The Green Bulldogs Put Up a Valiant Effort Against Tallmadge in Overtime / Interview With Green Football Head Coach Mark Geis (Off The Leash | 9/3/22)
The Bulldogs fall to a record of 2-1 after a battle against a strong Tallmadge team.
After a victory over a strong North Olmsted team in week 2, most wondered if the Bulldogs of Green High School would keep their perfect record against the Tallmadge Blue Devils in week 3. Unfortunately, the Bulldogs fell in a war that raged into overtime. Only losing to a 2-point conversion by Blue Devils QB Tyler Hurst (#6). Leaving the final score to be 47-46 Tallmadge, the Bulldogs showed that a young team like themselves could hang with the big guys.
With Tallmadge having one of the best high school football players in the state of Ohio (WR/SS Collin Dixon #2), this was going to be a rough one. Yet the Bulldogs still pulled through, especially in the second half. With Green WR/CB Jarrett Taylor (#2) going for 3 receptions and 3 touchdowns, the Bulldogs put up a fight against a strong Tallmadge defense. However, even with a scoring offense they struggled with turnovers and penalties. Having around 2 penalties per drive on both sides of the ball in a scoreless first quarter and 3 INTs overall in 4 quarters, these would prove to be a lingering issue. Though if you look past these mistakes, Green held a team with D1 recruits to a one point lead in OT.
I was able to grab a post-game interview with Green’s head coach Mark Geis after the game.
Here is the post-game interview:
Aiden: “Though you lost, your team put up a valiant effort against a school with 2 D1 recruits. Any props to your guys?”
Geis: “Really proud of our kids, cause I mean- let’s be honest.. we’re rolling out there with either a lot of young kids that haven’t played or old kids that haven’t played. Maybe a couple experienced guys- but the amount of guts and grit that we showed out there tonight, we have nothing to hang our heads about.”
Aiden: “Zach Baglia, Antonio Martin: two of your best receivers- I don’t really know about Antonio Martin, you could send that kid anywhere. If you had to choose, what’s the depth chart look like?”
Geis: “Honestly, we don’t talk about ones or twos- we talk about our system. Everyone on a different night [is] gonna get an opportunity just because [of] the way we run things.. But our dispersion of the ball is pretty good and I think we did a good job tonight moving the ball around and gettin’ it to a bunch of guys.”
Aiden: “I did mention two D1 recruits [from Tallmadge], but one in particular Collin Dixon- did you kind of center your gameplan around him? Was he, you think, your biggest threat [in] this game?”
Geis: “He’s their best player. [He] is one of the best players in Ohio for a reason. Uh- showed tonight what he can do and obviously we tried to stop him as much as we could and- try not to let their best player hurt you or win the game, and we tried to defend him for sure.”
Aiden: “Alright, thank you so much- great game.”
Geis: “Absolutely, thank you.”
Here are some takeaways from last night’s game:
Klockner (#19) still impresses on his off days.
Green QB Robby Klockner (#19) had a rough game today, but a rough game is not a bad game. He recorded over a 50% completion rate for 332 yards and 5 TDs. Something to notice is that though the D-line catches up with him frequently, he knows how to combat it well. Tallmadge’s D-line usually went to block his passes as soon as they got past the O-line, but Robby pump fakes and weaves through holes in the defense to get out of a bad situation. It also helps that he’s a good scrambler, going for 66 yards and often picking up much needed yardage for the Bulldogs.
Still feed the ball to Martin (#3)
As expected, Klockner fed the ball to Antonio Martin (#3) for crucial plays. He scored Green’s overtime touchdown, and also played good defense the whole game. Antonio is one of the most important pieces of this young Bulldogs team, being expected to convert the 3rd down most of the time. However, Martin is only a sophomore, and the sky’s the limit for him. Definitely looking forward to Martin’s performance next week against Jackson.
Green stays at home next week to face the Jackson Polar Bears, and fans are eager to see how the Bulldogs will fare against their first Federal League opponent of the season. Check back here Wednesday for the game preview.