Vallejo, Blue Devils pound Liberty Center for regional title

BOWLING GREEN – Carey winning a Division VI regional final is impressive. But the fact that the Blue Devils are dismantling everyone in their path this playoff run is even more impressive. That excellent play didn't halt in any way against Liberty Center in a regional final at Bowling Green High School Saturday night. After the Tigers took the opening possession straight down the field and scored, Carey must've been all out of sorts and unable to respond, right?Wrong. Carey's Anthony Bell returned the kickoff to Liberty Center's 40 and quarterback Derek Lonsway did the rest on the first play with a 40-yard touchdown run on a QB keeper. Carey never slowed down after that, throttling the Tigers 31-7. The Blue Devils (13-1) advance to the state semifinal for the first time since 1994, where they face New Middletown Springfield at Euclid."The start of this whole thing I think was that really good kickoff return we had after they scored. That gave us some good field position for us," Carey coach Jonathon Mershman said. "(Lonsway) kept it around the edge for the touchdown and we were just ready to go from there. Give (Liberty Center) credit. They are a heck of a team and they played a heck of a game against Archbold last week. I don't know if they had a little hangover or anything from that game because they put so much effort into that game, but they did a fantastic job of making us work for everything."It's been too long," Mershman said about making a state semifinal. "We were up 21-7 at halftime in 2019 and it kind of didn't go the way we wanted it to in the second half and we didn't get there. That senior group were sophomores back then and they were hungry for it. I'm excited about this trip we're on right now."A big – pun intended – reason the Blue Devils are in a state semifinal is 6-foot-1 265-pound senior running back Jordan Vallejo. He rushed 128 yards on 17 carries and punished Tiger tacklers all game. "It's just crazy. Me and my brothers have been working all summer for this. All the sprints, everything and all of the hard work just went into this moment right here," Vallejo said. "It's crazy to think how much we've grown from the beginning of the year in that tough loss against Hopewell (-Loudon) and to bounce back from that touchdown they had that first touchdown (Liberty Center) had … I knew I had 100% confidence in my team."Carey went ahead 14-7 in the first quarter after Lonsway plunged into the end zone with a 1-yard score to cap off a 12-play drive. The Tigers (11-3) got inside Carey territory on the following drive, but punted, which would become a theme for Liberty Center the rest of the game. Carey took the possession down to LC's 13, but were stopped. Bell then drilled a 30-yard field goal to put the Blue Devils up 17-7 with 5:38 left in the opening half. The Tigers responded with a 13-play drive to get to Carey's 34, but turned the ball over on downs. On Carey's first play, Lonsway was hit and fumbled. Liberty Center recovered. New life. Not really. On the Tigers' first play from Carey's 35, quarterback Zane Zeiter was sacked for a 10-yard loss by Nathan Brodman. In the end, Liberty Center could not capitalize and Carey got the ball to start the second half. "The further you get in the playoffs, the harder it is to make big plays," Tigers coach Casey Mohler said. "We just couldn't make enough of those plays and again, we'd get a drive going, we'd get a negative play that put us behind the sticks and it got ugly then. We've played against bigger teams about every week, but these guys had probably more big bodies and really got downhill. We couldn't hit gaps, we couldn't move and they sealed everything off. We couldn't get anything going defensively, it was kind of like a slow death."Up by 10, a score on the opening drive of the second half would almost be the game for Carey. It didn't start out well as Liberty Center forced the Blue Devils into a third-and-17 from their own 33, but Lonsway threw one of his two passes on the night 37 yards to a diving Bryce Conti for a huge third-down conversion. Five plays later, Bell dove into the end zone for a 2-yard TD. Liberty Center tried to tighten things up later in the fourth but turned the ball over on downs at Carey's 33 with 5:15 left. Then Vallejo put the game away with a 6-yard TD run with 2:10 left. Vallejo and the skill guys were excellent all night, but the play in the trenches from both Carey lines were outstanding. "Those guys up front are my best friends on and off the field," Vallejo said. "Just the holes they create is absolutely insane and I know they have my back like I have their backs all the time. We just need to keep working and tightening up a few things, but I really believe this team has everything we need to get to where we want to be."Carey's defense has been lights out all season, posting shutout after shutout and even in the playoff run. The Blue Devils have only given up 21 points through four playoff contests to this point. "Our defense … that front we have I'm so excited about what they can do," Mershman said. "Give it to Liberty though, they came right down and scored on that opening drive, which hadn't happened to us in the playoffs yet. But our defense hunkered down after that. "Our defensive team of coaches do a heck of a job led by D.J. Dyer the defensive coordinator. I thought our defensive speed showed up tonight on the turf. Landen Kemerley flies around on defense. He's a special one for us and Lance Woods does an excellent job of setting the edge for us."That defense limited Zeiter to 4 of 16 passing for 32 yards and 20 carries for 62 yards on the ground. Teejay Moore ran for 79 yards on 13 carries. Lonsway added 80 yards rushing for the Blue Devils.