steinmetz. All of them are itching for another big playoff run.
“We had a bye week, so we took the whole week to fix what we’ve been messing up on,” Melick said. “Coach (Reese) said that we need to take this week seriously and get better, because, if not, we’ll have a short season. So, we’re just getting better every day and fixing our mistakes and we’ll see what happens this Friday.”
