Marion Local football wins 13th state title with 14-6 win over Kirtland in Division VI state championship game

CANTON, Ohio – Different division, same outcome for Marion Local football, as the Flyers defeated Kirtland 14-6 to win the Division VI state championship on Saturday.

The defense, which has been the calling card for the Flyers all season, once again showed up against Kirtland.

Against an offense that averaged nearly 40 points per game this season, the Marion Local defense held Kirtland to just 161 total yards and six points. And the one touchdown for the Hornets came on a short field in the third quarter after a Marion Local field goal.

The Hornets had run for more than 4,700 yards as a team coming into Saturday, with Tommy Gogolin coming off a school-record 363 yards on the ground in a 41-6 win over Fort Frey in the semifinals last week.

Gogolin and Rocco Alfieri give the Hornets a 1-2 punch in the backfield, as Gogolin entered the game with 1,643 yards rushing and 16 touchdowns and Alfieri had 1,264 yards and 24 scores.

But Marion Local held Kirtland to just 109 yards rushing, with Alfieri carrying the ball 21 times for 77 yards and Gogolin had 16 yards.

“Coming into the season, we knew we were going to have a good defense,” Marion Local running back/linebacker Darren Meier said. “They had a high-powered offense, so we knew we our defense was going to have to step up to have to step up and stop the run.”

Not only did the defense stop Kirtland, but they put points on the board to help the cause.

Nearing the midway point of the third quarter and with Marion Local leading 7-0, Kirtland forced a turnover as Gino Blasini intercepted a pass for the Hornets. 

But just two plays later, Kirtland quarterback Jake LaVerde attempted a pass to the right side and Marion Local’s Nathan Buschur leaped into the air to intercept the pass and took it 57 yards for a touchdown.

“I just saw him overthrow it a little bit and I went up and caught it,” Buschur said. “I started running and all I could see where my teammates ahead of me and I didn’t see anyone else coming and I just kept running.”

Marion Local answered with another defensive stop, but on the first play of the ensuing possession, a Darren Meier fumble was recovered by Kirtland at the Marion Local 22.

The Hornets took advantage of the turnover, as LaVerde connected with Will Sayle for a 10-yard touchdown but the point after attempt was blocked and Marion Local led 14-6.

Kirtland had the ball four more times after that, but managed just 30 total yards, with three of the drives gaining seven yards or less.

Offensively, the Flyers were held to just 142 yards of offense as well themselves and their only offensive touchdown came late in the second quarter when Meier capped off a 5-play, 55-yard drive with a 1-yard touchdown run.

“Yards were hard to come by, let alone points,” Goodwin said. “Neither team could put much together, so obviously the one drove we had where we actually finished it off and Nate’s pick-6 were huge.”

This was the fourth time the teams have met for the Division VI title, with Kirtland winning in 2015 and 2018 and Marion Local taking home the win in 2017. Both teams were in different divisions in the last three seasons, with Kirtland jumping to Division V, where they were the state champions in 2019 and 2020 and Marion Local was down in Division VII, where they won the state title in 2019 and 2021.

When the division alignments were announced this past spring for the 2022 season, the teams knew they might be destined to clash once again.

“When they put the divisions (out) this year and we went from seven to six and they went from five to six, I think probably both schools kind of took notice of that,” Goodwin said. “(We) said if we want to win a gold trophy this year we are going to have to beat Kirtland in the end.”

This year’s trophy is the 13th in school history for the Flyers, a state record. 

Photo Gallery (photos by Jeff Harwell)