Defense helps Nordonia football pull away from Mayfield

Showing a big-play mentality, Nordonia’s defense helped carve out a convincing 48-27 victory over rival Mayfield in the home opener Friday.

Besides a 57-yard touchdown pass just a few plays into the game and some scores late in the contest, the Knight defense held the Wildcats in check in this big non-league win.

Football::Top performers from week three in Greater Akron

“Our defense is what stood out to me the most in this game,” said Nordonia head coach Jeff Fox after the victory.

Football:Knights gets past Berea-Midpark in week two

Fox doesn’t mind giving up some yardage, but wants his defense to remain robust when it needs to, but he has also liked how disruptive the Knights defense can be against quality competition like Mayfield (2-1).

“Our linebacking core of Jeremy Olszko, Logan Villamagna, Brendan Hermensky, and Keiran Bell played against the run extremely well,” said Fox. “You are also starting to see how disruptive newcomer Asher Wilson (two sacks) can be.”

“Israel Petite and Tucker Rusk also had great games for us, taking away their speedy threat (Nick Biega),” said Fox. “Rusk had multiple big plays including the pick six to essentially close the game.”

The Rusk interception score that Fox was alluding to came with 3:00 left and the Nordonia defense also scored earlier in the quarter when sophomore Vince Natali forced a Mayfield fumble and it was recovered in the end zone by sophomore Caleb Aiken at the 8:25 mark.

Nordonia’s veteran linebackers and defenders have been aided by some younger athletes and that is a nice mix for the Knights (3-0) to have. A 27-7 halftime lead gave the club great momentum.

Meanwhile senior quarterback Joey Palinkas revealed the dual-threat portion of his talent resume.

Palinkas demonstrated his athletic ability and being a threat as a runner against Mayfield.

Besides a 17 of 23 effort for 199 yards and three touchdowns through the air, Palinkas had TD runs of five and eight yards. He had 11 rushes for 49 yards.

“Joey does have dynamic play making ability that has always been there, but really presented itself in this game,” pointed out Fox. “He made some big plays with his feet the week before against Berea-Midpark as well.”

“He has the ability to both run and throw, but especially, his ability to make good decisions with football while managing that, are pretty unique,” added Fox.

The passing touchdowns were to running back Zach Zender for 12 yards, an 11-yard TD strike to Nolan Cribbs, and a 26-yard toss to Mike Ebert, who also completed a 13-yard pass to Palinkas as the Knight staff has a diverse playbook.

Once again, Nordonia is spreading the wealth as nine different athletes had a catch, paced by Devin Tufts who had six receptions for 76 yards.

“I think the unique thing about this offensive group is how deep it is and how smart the players are to handle a variety of schemes within our system,” explained Fox. “We are starting to see the potential of this group overall.”

Early in the second period Knight senior Tracy Walker raced 67 yards for a touchdown run. He had a career high and a team-high 71 yards rushing in the win.

“Tracy is one of our hard-working leaders of the team that plays corner, special teams, and is a backup running back,” said Fox. “He had one tough run subbing for Zach (Zender) that he broke for an explosive touchdown.”

Nordonia opens Suburban League National Conference play Friday at home against North Royalton (2-1).

“We are excited to get back to work to try to clean up some of our mistakes and get ready for a tough North Royalton team,” commented Fox.

This article originally appeared on Akron Beacon Journal: Nordonia football pounds out convincing win over Mayfield