NORTH RIDGEVILLE, Ohio — A rivalry matchup between North Ridgeville and Midview turned into a revenge game for the Rangers. Thanks to a big three-score night from junior Zack Barnhart, behind his big and physical offensive line, the Rangers rocked the Middies 38-20 on Friday night.
It was a game that North Ridgeville (6-1, 14th in the cleveland.com Top 25) head coach Bryan Morgan and his squad had been waiting on for over a year. Last season’s difficult 35-28 defeat left a sour taste in the Rangers’ mouths.
The Rangers’ defense quickly set the tone for the game on the Middies’ opening drive with an interception from Carson Madis that brought Barnhart and the offense out on the field. Barnhart and senior Charlie Steinmetz split the carries in the backfield as the Rangers offense got into motion quickly to set up a 13-yard score by Steinmetz.
Wasting little time to make more of an impact, the Rangers defense, led by senior Austin DeShazo, forced a punt and the offense rewarded them with a score to bring the Rangers’ lead to 14-0 just seconds before the end of the first quarter.
“The (offense), they’re awesome giving us long drives to rest, I mean you can’t ask for anything else,” DeShazo said. “Putting up 38 on this team, I’ve seen them put up a lot of points, especially last year, but they were really clicking.”
Both sides hung in tight in the second quarter and it wasn’t until two minutes before the half that the Middies finally got on the board thanks to a special player making a special team play. Senior Dior Jones corralled a wobbling punt then slashed his way through the Rangers’ punt unit for a 55-yard score to cut the lead to 14-7 with 2:04 remaining in the second quarter.
Morgan knew then his team needed to respond with time running out and a feisty group of Middies hungry for some momentum.
His team responded with a 2-minute drill that ended with a 31-yard field goal to DeShazo as time expired in the first half that gave the Rangers a big edge headed into the break.
“First off, to get the three points on the board to end the half, that was a good response from our guys,” Morgan said. “We went into the locker room, everybody was upbeat. They knew that the second half was going to be ours.”
Taking the momentum from the points before half and receiving the second half kick, the Rangers got down to business with four quick chunk yardage plays with Barnhart running the ball and the offensive line moving bodies to quickly get down to the Middies’ 31-yard line.
That’s when Steinmetz got his number called again, this time lined up as a receiver, and made several Middies miss on a wicked score that sent the Rangers’ sideline into a frenzy freshly out of halftime.
“I think our first three plays went for over 10 yards in the second half,” Morgan said. “We just came out, controlled the line of scrimmage and guys got to their holes and the rest is history.”
It took until the third quarter for the Middies to get down into the red zone, but like they did for most of the night, the Rangers had answers. Junior Brian Strippy made the Middies pay for pushing the ball down field with an interception in the end zone that supplied the offense with the football once again.
Just like they did in the first half, the Rangers’ offense rewarded the defense, but not with a long drive as Barnhart hit an opening from his line and won a footrace to the end zone for a 72-yard score.
“I just have to give big thanks to the O-line, if it wasn’t for them then I wouldn’t be able to put up the numbers that I did today,” Barnhart said. “I just have to give props to them for coming into practice, working hard every single day. If it wasn’t for them, we wouldn’t be here right now.”
It was the offensive line’s big performance out of halftime that cemented the win in Morgan’s eyes behind his veteran group.
“You could tell in the second half that we controlled the line of scrimmage,” Morgan said. “We’ve got some dangerous backs and they gave them some space and it was Zack’s (72) yard touchdown run there in the third quarter that showed that.
“You give him a seam, he’s going to take advantage of it, break some tackles and that’s where I think we won the game in the second half.”
The Rangers celebrated with a rivalry trophy that will remain in North Ridgeville until the Middies have a shot at revenge in 2025.
Things don’t get easy for either team next week as North Ridgeville will travel to Berea-Midpark (1-6) and Midview hosts Avon (7-0).
