Ohio vs. Pennsylvania


This article was written by Thunder Treats Ohio State Athletics analyst, 4.

Saturday night showcased Ohio vs. Pennsylvania in the annual Big33 high school football game. Every year the best 33 players from each state come together for a one night football slobberknocker. Lately, Pennsylvania has dominated the game, winning the last 3 years, but this year’s Ohio team is very talented, with 7 guys headed to The Ohio State University, and was looking to change things this year and come out with a victory.

For some, it’s the final night ever they will get to strap on the ‘ol shoulder pads and showcase their skills. For others, it was the last time they got to strap on shoulder pads as a high school football player. Many will head off to college as soon as tomorrow morning to start summer school and summer conditioning for the season. Onto the action….

Pennsylvania scored on the opening drive, taking them a little over a minute to score. A nice kickoff return setup the score. The Ohio team got on the board early in the 1st quarter when Fitzgerald Toussaint, who is heading to the school up north, had a nice 50 yard touchdown run off a short pass. Don’t get me wrong, this kid is a good player, with some good speed, but I would never want to see him in a buckeye uniform. I’m sure none of you follow recruiting like I do, but this kid’s father actually STABBED another spectator at one of his high school games this year. For you Youngstown gentlemen, he went to Youngstown Liberty (yikes!). Have fun up north, buddy.

Ohio led 17-7 at one point on a nice touchdown score by Shawn Joplin, son of former University of Toledo basketball coach Stan Joplin, but Pennsylvania came right back to make it a game and eventually made it 17-17 going into the half. As I mentioned before, there are 7 Ohio players going to Ohio State, 1 going to Michigan, a couple going to Cincinnati, WVU, Northwestern and even a DB going to Tennessee from Cleveland. The guys from Ohio State look very good, mainly defense end Melvin Fellows, who looks like the tallest guy on the field at 6’5 245 pounds. There is no blitzing allowed in this game, but he has kept constant pressure on the PA QB from his defensive end spot. On the Pennsylvania side, they had some very talented players as well. 3 of them are headed to Penn State, a few were headed to Pitt, a few to Connecticut, 1 to Rutgers, 2 to Youngstown State and even 1 to Kent State (shout out to Dilo).

In the 2nd half, the big play for Ohio was a 99 yard touchdown reception by Marcus Hyde, who is headed to Iowa. Hyde went 99 yards after Johnathon Newsome, who is headed to OSU, stripped the football and Adam Bellamy, who is headed to OSU and won a state championship for Aurora this past year, recovered the fumble on the PA 1 yardline. Both teams really settled in during the second half and it was even knotted up 31-31 before the Ohio team punched it in from the 1 yard line with 20 seconds left to secure the victory. Austin Boucher was the QB for the Ohio team most of the game and set a Big33 game record with 255 passing yards and was named the games MVP. Boucher was offered a scholarship by OSU but elected to go to Miami of Ohio instead. Why on earth he did that is beyond me (probably because he heard about Terrelle Pryor), but Miami of Ohio is getting a very, very talented QB. Anyways, the final ended up being Ohio 38 Pennsylvania 31 and the 3 game losing streak is over for Ohio in the Big33 game.

These future Buckeyes, who are pictured above from left to right, played in the game and will be on campus as soon as Sunday to get ready for the upcoming season

Johnathon Newsome – Cleveland Glenville
Adam Bellamy – Aurora
Sam Longo – Bellbrook
Marcus Hall – Cleveland Glenville
Corey Linsley – Youngstown Boardman
Melvin Fellows – Akron Garfield
Chris Fields – Painesville

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