BY MIKE POPOVICH
CANTON The Kettering Archbishop Alter Knights exorcised their demons during the 2008 high school football playoffs.
Their reward for doing so Friday was their first state title.
Austin Boucher and Chris Borland combined for all three Alter touchdowns, while the Knights defense shut down mighty Steubenville during a 21-6 Division IV final win at Fawcett Stadium. Boucher and Borland finished with over 100 yards rushing as the Knights handed Big Red just its fourth loss in the last six seasons.
The Knights felt nothing but heartache when Steubenville held on to beat them, 34-33, in the Division III championship game in 2006. Two weeks ago, Alter was able to avenge a 2007 regional semifinal loss to top-ranked Coldwater, the defending Division IV champs.
“It was somehow fitting that we had to go through the two teams that have beaten us the last two years,” Alter head coach Ed Domsitz said. “... We probably had at least a dozen 2006 seniors here, and they met us down in the locker room before the ball game. This was also for them.
“There was some redemption for the fact that we missed a couple of early opportunities.”
Alter finished 13-2 but never lost a game on the field this season. The two losses were forfeits for using an ineligible player.
“We had a lot of adversity throughout the whole year but came together as a team,” Boucher said. “The chemistry was there, the hunger and the heart was there, and it all showed tonight.”
Alter took a 21-0 lead into the final 10 minutes and held on after Steubenville’s Trey Wiggins caught a 33-yard touchdown pass from Dwight Macon.
Big Red came in averaging 38.5 points in the playoffs. The six points scored against the Knights was a season low.
“They just got a little bit more pressure than we thought they would give us,” said Macon, who finished 11-of-22 for 196 yards with an interception. “It was a little hard to execute and we fell short.”
Alter produced 303 yards rushing. Borland rushed for a game-high 130 yards on 15 carries and a touchdown. Boucher, the Knights’ quarterback, finished with 111 yards on 19 carries and a TD. He also threw for 81 yards and a score.
A 48-yard run from Boucher — his longest of the day — set up the game’s opening touchdown in the first quarter.
Alter faced third-and-2 from the Steubenville 8 when Big Red’s defense blitzed Boucher. He beat the blitz and threw quickly to Borland, who eluded a Steubenville defender and scored.
“It was just all preparation,” Boucher said. “We saw that they like to blitz and just stuck to our keys. We saw what they were about to do. ... Big-time players in big-time games make big-time plays.”
Boucher scored on a 3-yard run in the third quarter and Borland ran 21 yards for a TD early in the fourth quarter as Alter denied Big Red (14-1) a third state title in the last four seasons.
“When you’re in a championship game you have to give a championship effort,” Steubenville head coach Reno Saccoccia said. “And you can get a championship effort and still come up short.
“We worked our tails off for 15 weeks to get here. All great things sometimes come to an end, and our trail ended tonight to a good Alter team.”
