Tommy Caimi had a huge night for the Kirtland football team, with 238 rushing yards and a pair of touchdowns Aug. 28.
His biggest play came on defense.
Caimi knocked down a last-second Hail Mary pass to preserve the Hornets’ 36-34 win over Poland Seminary. The win improves Kirtland’s record to 2-0 heading into next week’s massive showdown against 2-0 Perry.
“Tommy Caimi had an unbelievable game,” Coach Tiger LaVerde said. “He knocked it down. That was big. It was a fun game, a great high school football game.”
Caimi had touchdown runs of 3 and 18 yards. Fellow running back Zander Perko had touchdown runs of 4 and 18 yards. For the game, Kirtland had 412 yards rushing and 436 yards total.
But Poland had a huge game, too, gouging the Hornets for 398 yards, 339 of them coming on the ground.
“I didn’t think it was going to be the shootout that it was,” LaVerde said. “We never punted, but we had trouble getting stops. Give them credit. Defensively we weren’t great and they have two good backs and Coach (Tom) Pavlansky is a good coach.”
With next week’s game against Perry up next, LaVerde is aiming for improvement.
“We’ve got to get better,” he said. “We have to improve. We need a great week of preparation because I know coach Gecewich is a fantastic coach and it’ll take everything we have to hang with them.”