Welcome Santa Holiday Parade

Who doesn’t love a parade? The annual Welcome Santa Holiday Parade steps off at 11 a.m. with more than 75 units marching up South Main Street, including bands, floats, costumed characters, dance groups and area organizations. After the parade visit Lock 3 to see Santa and check out the ice skating, the Reindeer Run sledding hill and new mini golf course.

Annual wine tasting at Galaxy

More than 100 wines will be featured at the annual Holiday Wine Tasting at the Galaxy Restaurant, 201 Park Centre Drive, Wadsworth, at 7 p.m. Included will be food stations, live music, cooking demonstrations, and a silent auction to benefit the Salvation Army. The cost is $75. For reservations, go to www.galaxyrestaurant.com or call 330-334-3663. And to encourage responsible tasting, the Holiday Inn Express and Comfort Inn & Suites nearby are offering special room rates for the night; just mention the Holiday Wine Festival.

Cleveland hosts Winterfest

Cleveland’s free, family-oriented Winterfest begins at 10 a.m. with events all around downtown, including shopping, carriage rides, entertainment, food, the Winterfest Village in Playhouse Square and the Festival of Trees in the Allen Theatre. Lighting ceremonies start at 5 p.m. with music, fireworks and an appearance from Santa. Later in the evening, adults can enjoy wine, beer and cuisine from downtown restaurants at the Winter Wine & Ale Fest at 925 Euclid Ave. Tickets to that event are $65.

FOOTBALL

Playoff Scoreboard

Friday’s Results

State Semifinals

DIVISION II

Perry 10, Hudson 7

Cincinnati La Salle 49, Perrsyburg 28

———

DIVISION III

Archbishop Hoban 33, Zanesville 21

Toledo Central Catholic 21, Trotwood-Madison 13

———

DIVISION V

Canton Central Catholic 17, Milan Edison 14

Coldwater 36, Wheelersburg 6

———

DIVISION VII

Mogadore 35, Danville 21

Fort Recovery 35, McComb 14

Scoring Summaries

Division II State-Semifinal
PERRY 10, HUDSON 7

Hudson 0 0 0 7 — 7

Perry 0 7 0 3 — 10

Per.: Sims 2 run (Brown kick)

Per.: FG Brown 21

Hud.: Restifo 24 pass from Parker (Gonya kick)

Hudson Perry

First downs 8 8

Rushing 22-70 48-143

Passing 11-20-116-2 3-3-57-0

Records 11-3 12-2

Division III State Semifinal
ARCHBISHOP HOBAN 33, 
ZANESVILLE 21

Zanesville 7 0 7 7 — 21

Hoban 3 9 14 7 — 33

Zan.: Crosby 1 run (Ashby kick)

Hob.: FG G. Kersh 42

Hob.: FG G. Kersh 39

Hob.: FG G. Kersh 29

Hob.: FG G. Kersh 31

Hob.: Sibley 81 run (G. Kersh kick)

Hob.: Sibley 5 run (G. Kersh kick)

Zan.: Crosby 41 run (Ashby kick)

Hob.: Gilchrist 99 interception return (G. Kersh kick)

Zan.: Kaufman 65 pass from Grandstaff (Ashby kick)

Zanesville Hoban

Records 12-2 13-1

Division V State Semifinal
CANTON CENTRAL CATHOLIC 17,
MILAN EDISON 14

Edison 7 0 0 7 — 14

CCC 0 0 7 10 — 17

Edi.: Scott 2 run (Monroe kick)

CCC: Henderson 8 pass from Platek (Mills kick)

CCC: Colangelo 4 run (Mills good)

Edi.: Goodwin 50 pass from Hall (Monroe kick)

CCC: FG Mills 29

Edison CCC

First downs 12 12

Rushing 41-145 32-101

Passing 1-6-50-0 13-26-86-1

Records 12-2 11-3

Division VII State Semifinal
MOGADORE 35, DANVILLE 14

Mogadore 6 15 7 7 — 35

Danville 7 7 0 0 — 14

Dan.: Mickley 4 pass from R. Durbin (Martin kick)

Mog.: Barker 12 pass from Pollock (kick failed)

Mog.: Williams 1 run (Cramer pass from Pollock)

Dan.: Holt 16 pass from R. Durbin (Martin kick)

Mog.: Pollock 35 run (Pollock kick)

Mog.: Tompkins 4 run (Pollock kick)

Mog.: Williams 1 run (Pollock kick)

Mogadore Danville

Records 13-1 13-1

State Playoffs

Saturday’s Games

(All games at 7 p.m.)

Home teams listed first

DIVISION I

State Semifinals/Regional Finals

Region 1

1 Lakewood St. Edward (12-1) vs. 2 Stow (12-0) at Parma Byers Field

1 Cincinnati Colerain (12-1) vs. 3 Huber Heights Wayne (13-0) at Mason Dwire Field at Atrium Stadium

———

DIVISION IV

1 Steubenville (12-0) vs. 5 Youngstown Ursuline (8-5) at Boardman New Spartan Stadium

1 Middletown Bishop Fenwick (13-0) vs. 1 Columbus Bishop Hartley (9-3) at Wilmington Alumni Field

———

DIVISION VI

1 Kirtland (12-1) vs. 3 Grandview Heights (12-1) at Mansfield Madison Ram Field at StarTek Stadium

1 Maria Stein Marion Local (12-1) vs. 2 Defiance Tinora (11-1) at Wapakoneta Harmon Field

hockey

Scoring Summary

KENT ROOSEVELT 4,
WHEELING PARK (W.Va.) 3

Wheeling Park 0 1 2 — 3

Kent 0 2 2 — 4

Goals: Kaderle (K) 2, Berger (K), Francis (K), Gutherol (W) 2, Kahle (W). Assists: Harrod (K) 3, Hildebrecht (K), Francis (K), Slibchenko (W), Cioollins (W), Pissos (W), Gwynn (W), Gutherol (W). Shots on goal: 14-14. Saves: Romanek (W) 10, Benentt (K) 11.

BASKETBALL

BOYS

Scoreboard

Friday’s Results

Avon 71, Cle. Lincoln W. 34

Canfield 66, Salem 42

Carrollton 38, Wintersville Indian Creek 35

Elyria 61, North Ridgeville 51

Elyria Catholic 66, LaGrange Keystone 54

Highland 46, Nordonia 45

Hillsdale 76, Loudonville 69

Lexington 77, Berlin Hiland 69 (OT)

Marlington 78, Garfield 68

Middlefield Cardinal 63, Lordstown 48

Mt. Blanchard Riverdale 62, Carey 50

New Philadelphia 85, Cle. Max Hayes 45

North Olmsted 84, Bay Village Bay 79

Norton 66, Northwest 60

Rittman 67, Cloverleaf 44

St. Thomas Aquinas 73, Minerva 45

Shelby 63, Mansfield Madison 39

Strasburg-Franklin 68, Canton Heritage Christian 35

Strongsville 61, Olmsted Falls 52

Tuslaw 62, Dalton 48

Upper Sandusky 73, Willard 54

Wadsworth 55, Firestone 49

Waynedale 81, Ashland Mapleton 48

West Branch 64, Hanoverton United 53

Westerville S. 81, Reynoldsburg 46

Scoring Summaries

HIGHLAND 46, NORDONIA 45

Highland 16 10 6 14 — 46

Nordonia 15 5 8 17 — 45

HIGHLAND (1-0) — Rittman 4-1-12, Shaw 4-0-10, Mall 2-2-6, Lewandoski 2-0-5, Wienick 4-1-9, Matesin 2-0-4. Totals: 18-4-46.

NORDONIA (0-1)— Smith 4-2-10, Ciocca 3-0-7, Adams 3-0-6, Davis 3-0-7, Post 1-4-6, Alders 2-1-5, Evans 2-0-4. Totals: 17-8-45.

3-point goals: Shaw 2, Lewandoski, Ciocca, Davis.

WADSWORTH 55, FIRESTONE 49

Wadsworth 8 14  4 29 — 55

Firestone 9 12 10 18 — 49

WADSWORTH (1-0) — Hewitt 5-4-19, Szalay 1-0-2, Mills 2-0-5, Deemer 1-0-3, Booth 1-3-6, Blackburn 1-2-5, Corp 0-1-1, Black 0-5-5, Justice 2-5-9. Totals: 13 20-30 55.

FIRESTONE (0-1) — Gray 4-4-14, Lewis 3-3-9, Moore 3-1-7, Obeng 0-1-1, Spear 3-2-10, Richburg 2-3-8. Totals: 10 14-33 49.

3-point goals: Hewitt 5, Gray 2, Spear 2, Richburg, Mills, Deemer, Booth, Blackburn. Fouls: Wad., 25-24. Rebounds: Fir., 42 (Lewis 20). Turnovers: Fir., 13. JV score: Wadsworth, 59-18.

NORTON 66, NORTHWEST 60

Norton 24 12 11 19 — 66

Northwest 15 13 14 18 — 60

NORTON (1-0) — Hardy 2-2-6, T.Murray 1-0-3, Cheatam, 1-0-3, Csepe 1-0-3, Becker 4-0-11, Destefano 3-2-8, M.Murray 2-2-6, Robinson 6-3-15, Pratt 3-5-11 Totals: 23 14-26 66.

NORTHWEST (0-1) — Penrod 1-2-4, Hippli 7-0-16, Ross 1-0-3, Wormald 7-2-19, M.Fennell 4-0-8, L.Fennell 1-1-3, Booth 2-3-7. Totals: 23 8-11 60.

3-point goals: Becker 3, Wormald 3, Hippli 2, T.Murray, Cheatam, Csepe, Ross. Fouls: NW, 19-14. Rebounds: Nor., 15; NW, 19. JV score: Norton, 67-38.

WAYNEDALE 81, MAPLETON 48

Mapleton 8 10 16 14 — 48

Waynedale 27 17 26 11 — 81

MAPLETON (0-1) — Davis 4-2-11, Haines 1-1-2, Dress 2-1-5, Espy 2-1-4, Barone 7-7-23, Cellars 1-0-3. Totals: 17-10-48.

WAYNEDALE (1-0) — Purdy 5-1-11, Strausbaugh 3-0-6, Shoup 10-2-26, Riebe 5-0-11, Spidell 7-1-16, Reidenbach 1-2-5, Mullet 3-0-6. Totals: 34-6-81.

3-point goals: Shoup 4, Barone 2, Davis, Cellars, Riebe, Spidell, Reidenbach. Fouls: Way., 16-11. JV score: Waynedale, 71-32.

ST. THOMAS AQUINAS 73, MINERVA 45

Aquinas 12 22 15 24 — 73

Minerva 14 15  7  9 — 45

ST. THOMAS AQUINAS (1-0) — Newman 2-0-5, Pellegrene 3-4-11, Sommers 3-0-6, Hoffman 2-0-5, Paul 7-4-20, Smith 2-0-4, Knott 0-2-2, Moore 1-0-2, Duplin 4-0-9, Knos 4-0-8, Pedrozo 0-1-1. Totals: 28 11-13 73.

MINERVA (0-1) — Russell 3-2-9, Wright 2-4-8, Gross 1-1-3, Lowe 2-3-9, Preston 1-0-2, Hall 2-5-12, Croston 1-0-2. Totals: 13 15-23 45.

3-point goals: Paul 2, Lowe 2, Newman, Pellegrene, Hoffman, Russell, Hall, Duplin. Fouls: STA, 19-11. JV score: St. Thomas Aquinas, 39-26.

MARLINGTON 78, GARFIELD 68

Garfield 18 17 13 20 — 68

Marlington 23 24 20 11 — 78

GARFIELD (0-1) — Powell 6-3-16, Campbell 3-0-7, Cherry 3-0-8, Waters 6-0-15, Humphrey 1-2-4, Thomspon 3-1-7, Jeffries 2-1-5, Kidd 2-0-4, Williams 1-0-2. Totals: 27 7-16 68.

MARLINGTON (1-0) — Begue 9-6-29, Weigand 1-3-5, Baxter 5-0-11, Brady 4-3-13, Beachy 1-2-4, Adams 5-2-12, Himmelheber 2-0-4. Totals: 27 16-28 78.

3-point goals: Begue 5, Baxter, Brady 2, Powell, Campbell, Cherry 2, Waters 3. Fouls: Gar., 20-13. Rebounds: Gar., 35; Mar., 56 (Adams 13). JV score: Marlington, 69-63.

HILLSDALE 76, LOUDONVILLE 69

Loudonville 18 16 18 17 — 69

Hillsdale 16 13 20 17 — 76

LOUDONVILLE (0-1) — Swindall 9-19 4-4 26, A.Vansickle 6-12 2-3 16, J. Vansickle 4-8 0-0 10, Quickie 4-6 0-0 9, Bryson 4-8 0-0 8. Totals: 27-54 6-7 69.

HILLSDALE (1-0) — Rogers 9-11 5-6 23, Pickering 8-15 5-5 21, Wolf 5-13 0-0 11, Cline 2-9 5-6 9, Richter 2-2 0-0 4, Maki 0-3 4-4 4, McFadden 1-2 0-0 2, Williams 1-3 0-0 2. Totals: 18-48 19-21 76.

3-point goals: Swindall 4, A. Vansickle 2, J. Vansickle 2, Quickie, Wolf. Fouls: Lou., 16-12. Rebounds: Lou., 14; Hil., 35 (Rogers 17). Turnovers: Hil., 12-7.

Schedule

Saturday’s Games

(All games 7:30 p.m., unless noted)

Black River at Rittman

Buckeye at Norwayne

Green at Stow

Heartland Christian at Rootstown

Lake at East, 7 p.m.

Newton Falls at Waterloo

Perry at Louisville

Woodridge at Crestwood

GIRLS

Scoreboard

Friday’s Results

Amherst Steele 56, Grafton Midview 38

Avon 54, North Olmsted 40

Chippewa 58, Youngstown Ursuline 37

CVCA 59, Woodridge 50

Norwayne 41, Northwest 36

Orrville 41, Barberton 38

West Holmes 54, Carrollton 24

Westlake 51, Avon Lake 30

Scoring Summaries

NORWAYNE 41, NORTHWEST 36

Northwest 15 2  7 12 — 36

Norwayne 13 2 12 14 — 41

NORTHWEST (0-3) — Worden 6-0-14, Butti 0-2-2, Heard 1-0-2, Macko 1-0-2, Luhring 1-0-2, Elecker 2-4-8, Spradling 3-0-6 . Totals: 14 6-14 36.

NORWAYNE (2-1) — Gasser 5-2-15, Hilty 2-8-12, Gill 1-3-5, Perry 1-0-2, Boley 1-5-7. Totals: 10 18-29 41.

3-point goals: Gasser 3, Worden 2. Fouls: NW, 23-10. Rebounds: NW, 23; Nor., 24 (Boley 8). Turnovers: NW, 17-12. JV score: Norwayne won.

CHIPPEWA 58,
YOUNGSTOWN URSULINE 37

Ursuline 9  9 11 8 — 37

Chippewa 22 17 12 7 — 58

YOUNGSTOWN URSULINE (0-2) — Rich 5-2-12, Harris 2-0-5, Cortez 2-0-4, Berry 2-0-4, Comer 3-2-8, Lewis 1-1-4. Totals: 15 5-18 58.

CHIPPEWA (2-0) — Walsh 1-0-2, Sammons 1-0-2, Koncz 5-7-22, Dressler 1-0-2, Clark 1-0-2, Richards 2-1-6, Richardson 9-4-22. Totals: 20 12-24 58.

3-point goals: Koncz 5, Harris, Lewis, Richards. Fouls: Urs., 17-16. Rebounds: Chi., 39 (Richardson 15). Turnovers: Chi., 16. JV score: Chippewa, 45-7.

ORRVILLE 41, BARBERTON 38

Orrville 13  5 14 9 — 41

Barberton 10 15  7 6 — 38

ORRVILLE (3-0) — Martin 2-0-6, Dennis 0-3-3, Goddard 2-0-6, Hall 5-9-20, Walters 1-0-2, Suppan 2-0-4. Totals: 12-12-41.

BARBERTON (1-2) — Chick 3-0-7, Lee 0-1-1, Blackwell 4-0-10, Devec 0-1-1, Kelley 4-2-12, Stinnett 1-0-2, Ries 2-1-5. Totals: 14-5-38.

3-point goals: Blackwell 2, Kelley 2, Martin 2, Goddard 2, Hall, Chick. Fouls: Orr., 19-16.

Late Wednesday

GLENOAK 61, BUCHTEL 32

Buchtel 1 10  4 17 — 32

GlenOak 23 14 15  9 — 61

BUCHTEL (1-2) — Hatcher 3-5-11, Skinner 2-0-4, Biddings 3-0-6, Giles 1-1-3, Brice 1-1-3, Thomas 1-0-3, Harmon 1-0-2. Totals: 12 7-17 32.

GLENOAK (2-0) — Cashner 6-0-15, Polk 4-6-14, Vance 3-0-8, Shelton 2-2-6, Brown 3-1-7, Haynes 2-0-4, Hahn 1-2-4, Storm-Tamez 1-0-2, Alodulla 0-1-1. Totals: 22 12-24 61.

3-point goals: Cashner 3, Vance 2,Thomas. Fouls: GO, 20-15. JV score: GlenOak won.

Schedule

Saturday’s Games

(All games 2:30 p.m., unless noted)

Aurora at Parma

Alliance at Canton South, 1:30 p.m.

Archbishop Hoban at Cloverleaf, 7:30 p.m.

Brunswick at Shaker Heights

Buchtel at Wooster

Buckeye at Columbia

Canton McKinley at Perry

Copley at Norton, 7 p.m.

Crestwood at Middlefield Cardinal, 6:30 p.m.

Cuyahoga Falls at Ellet

East Canton at Ridgewood

Fairless at Canton Central Catholic, 11:30 a.m.

Garfield Heights at Twinsburg, 7:30 p.m.

Garrettsville, Massillon at Sam’s Pizza Classic, at Chippewa, 3 p.m.

GlenOak at North Canton Hoover

Highland at Medina, 7:15 p.m.

Mapleton at Northwestern

Minerva at West Branch, 1:30 p.m.

Painesville Riverside at Hudson, 7 p.m.

Parma Padua at Brecksville

Revere at North Royalton

Salem at Louisville, 1:30 p.m.

St. Thomas Aquinas at Newton Falls

Sandy Valley at Berlin Hiland

Woodridge at CVCA, 1 p.m.

With his duties as a consultant at the University of Florida, Charlie Frye doesn’t have time to keep up with the Browns’ continuing quarterback woes.

He knows things are not going well from updates from the Gators’ trainer.

“He’s a huge Browns fan ... he’s usually coming in pretty upset on Monday morning,” Frye said.

But the third-round draft choice in 2005, who joined the University of Akron’s football ring of honor Friday, has a theory on why the Browns have had 23 starting quarterbacks since 1999. He believes draft picks aren’t being given enough time to develop, especially since the approval of the Collective Bargaining Agreement in 2011.

“With the way the CBA is written, it’s so hard to develop young guys right now,” he said on Black FryeDay at InfoCision Stadium, where UA defeated Kent State 20-0. “They cut OTAs, they cut the summer. Then everyone wants that microwave success. It doesn’t happen very often. You know it’s the hardest position to play in all of sports.”

Frye also said the Browns need to build around their quarterback, getting help “on defense, receivers, offense.”

Frye went 6-13 as a Browns starter before being traded to the Seattle Seahawks after a 34-7 season-opening loss to the Pittsburgh Steelers in 2007. He played six years in the NFL, finishing his career with the Oakland Raiders in 2009. The tendon in his wrist on his throwing hand rolled to his elbow and 2010 surgery to reconnect it ended his career.

“When that audible’s called, we’ve got to able to respond and keep on trucking,” Frye said.

Frye, 34, had no intention of going into coaching because of the long hours required. He met his wife Lenette, who attended Nordonia High School and Bowling Green State University, in 2006 and they’ve been married for five years. They have two sons, Charlie Jr. “C.J.,” 4, and Cristian, 2.

Lenette and the boys were among a contingent of about 35, most from Frye’s hometown of Willard, that saw Frye’s name unveiled on the south end of the stadium opposite NFL standout defensive end Jason Taylor (2004). The ring of honor now stands at seven, with tight end Chris Angeloff (2003) the only other player.

Frye considered it symbolic since it was the same end where Sally used to hang banners for her son at the Rubber Bowl.

“Most of my memories in the game come from Akron. That’s what the game is all about, the relationships and affecting people in a positive way,” Frye said.

Frye was living in Orlando, Fla., working out and rehabbing his wrist when he got a call from former Browns defensive end Kenard Lang, the coach at Jones High School there. His Browns teammate in 2005 wanted Frye to help with the team’s quarterbacks.

“I said, ‘Sure,’ ” Frye said. “Then it was, ‘Hey, you want to call the plays Friday?’ ”

“I fell in love with affecting the kids, building and seeing them grow,” Frye said.

Frye spent two years at Jones, then went with Lang to Wekiva High School in Apopka, Fla., where Lang remains. Frye taught physical education for a year and a half as he and Lang took Wekiva to the playoffs for the first time in school history.

Frye wanted more, so he started his own consulting business, Frye Football. This summer he met new University of Florida coach Jim McElwain, the former Colorado State coach and Alabama offensive coordinator. Frye left the Zips’ game at halftime to catch a flight back to Gainesville, Fla., where the Gators host Florida State Saturday night.

Frye helps with quarterbacks, especially their “mental conditioning,” along with player development work involving local charities. McElwain tweeted his congratulations to Frye along with the hashtag “IWantABobbleheadPlease.”

David Frye, wearing an old button of Frye in his Zips uniform, said Frye and McElwain share common philosophies on life.

“He’s a real humble guy, very simple, likes to be behind the scenes,” David Frye said of McElwain. “He and Charlie hit it off right off the bat.

“Charlie wasn’t on the staff two or three weeks and he said, ‘You know, Dad, I’m a consultant, but I’m in all the quarterback meetings, all the offensive coordinator meetings.’ I think he’d like to be around Mac for a while.”

Frye wonders if he’ll have to choose between his consulting business and a full-time coaching job, but knows which way he’s leaning.

“Every time I’ve made plans, they’ve always been blown up. I built a house in Avon, it gets done, I get traded. Whatever God has planned for me, I’m going after it,” Frye said.

“If an opportunity presented itself, [college coaching] is probably what I want to do. I said I wasn’t going to get in it, but it’s in my blood, I guess. Football is what I know.”

Marla Ridenour can be reached at mridenour@thebeaconjournal.com. Read her blog at www.ohio.com/marla.

It’s time to vote for you favorite fall image. More than 300 images were submitted to the FOCUS ON ... Fall photo challenge using #ABJ_Fall. We have narrowed the best of the best to 25 images and placed them in a gallery on Ohio.com. Please cast your vote and we will announce the readers’ favorite and the staff favorites on Dec. 8 when we introduce the next FOCUS ON topic.

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo.: A gunman who opened fire inside a Colorado Springs Planned Parenthood clinic was arrested Friday after engaging in gun battles with authorities during an hours-long standoff that killed three people and wounded nine others, officials said.

Two people and a police officer with the University of Colorado in Colorado Springs were killed in the rampage, law enforcement officials said.

The university police department identified the officer killed as 44-year-old Garrett Swasey, a six-year veteran of the force.

Nine other people, including five police officers, were shot and are in good condition, police said. Police say the gunman is in custody. His name was not immediately released.

Authorities said they haven’t determined a motive or whether the shooter had any connection to Planned Parenthood.

“We don’t have any information on this individual’s mentality, or his ideas or ideology,” Buckley said.

Planned Parenthood released a statement that said it did not know the full circumstances or motives behind the attack, or whether it was the target.

A number of people were evacuated during the standoff — some wrapped in blankets in the blowing snow — to a nearby Veterans Administration clinic.

For several hours, the firing of a long gun was the only indication police had that the shooter was in the building, Lt. Catherine Buckley said. Officers finally made voice contact by shouting to him and convinced him to surrender, she said.

Video from the Denver Post showed a tall man in a white T-shirt being led away by police as snow fell on the frigid evening.

With the immediate threat over, authorities turned their attention to inspecting unspecified items the gunman left outside the building and carried inside in bags.

Three officers were shot while responding just before noon to the initial report of shots fired. More than two hours later, the gunman shot another officer in an exchange with police inside the clinic, Buckley said.

The suspect surrendered about five hours after entering the building.

The shots sent people inside the clinic racing for cover. Jennifer Motolinia hid behind a table inside the clinic and called her brother, Joan, who said he heard multiple gunshots in the background.

“She was telling me to take care of her babies because she could get killed,” Joan Motolinia said of his sister, the mother of three.

He rushed to the clinic but was frustrated because a barricade kept him from getting close.

“People were shooting for sure. I heard someone shooting. There was a lot of gunfire. She was calm, she was trying to hide from those people,” he said.

Police inside the building ushered staff and patients to the second floor without saying why, employee Cynthia Garcia told her mother-in-law, Tina Garcia.

Then Cynthia Garcia heard gunshots, but she couldn’t tell where they were coming from, Tina Garcia told the Associated Press.

Police cordoned off the clinic, nearby medical offices and a shopping center.

Black Friday, typically about the shopping, was also about the hopping — as in beer.

Nearly 50 people lined up outside Akron craft brewer Hoppin’ Frog’s tasting room before an earlier-than-usual 10 a.m. opening. They were there to be the first to buy two specialty beer releases, sit and sip samples and enjoy fresh-cooked chicken and waffles.

Strongsville residents Darrell and Karen Marsh got up at 6 a.m. to shop for deals. They timed things to get to the opening of Hoppin’ Frog, off U.S. 224 eastbound overlooking Akron Fulton International Airport.

“You don’t think of this as a Black Friday event,” Darrell said.

But it is. Hoppin’ Frog is among craft brewers around the nation capitalizing on Black Friday to kick off sales of specialty beers for the holiday season. For the occasion, Hoppin’ Frog released a reserve version of its B.O.R.I.S (Bodacious Oatmeal Russian Imperial Stout) The Crusher and what it calls its Infusion A Coffee Porter.

This was an annual trip for the Marshes and for other craft beer enthusiasts who filled the tasting room.

“We were here last year for Black Friday,” Karen said. Having a late morning beer and hot food after shopping is a good way to “sooth aching muscles,” she said. “It helps take the edge off.”

Hoppin’ Frog founder and brewmaster Fred Karm was happy with the morning turnout.

“We like to release some of our most special offerings on Black Friday,” he said. “It’s the start of the holiday season for us. And it makes sense. So this year, we really went all out.”

The B.O.R.I.S. Reserve substitutes a Belgian chocolate malt that is low in bitterness and high in chocolate flavor for the roasted barley that would normally be used in the brewing process, Karm said. “I would say this one will be more chocolatey and richer,” he said.

Hoppin’ Frog has brewed the beer annually for Cleveland Beer Week, previously naming it Cleveland Crusher, Karm said. “We like it so much, we decided to call it B.O.R.I.S. Reserve. ... Now we’re making it all year, available in very limited quantities. We went all out for this beer.”

Hoppin’ Frog wants to offer its most special beers at this time of year, Karm said.

The Infusion A also being sold on Black Friday is Hoppin’ Frog’s version of a peanut butter chocolate porter, he said. It has the “A” designation because it was the first infusion beer Hoppin’ Frog did and has proved to be extremely popular.

“It’s so good,” Karm said. “Man, the result is something awesome. ”

Katrinka Bond walked into Hoppin’ Frog with her mother, Sandi Kiefer, to buy beer for Katrinka’s brother. The pair got up at 6:30 in the morning to first shop at a Kohl’s store.

Katrinka called herself and her brother fans of Hoppin’ Frog.

“My brother had me come in and get his beer because he’s not in town,” she said. She was buying bottles of the Infusion A and the B.O.R.I.S. Reserve.

This was Sandi Kiefer’s first time at Hoppin’ Frog and she admitted she does not like beer.

“I can’t believe people are drinking this early. That’s amazing to me,” Kiefer said.

Sandy Folland drove up from North Canton to the tasting room to meet her daughter Kristen Ferrell and Kristen’s craft-beer enthusiast husband, Greg. The couple, who live in Stow, got up at 4:30 a.m. to do Black Friday shopping and planned to shop some more after leaving Hoppin’ Frog.

“This was a surprise for me. It’s a new experience,” Folland said. “I can’t believe that this many people would stand in line ... to get beer. It’s a whole new concept for me. I grew up in the Budweiser era. Oh, my, this is a whole new ballgame.”

Folland opted to drink sweet tea instead of beer. “I’m drinking light here. I feel out of place,” she joked.

Greg Ferrell said he came to Hoppin’ Frog to buy the Infusion A beer. He said he likes the peanut butter flavor with the porter beer.

Krisy Randall and boyfriend, Mark Gibson, kicked off Black Friday shopping at Hoppin’ Frog. Both like craft brews and Hoppin’ Frog; Krisy said she was buying beer there as a Christmas gift for Gibson. Then they were going to shop at stores.

“This is how she figures she can get me to shop all day, to start at a brewery,” Gibson joked.

“That’s the easiest way to drag your guy out of the house, to say, ‘You can start at the brewery,’” Randall said, laughing. “And then you will end up at Hobby Lobby.”

Jim Mackinnon can be reached at 330-996-3544 or jmackinnon@thebeaconjournal.com. Follow him @JimMackinnonABJ on Twitter or www.facebook.com/JimMackinnonABJ. His stories can be found at www.ohio.com/writers/jim-mackinnon.

CHARLOTTE, N.C.: Thirty-three thoughts for 33 minutes from Matthew Dellavedova in a 95-90 win over the Charlotte Hornets on Friday…

1. Kevin Love had a double-double by halftime. He scored 18 points and grabbed 16 rebounds through three quarters. Yet apparently he approached David Blatt at some point during the fourth quarter and said he was ready if needed, but to keep rolling with the unit on the floor as long as it was working. As a result, Love watched 11 minutes, 58 seconds of the fourth while the Hornets made six baskets and shot 26 percent in the quarter.

2. These items are very much related.

3. Love played the entire third quarter and the Hornets shot 53 percent. He didn’t play the fourth and they shot 26 percent. Love has often admitted he’ll never be a great defensive player and the Cavs needed to crank up the defensive intensity if they were going to keep LeBron James’ perfect mark against Michael Jordan intact (more on that in a minute).

4. Opponents began the night making 55.7 percent of their shots against Love, the ninth-worst mark in the league (minimum 10 games played). For as much as he gives the Cavs on offense and in rebounding, he gives a lot of it back defensively. And the Cavs defense was rolling in the fourth.

5. “We felt and we knew that we needed a little bit more (in the fourth quarter) at that end of the court,” Blatt said. “I thought the guys really brought it, really brought energy to the court in the fourth quarter particularly on the defensive end and that was the key to the win.”

6. Blatt maintained the Cavs played well defensively throughout the night, and while they weren’t awful, the numbers indicate they weren’t exactly great. The Hornets were shooting better than 47 percent from the floor through three quarters and on pace to score 100, but as Blatt pointed out, they’ve been averaging 110 points at home.

7. The Cavs played the bulk of the fourth quarter with Matthew Dellavedova, J.R. Smith, James, Richard Jefferson and Tristan Thompson. That lineup played essentially the last 10 minutes with no substitutions until Love entered the game for the final two seconds.

8. The Hornets didn’t make a 3-pointer (0 for 6) and committed one-third of their total turnovers (4) in the fourth.

9. Love sat multiple fourth quarters last season. It was jarring at first, then at one point almost became accepted. He never openly grumbled about it, but it was clear it was foreign terrain for a player who has been the focal point of every team since high school.

10. Now that he’s been called the focal point of the offense multiple times by James and Blatt has indicated just as often they’re running more through him, Blatt conceded it was more difficult to bench him than it was last season.

11. “It was not a plan going in. It was a situational, game-time feel thing and again, Kevin gave us a heck of a game in the moments he played,” Blatt said. “We just played the lineup that helped us win. Is it going to be the same thing next time? Not necessarily. We’re just going to try to play to win games and not think about anything else.”

12. If Love indeed volunteered to Blatt he’d sit, then good on him. Asked if it was easier to do it this year after all of last season’s uncertainty, he didn’t really answer. Love pointed out the Hornets were playing small (aside from Al Jefferson) and the defensive lineup was working. With the exception of Richard Jefferson, the other four players on the floor Friday were pillars in those terrific defensive performances during last season’s playoff run.

13. “It’s always easier to do it when you win,” Love said of sitting the fourth. “I know that when I’m out there I’m playing efficient and I was giving a sustained effort, but those guys are playing great in the fourth quarter. I don’t know if you’ll see that often, but we have guys that will step up in other guys’ absence.”

14. Meanwhile, James remains undefeated against Jordan. Sort of. James insists it’s simply a coincidence, but he hasn’t lost to this franchise ever since Jordan bought them in 2010. James’ last loss against Charlotte was at home in February 2010. Jordan bought the team a month later. James has won 21 straight ever since, including a playoff sweep and a career-high of 61 on this floor two seasons ago.

15. “I don’t have an answer for it,” he said before rejecting the idea he’s extra motivated to play Jordan’s team. “My motivation comes from the guys in this locker room, trying to get them to play the right way, myself playing the right way, and that’s for us to continue going on the journey that we’ve set out for ourselves. I don’t have any extra motivation at all.”

16. Quirky stat of the night: The 21-game winning streak over the Hornets/Bobcats is the longest in the NBA, at least temporarily breaking a tie with Matt Barnes. He has beaten the Minnesota Timberwolves 20 consecutive times. Barnes and the Memphis Grizzlies play at the Timberwolves on Jan. 23. 

17. In case you haven’t noticed, I stopped being cool and up on the latest trends around the time I got married and had kids. (OK, maybe before). I can recite full episodes of Doc McStuffins and the Octonauts, but I have no idea what a dab is. Until a few hours ago I thought it was how you put medicine on a cut. Dab. Is it different from a dap? I just learned about dap within the last year. So I spent part of my evening googling dab after watching Carolina Panthers quarterback Cam Newton and J.R. Smith in a dabapalooza tonight. I’ve seen LeBron and Tristan Thompson dab. Newton was dabbing all over the front row. (Can dab be used as an active verb? Need a ruling on this).

18. Smith, however, had the ultimate mic drop (at least I know what that is) in Newton’s back yard. Smith answered Newton’s dab with a dab of his own after a big 3-pointer put the Cavs up 92-88 with 3:05 to play. Then he mimicked Newton’s Superman routine by pretending to pull his shirt open following the free throws that sealed the win with 12.9 seconds left.

19. “It’s all fun and games,” Smith said. “(Newton) is a great dude and a hell of a player. Hopefully he will win MVP this year.”

20. The dab and Superman stunt may have been a little retribution for Thursday. Both Smith and LeBron are big Cowboys fans and had to watch Newton dismantle their team Thanksgiving night. A number of Panthers, including Cleveland’s own Ted Ginn, Jr. and head coach Ron Rivera, attended Friday’s game.

21. The playful moments aside, Smith is really heating up after a terrible start to the season that could at least partially be blamed on a litany of injuries. Smith said the other day he finally feels healthy and the proof is in the numbers. He only made 1 of 5 3-pointers Friday, but the one he hit was a dagger. He’s also one of the guys Blatt continues to count on even when he’s using a defensive lineup. Smith came to Cleveland with the reputation as a gunner and a bit of a loose cannon, but he has been surprisingly effective defensively.

22. Smith was part of the group on the floor when the Cavs denied the Hornets on an inbounds play. Down 95-90 and clinging to their last hope with 9.2 seconds left, the Hornets used a 20-second timeout to draw up a play, but couldn’t get the ball in.

23. “Credit to our guys again locking in,” Blatt said. “Not getting beat back door, taking away easy entry and good pressure on the ball. Those are winning plays that don’t always show up in the stats.”

24. James’ sense of urgency this month has been palpable. He has ripped into his teammates both publicly and privately much more than usual for this point in the season, and although he denied he called a “players-only” meeting after Wednesday’s loss at Toronto, it sounded more as if he was splitting hairs than disputing what happened. So why? Why now? Why this sense of urgency when the Cavs have the best record in the East despite being down two and at times three starters?

25. “I don’t know. I see how important this moment is for us,” he said. “Last year was more of a wait period because I was getting myself into a situation that we weren’t accustomed to. New coaching staff, new system, new everything for all of us. That’s not the case this year. Even though I know I still have to be more patient because we still have two of our big-time guys not in uniform yet, but I know when we’re playing how we should play and when we’re not. When we’re not I’m going to voice my opinion about it and the guys respond to it.”

26. James said Friday morning and it’s not necessarily about wins and losses. Teams can play poorly and win and play great and lose. He’s more focused on the process. He was pleased with the effort Friday.

27. “We played our game tonight. We got timely stops, we made timely shots,” James said. “It’s not going to always be pretty offensively but if we defend and we lock down, we give ourselves a chance to win and we did that tonight.”

28. Matthew Dellavedova’s overall numbers weren’t great (2 of 7 shooting, 7 points, 5 assists) but he again didn’t turn the ball over and he played well when it mattered most. His return after missing a game with a calf injury was evident. The Raptors’ Kyle Lowry got loose for 20 points in the second half with Mo Williams and Jared Cunningham guarding him. Kemba Walker, the Hornets’ leading scorer, reached his average with 18 points. But he was limited to 4 points in the fourth Friday on 2 of 6 shooting.

29. Timo Mozgov, however, had a rough return. He’s back earlier than expected from the strained shoulder but he still doesn’t look right. Mozgov has stopped answering questions about his troublesome right knee, but they certainly persist.

30. Some grumbles out of the Cavs locker room after a crucial call was overturned in the last two minutes. James threw a pass to Dellavedova, which Walker deflected out of bounds. The referees originally returned possession to the Cavs, but the replay center in Secaucus, N.J. overturned the call and claimed Dellavedova touched it before it went out of bounds. I’m not sure where they found the visual evidence to support that, because the trajectory of the ball and the rotation never changed after Walker tipped it.

31. It could’ve been a huge call in the game. The Cavs were up 92-88 at the time, but the Hornets regained possession and Jeremy Lamb knocked down a long jumper to make it a 2-point game.

31. Ultimately the Cavs held on, but at least one player doesn’t like how referees in a studio make the final determination on crucial plays in games when the three officials on the floor understand the flow and tempo of the game and are qualified to make their own determinations. But the league started the initiative this season in an effort to speed up games and the review process.

32. Finally, Smith on what he was thinking when he splashed a step-back jumper over 7-foot rookie Frank Kaminsky on a mismatch: “Barbecue chicken, like Shaq says. When you get a big guy on you a lot of people like to go to the mismatch in the post. For me I take it personally.”

33. Barbecue chicken. Dab. Dap. Back home Saturday against the Brooklyn Nets. Talk to you then. 

Back to nature

Escape the stresses of the season at Christmas at Beech Creek Gardens, a nature-oriented holiday celebration going on Thursdays through Sundays until Dec. 27 at Beech Creek Botanical Garden & Nature Preserve.

Kids can take in the fun, educational exhibits of Candyland & the Christmas Express, while grown-ups can get creative at craft workshops. And everyone can join in making gingerbread houses on select days.

Details are at www.beechcreekgardens.org, or call 330-829-7050.

Beech Creek is at 11929 Beech St. NE in Stark County’s Washington Township.

Songs and sorrow

When Adele recently talked to Rolling Stone about the perils of fame, the topic almost inevitably turned to Amy Winehouse, another powerhouse singer. But where Adele has won an Oscar and recently renewed her conquest of the music world with her new album 25, Winehouse has been dead for more than four years — and her life story is one laced with suffering and substance problems as well as musical virtuosity.

It is the latter more than the former that drew people to Amy, a documentary about Winehouse that has been widely admired (96 percent positive reviews on Rotten Tomatoes, one of the five nominees for the Producers Guild of America’s documentary feature award), And it arrives on DVD and Blu-ray on Tuesday.

As one critic said of it, “it’s the music that suddenly feels monumental because somewhere in that dark stream of rolling notes and rumbling minors, we can hear the eternal soul of human sadness turned, for a brief moment, into something undeniably beautiful.”

Harsh ‘Hunting’

Quarterback Jameis Winston recently threatened to sue CNN over its plans to telecast The Hunting Ground, a documentary about sexual assault on college campuses. CNN aired the program anyway and, if you missed it, you can find it on DVD and Blu-ray beginning Tuesday.

Coming from the makers of the documentaries The Invisible War and Outrage, The Hunting Ground professes to “reveal an endemic system of institutional cover-ups, rationalizations, victim-blaming, and denial that creates perfect storm conditions for predators to prey with impunity.”

But the controversy over it goes beyond Winston’s objections to the way it handled his case, in which he was accused of sexual assault while at Florida State but neither charged with a crime nor found to have violated the school’s code of conduct.

Looking at another case in the film, Slate’s Emily Yoffe questioned the film’s version of it. She said that “it’s the filmmakers who should be asking themselves what is good and what is just. Sexual violence on campus is a serious issue, and it is imperative that we understand its dynamics, work to prevent it, punish wrongdoers, and aid victims. Blurring the truth, and failing to tell both sides of the story, is not the way to achieve these goals.”

Crafty Mart continues in Akron

Akron’s “idiosyncraftic” art fair, Crafty Mart, continues from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. It’s a marketplace of handmade goods from local artisans and other makers. You’ll find jewelry, herbal lotions, clothing, edible goodies and lots more to tuck under the Christmas tree, plus a few things you’ll want to keep for yourself. Crafty Mart is spread across three downtown sites: Akron Art Museum, 1 S. High St.; Musica, 51 E. Market St.; and Summit Artspace, 140 E. Market St. Admission is free. www.craftymart.org.

See holiday films on big screen

Stressed out from the holiday weekend and want to just sit in the dark for a couple of hours? Try one of these classics:

• Miracle on 34th Street will grace the big screen at the Lions Lincoln Theatre, 156 Lincoln Way E., Massillon, at 6 p.m. Tickets are only $5. 330-833-4061.

• Turner Classic Movies and Fathom Events present Roman Holiday at 2 and 7 p.m. at the following cinemas: Cinemark Cuyahoga Falls; Cinemark 15, Macedonia; Tinseltown USA, Jackson Township; Valley View 24; and Cinemark Movies 10, Wooster. Audrey Hepburn plays a prince who falls for newsman Gregory Peck in this 1953 comedy. If you miss it today, it will be shown again Tuesday. See www.fathomevents.com to buy tickets.

Smooth-jazz shows at Tangier

Get in a smooth-jazz holiday mood with the Peter White Christmas Show, featuring Mindi Abair and Rick Braun, which comes to Tangier for shows at 6 and 8 p.m. Tickets are $35-$87.50 at 330-376-7171, www.thetangier.com/entertainment.

COLORADO SPRINGS, COLO.: A gunman who police say staged a deadly attack on a Planned Parenthood clinic was a recluse who stashed food in the woods, avoided eye contact and warned neighbors about government spying, those who knew him said.

Authorities say Robert Lewis Dear, 57, killed three people, including a police officer, during an hours-long standoff before surrendering at the Colorado Springs clinic. Police have not disclosed a motive, but the city’s mayor, John Suthers, said people can make “inferences from where it took place,” referring to the clinic.

The facility provides women’s health services, including abortions, and has long been the site of regular anti-abortion protests. A Roman Catholic priest who has held weekly Mass in front of the clinic for 20 years said Dear wasn’t part of his group.

“I don’t know him from Adam,” said the Rev. Bill Carmody. “I don’t recognize him at all.”

The attack thrust the clinic to the center of the ongoing debate over Planned Parenthood. It was re-ignited in July when anti-abortion activists released undercover video they said showed the organization’s personnel negotiating the sale of fetal organs.

Planned Parenthood has denied seeking any payments beyond legally permitted reimbursement costs for donating the organs to researchers. Still, the National Abortion Federation, an association of service providers, says it has seen a rise in threats at clinics nationwide since the video’s release.

At a vigil Saturday at All Souls Unitarian Church, the Rev. Nori Rost called the gunman a “domestic terrorist.” In the back of the room, someone held a sign that said: “Women’s bodies are not battlefields. Neither is our town.”

Vicki Cowart, the regional head of Planned Parenthood, drew a standing ovation when she walked to the pulpit. She promised to quickly reopen the clinic. “We will adapt. We will square our shoulders and we will go on,” she said.

After her remarks, a woman in the audience stood up, objected to the vigil becoming a “political statement” and left.

Cowart said the gunman “broke in” to the clinic Friday but didn’t get past a locked door leading to the main part of the facility. She said there was no armed security when the shooting began.

In the parking lot of the two-story building, one man said the gunman shot at him as he pulled his car out, blasting two holes in his windshield.

At one point, an officer whispered reports into his radio as he crept through the building. Others relayed information from surveillance cameras and victims in hiding. “We’ve got a report of a victim texting from just east of the lobby,” someone said.

In the end, a six-year veteran University of Colorado police officer was killed. Two civilians also died, though their identities weren’t immediately released. Five other officers and four people were hospitalized.

Cowart said all 15 clinic employees survived and worked hard to make sure everyone else got into safe spaces and stayed quiet.

Colorado Gov. John Hickenlooper said the city is mourning and praised the bravery of first responders. He said the nation is wrestling with the causes of violence but that it’s too early to discuss that while the city is reeling.

“This is the kind of thing that hits the entire community in the gut,” he said.

Motives sought

The attack marked the latest mass shooting to stun the nation, and drew the now-familiar questions about a gunman’s motives and whether anyone, from government to relatives, could have done anything to prevent an attack.

Those who knew the 6-foot-4-inch, 250-pound Dear said he seemed to have few religious or political leanings.

Neighbors who lived beside Dear’s former South Carolina home say he hid food in the woods as if he was a survivalist and said he lived off selling prints of his uncle’s paintings of Southern plantations and the Masters golf tournament.

John Hood said Saturday that when he moved to Walterboro, Dear was living in a double-wide mobile home next door. Hood said Dear seemed to be a loner and very strange but not dangerous. He pointed to a wooden fence separating their land and said he put it up because Dear liked to skinny dip.

Hood said that Dear rarely talked to them, and when he did, he tended to offer unsolicited advice such as recommending that Hood put a metal roof on his house so the U.S. government couldn’t spy on him.

“He was really strange and out there, but I never thought he would do any harm,” he said.

Dear also lived part of the time in a cabin with no electricity or running water in Black Mountain, N.C. He kept mostly to himself, his neighbors said. When he did talk, it was a rambling combination of a number of topics that didn’t make sense.

In the small town of Hartsel, Colo., about 60 miles west of Colorado Springs, about a dozen police vehicles and firetrucks were parked outside a small white trailer belonging to Dear located on a sprawling swath of land. Property records indicate Dear purchased the land about a year ago.

Hali Bridges is up at 5 a.m. and on a yellow school bus by 6.

Traffic permitting, she’s home by 4:20 p.m.

The 12-year-old spends seven hours at St. Paul, a Catholic school 5 miles away from the Cascade Village apartment she shares with her mother. Bridges spends the rest of her time away on a cold, bumpy Akron Public Schools bus that stops 15 times in the morning, and again in the afternoon, transporting 24 kids who live all over the city.

“I sit in the back and hope for everyone to be quiet,” said Bridges, who quit playing after-school volleyball because there isn’t enough time. “I come home and go straight to bed.”

Back in first grade, the girl’s mother, Aundrey Somerville, took advantage of a state-funded voucher and pulled her daughter out of Akron Public Schools, citing safety concerns. Until taking the bus this year, Mom had driven Bridges to St. Paul every morning then, taking a late lunch, picked her up in the afternoon.

The single mother said city bus rides can foster independence for children and convenience for busy parents who chose an alternative school. But there’s a limit, and Mom isn’t happy with her daughter’s exhaustion or the time wasted sitting idly.

Each day in Akron and across Ohio, millions of public tax dollars are paying for public buses to travel two to four times farther to pick up students who attend private and charter schools.

Disparate state laws that require city school districts to provide transportation for school choice also resulted in the elimination of busing altogether for students in 10 elementary and middle public schools. Because they live conveniently close to their neighborhood schools, these public school pupils don’t qualify for busing under the state’s minimum standards.

Instead, they must walk up to 2 miles, no matter the weather or condition of sidewalks, even as Akron Public Schools must bus children to 29 private and charter schools.

That’s more than the 26 primary schools among the 36 in its own system for which there is some amount of busing.

Walk inside the circle

Ohio law requires each public school district to bus all students, but there are exceptions. If getting to the student takes a half-hour or more, parents get gas money.

And if all-inclusive transportation becomes too costly, public schools can eliminate busing for high schools and force K-8 students to walk up to 2 miles.

Urban school districts — where school-choice alternatives prevail — have resorted to the minimum standards for their own in order to bus others.

Meanwhile, the state has determined in the past year that Akron Public Schools has been unjustly asking private students to walk more than a half-mile to makeshift bus stops, a ruling that required Akron to acquire nine more buses to make routes more accommodating for parochial students.

And like charter school students, most private school pupils live farther than 2 miles from their chosen school, making them eligible for the busing they likely wouldn’t receive if still attending Akron Public Schools.

Take Seiberling, for example.

Homes surrounding the elementary school in Goodyear Heights are so close to the school that every student attending Seiberling falls inside a 4-mile circle drawn around the building on a map. Thus, they all walk.

“There are schools that truly do not get buses because none of the kids qualify,” said Debra Foulk, Akron’s business affairs manager.

Meanwhile, the 24 parochial students on Hali Bridges’ bus live all over the city. These students all fall outside the same-sized circle drawn around St. Paul, automatically giving them a free bus ride at the local school district’s expense.

Wheels on the bus

Somerville wants the school district to adjust, and shorten, the route her daughter takes.

That’s not easy to do because the bus actually makes two sets of trips each day: one to St. Paul and another to Mason, an elementary school in Akron Public Schools.

“We’re supposed to use our buses as efficiently and effectively as possible,” so that means using the same bus for more than one school, Foulk said.

The bus first leaves the central garage near Bridges’ home. That’s why she’s the first to be picked up in the morning and the last to be dropped off in the afternoon before the bus retires for the day.

Why it takes so long, though, is a function of school choice.

Bridges’ bus travels 41 miles a day to carry 24 St. Paul kids to and from school. The bus makes another two trips, traveling 18 miles this time, to take 21 Mason kids to and from the public elementary school.

Do the math on an average 180-day school year and the taxpayer-funded bus will travel 4,140 miles more to pick up only three more private students than public students. The Mason route takes a third of the time (30 minutes versus 90 minutes) and requires less than half as much gas and stops (seven versus 15).

The same math that applies to this Akron bus applies to the thousands of privately and publicly owned buses that transported 809,047 Ohio schoolchildren in 2013, the most recent year that state data are available.

The Akron district buses 926 charter students. By opting to transport 311 of their own students, two local charters receive the state transportation aid that would have gone to Akron.

Altogether, 33 percent of charter students and 11 percent public students ride publicly funded school transportation in Akron.

Likewise, 34 percent, or 61,346 parochial students, got subsidized school transportation in the 2012-13 school year. And because buses traveled on average 2 miles per private student and less than 1 for a public school student, twice as many tax dollars afforded public bus rides for private school students.

Doug Livingston can be reached at 330-996-3792 or dlivingston@thebeaconjournal.com. Follow on Twitter: @DougLivingstonABJ.

ANN ARBOR, Mich.: Ezekiel Elliott quieted the firestorm the best way he knew how, by turning in one of the best performances of his career when Ohio State needed it most.

A week ago, the junior running back shocked reporters after a stunning three-point home loss to Michigan State by criticizing the OSU coaching staff’s play-calling. The Buckeye bell cow touched the ball just twice in the second half and finished with 33 yards and a touchdown on 12 carries.

On Monday, Elliott posted a long apology on Twitter. He was widely criticized, with many calling for Ohio State coach Urban Meyer to suspend him. Meyer dismissed that and elected to start Elliott on Saturday against rival Michigan at Michigan Stadium.

There were questions about how the controversy would affect Elliott mentally. Those were answered by the end of the first quarter as the No. 8 Buckeyes routed the No. 10 Wolverines 42-13, OSU’s largest margin of victory in Ann Arbor since a 50-20 triumph in 1961.

Elliott rushed for the fifth 200-yard game of his career and recorded his 12th career carry of at least 50 yards with a 66-yard gain in the first quarter. He totaled 214 yards on 30 carries and two touchdowns.

It was reminiscent of his effort in the final three games of 2014 as the Buckeyes captured the national title. Against Wisconsin, Alabama and Oregon, Elliott racked up 698 rushing yards, averaged 9.2 yards per carry and ran for eight touchdowns.

The 214-yard performance against a Wolverines’ defense ranked second in the nation gave Elliott 3,812 career yards. He pushed past 2005 Heisman Trophy winner Eddie George (3,768) and into second place on Ohio State’s all-time rushing list.

“It’s an honor to continue that running back pedigree at Ohio State. I’ve got to thank my O-line for everything,” Elliott said.

Elliott trails only Archie Griffin’s 5,589 yards from 1972-75.

“He passed Eddie? Who’s that? Eddie George?” Meyer joked afterward. “He didn’t get the two-timer?”

Elliott was as heartfelt in his postgame apology as he was in his statement on Twitter.

“I really let my emotions get the most of me and I regret everything I said,” Elliott said. “I want to be the ultimate team player. If you turn on the film and watch me play, I hope you can see that. I would never want to do anything to hurt this university or distract this team from what our goal was.”

Elliott admitted it was a tough week because of the backlash. During his MSU postgame comments, Elliott also announced he was leaving for the NFL after this season.

“It was hard on me. People questioned my love for the university, people questioned my love for my brothers on this team. People questioning if I was going to come out here today and play hard,” Elliott said. “That’s not the person I am. I’m not selfish, I’m selfless. I would do anything for my brothers, I’d play every down for them.”

Despite the outburst, Meyer said he spent Thanksgiving with Elliott for the third consecutive year.

“Hope we get four, but it doesn’t look good,” Meyer said. “Maybe a bye week.”

Asked how their relationship survived, Meyer said, “It’s never been anything other than perfect. Whatever was said last week, I think he apologized 37 or 38 times, I lost track. I told him he doesn’t need to apologize. He’s got a banked investment with the Meyer family and the coaches and (offensive coordinator Ed) Warinner and the team.”

Warinner, who called the plays from the press box Saturday for the first time this season, said he didn’t take Elliott’s comments personally.

“Zeke’s a great player. He was disappointed and upset about what happened,” Warinner said. “He and I have a great relationship, so there was nothing other than, ‘Let’s figure this out and move forward.’ ”

Meyer said Elliott deserves to be among those invited to the Heisman Trophy ceremony on Dec. 12.

“I don’t lobby or maybe I do, he should be in New York. He’s one of the best players in America, he should be a Heisman guy. I don’t know if he should win it, I don’t know the other players,” Meyer said.

“He’s on a team that’s 11-1 and he’s one of the best players I’ve ever been around.”

Marla Ridenour can be reached at mridenour@thebeaconjournal.com.

ALLIANCE: The University of Mount Union football team is back in the Division III national quarterfinals.

Whoa. Stop the presses.

The Purple Raiders advanced to this stage for the 24th consecutive year with a methodical 66-7 victory over visiting Albright College on Saturday in front of a damp crowd of 1,258 at Mount Union Stadium.

Some of the world’s most notable monarchs didn’t rule that long, but as Mount Union coach Vince Kehres said, “It doesn’t get old.”

Napoleon might have said something similar.

Top-ranked Mount Union (12-0) will play 11th-ranked Wesley (10-1) at a site to be determined. Wesley (Dover, Del.) defeated eighth-ranked Johns Hopkins 42-37 to make the quarterfinals for the fifth time. Mount Union is 4-0 against the Wolverines, including a 70-21 thrashing in last year’s national semifinals.

The Raiders’ 88th playoff victory — against 15 losses — turned ugly in a hurry.

Mount Union scored on its first possession, capping a 13-play, 70-yard drive with a 19-yard touchdown pass from Taurice Scott (Alliance) to former St. Vincent-St. Mary standout Jordan Hargrove on a fourth-down play. Less than two minutes later, Brian Groves (Stow) blocked an Albright punt and Kollyn Crenshaw (Solon) recovered in the end zone and the Raiders were on their way.

“It wasn’t an all-out block, but what we saw on tape was that we could attack their right side,” Kehres said. “Brian did a good job of coming through and getting his hands on the ball. That was a big play for us.”

Mount Union, seeking a record 12th national championship, was about as prolific on offense as any coach could hope. It scored on eight of nine chances in the red zone with seven touchdowns and a field goal. It had 634 yards of offense, averaging 8.2 yards on 77 plays.

The defense was equally as dominant. It held the Lions to 172 yards of offense, had 11 sacks — one shy of the school record set last week against St. Lawrence — and was successful on stopping 13-of-15 third-down conversions.

The offense was led by Scott, running back Logan Nemeth and wide receiver Tim Kennedy. Scott completed 17-of-24 passes for 238 yards and two touchdowns. Nemeth, a Michigan native, helped make up for a bad day for many Michiganders with a career-best 185 yards and three touchdowns on 21 carries. Kennedy, a former Hudson standout, equaled his career best with 10 receptions for 140 yards and one score.

Several Northeast Ohioans helped the Raider defense post the ninth game in which it has held an opponent to seven points or less. Senior defensive backs Will Hiteshue (Medina), Nick Rodriguez (Macedonia) and Alex Kocheff (Chagrin Falls) combined for 10 solo tackles and defensive end Tom Lally (Fairview Park) was one of three players with 2½ sacks.

A sequence at the end of the third quarter and beginning of the fourth was emblematic of the Purple Raiders’ efficient offense. It ended the third quarter with a seven-play, 75-yard drive, culminating with Kennedy catching a 4-yard touchdown pass. It began the fourth with a five-play drive, also of 75 yards, that ended with Nemeth rambling 47 yards for a score. Elapsed time? Less than three minutes.

FOOTBALL

Playoff Scoreboard

State Semifinals/Regional Finals

Saturday’s Results

DIVISION I

Lakewood St. Edward 45, Stow 7

Huber Heights Wayne 28, Cin. Colerain 21

———

DIVISION IV

Steubenville 28, Youngstown Ursuline 0

Col. Bishop Hartley 26, Middletown Bishop Fenwick 14

———

DIVISION VI

Kirtland 13, Grandview Heights 9

Maria Stein Marion Local 34, Defiance Tinora 10

Scoring Summary

Division I State Semifinal
LAKEWOOD ST. EDWARD 45, STOW 7

Stow 0 0 0 7 — 7

St. Edward 10 28 0 7 — 45

Eds.: FG Budyka 43

Eds.: Jones 42 pass from Keefe (Budyka kick)

Eds.: Gest 2 run (Budyka kick)

Eds.: Gest 8 run (Budyka kick)

Eds.: Gonzalez 6 pass from Keefe (Budyka kick)

Eds.: Zlesta 7 run (Budyka kick)

Stow: Board 9 pass from Vantrease (Burnham kick)

Eds.: McMananmon 37 pass from Kramer (Budyka kick)

Stow St. Edward

First downs 12 18

Rushing 29-73 35-165

Passing 9-25-83-1 15-18-247-0

Records 13-1 13-1

HOCKEY

Scoring Summary

CINCINNATI SYCAMORE 3,
KENT ROOSEVELT 0

Kent 0 0 0 — 0

Sycamore 1 1 1 — 3

Goals: Harrod (S) 3. Assists: Marniella (S) Hillebrecht (S). Shots on goal: Syc., 50-8. Saves: Bennett (K) 47; Kinsinger (S) 8.

Basketball

BOYS

Scoreboard

Saturday’s Results

Beachwood 62, Orange 42

Cambridge 99, New Concord John Glenn 48

Cols. Ready 56, Lancaster Fisher Cath. 43

Cols. South 73, Euclid 67

Dover 75, Cle. Max Hayes 14

Elyria Catholic 55, Grafton Midview 52

Lakewood 92, Cle. John Marshall 75

Newton Falls 66, Waterloo 37

Northwestern 82, Triway 52

Oberlin 64, Sheffield Brookside 36

Ontario 57, Mansfield St. Peter’s 56

Rootstown 44, Heartland Christian 37

West Geauga 53, Eastlake North 38

Scoring Summaries

NORTHWESTERN 82, TRIWAY 52

Northwestern 19 18 22 23 — 82

Triway 18 10 15  9 — 52

NORTHWESTERN (1-0) — Peteson 2-2-6, T. Smith 9-0-23, Kline 3-0-9, P. Smith 2-0-4, Besancon 2-0-5, Wharton 3-0-6, Burgan 1-0-3, Shwartz 1-0-2, Koch 10-0-21, Ferriman 1-0-3. Totals: 34-2-82.

TRIWAY (0-1) — Sprang 3-1-7, Biggs 2-1-5, Garrett 1-0-2, Walker 11-5-27, Sparr 5-0-11. Totals: 22-7-52.

3-point goals: T. Smith 5, Kline 3, Besancon, Burgan, Koch, Ferriman, Sparr. Fouls: Nor., 11-6. Rebounds: Nor., 43 (Koch 19); Tri, 29 (Garrett 6). Turnovers: Tri., 11-10.

ROOTSTOWN 44, 
HEARTLAND CHRISTIAN 37

Heartland 2 10  3 22 — 37

Rootstown 17  3 13 11 — 44

HEARTLAND CHRISTIAN (0-1) — Barnes 2-1-5, Summers 6-2-14, Sodergren 1-0-2, Brandenstein 2-2-6, Burgess 4-1-10. Totals: 15 6-15 37.

ROOTSTOWN (1-0) — Moore 5-1-11, Weber 1-0-2, England 4-0-11, Kaut 2-1-6, Hluch 3-0-6, Scott 0-1-1, Jones 1-0-3, Stegger 2-0-4. Totals: 18 3-9 44.

3-point goals: England 3, Kaut, Jones, Burgess. Fouls: Roo., 14-13. Rebounds: HC, 23; Roo., 30 (Moore 7, England 7).

NEWTON FALLS 66, WATERLOO 37

Newton Falls 21 13 17 15 — 66

Waterloo 11  4 12 10 — 37

NEWTON FALLS (1-0) — Ball 2-1-5, Suarez 3-3-9, Walton 13-5-37, Usrc 2-0-4, Boone 1-0-3, Dragich 2-1-5, Simpson 1-1-3. Totals: 24 11-17 66.

WATERLOO (0-1) — Simpson 1-2-4, D. Dorsey 1-2-5, Smith 4-3-11, Sutton 0-2-2, Holcomb 0-1-1, V. Dorsey 5-1-11, Mazur 1-1-3. Totals: 12 11-22 37.

3-point goals: Walton 6, Boone, D. Dorsey. Fouls: NF, 19-16. JV score: Newton Falls, 59-23

Late Friday

TUSLAW 62, DALTON 48

Tuslaw 16 14 11 21 — 62

Dalton 14 10 13 11 — 48

TUSLAW — Carroll 8-2-18, Meyer 6-1-13, Karn 5-1-12, Wake 4-1-9, Litman 1-0-2, Hewitt 3-0-8 . Totals: 27 5-11 62.

DALTON — Clark 4-4-13, Steiner 4-0-9, Alger 1-1-3, Kandel 2-0-5, Fariss 3-0-8, Delessandro 2-0-5, Nussbaum 2-0-4. Totals: 18 6-15 48

3-point goals: Fariss 2, Nussbaum, Clark Steiner, Kandel, Hewitt 2, Karn.

Fouls: Tus., 18-16. Rebounds: Tus., 36 (Caroll 10); Dal., 23 Turnovers: Dal., 18-15. JV score: Tuslaw, 54-43.

STRONGSVILLE 61, OLMSTED FALLS 52

Olmsted Falls 11 11 14 16 — 52

Strongsville 16 14 14 17 — 61

OLMSTED FALLS (0-1) — Goodwin 4-5-15, Hitterman 3-7-14, Galaska 4-0-10, Glover 3-2-10, Moore 1-0-3. Totals: 15-14-52.

STRONGSVILLE (1-0) — Yezbak 4-2-12, Aske 3-4-12, Hopkins 2-6-10, Jamison 4-1-9, Nofal 4-0-10. Pesarchick 2-0-4, Mocho 1-0-2, McGivern 1-0-2. Totals: 21-13-61.

3-point goals: Yezbak 2, Aske 2, Nofal 2, Goodwin 2, Galska 2, Glover 2, Hitterman, Moore.

Schedule

Monday’s Game

Revere at Cloverleaf, 7:30 p.m.

———

Tuesday’s Games

(All games 7:30 p.m., unless noted)

Archbishop Hoban at Firestone, 7 p.m.

Barberton at Garfield

Brecksville at Strongsville

Brunswick at Highland

Canfield at Alliance

Copley at Ravenna

Claymont at Carrollton

Cuyahoga Falls at Perry

East at Nordonia

East Canton at Berlin Hiland

Ellet at Wadsworth

Field at Tallmadge

Garrettsville at Leavittsburg LaBrae

Jackson at Stow

Kenmore at Norton

Lake Center Christian at St. Thomas Aquinas

Marlington at Manchester

Newcomerstown at Sandy Valley

New Philadelphia at Canton McKinley

North at Coventry

North Canton Hoover at Lake

Northwest at Canton South

Southeast at West Branch

Springfield at Waterloo

Streetsboro at Crestwood

Tusky Valley at Minerva

Twinsburg at Solon

West Geauga at Aurora

Windham at Rootstown

Woodridge at Kent Roosevelt

GIRLS

Scoreboard

Saturday’s Results

Archbishop Hoban 77, Cloverleaf 58

Bay Village Bay 49, Elyria 36

Berea-Midpark 76, North Ridgeville 33

Canton McKinley 53, Perry 28

Canton South 53, Alliance 28

Chagrin Falls 26, Cuyahoga Hts. 24

Chippewa 67, Garrettsville 62

Cle. St. Joseph Acad. 57, Cle. Heights 26

Columbia Station Columbia 49, Buckeye 35

Crestwood 49, Middlefield Cardinal 34

Green 45, Lake 37

Hudson 67, Painesville Riverside 24

Independence 53, Parma Hts. Valley Forge 46

Jackson 53, Austintown Fitch 46

Lakewood 46, Olmsted Falls 34

Louisville 47, Salem 42

Mason 57, Solon 39

Massillon 53, Youngstown Ursuline 40

Minerva 37, West Branch 33

Newton Falls 40, St. Thomas Aquinas 38

Nordonia 65, Kentston 43

North Canton Hoover 60, GlenOak 42

Northwest 43, Cuyahoga Falls 38

Northwestern 67, Mapleton 33

Norton 60, Copley 50

Oberlin Firelands 38, Fairview 26

Parma Padua 63, Brecksville 39

Shaker Heights 63, Brunswick 40

Wadsworth 65, Morgan Cty (Ga.) 37

W. Lafayette Ridgewood 48, East Canton 29

Wooster 57, Buchtel 52

Zanesville 46, Marietta 30

Scoring Summaries

NORTH CANTON HOOVER 60,
GLENOAK 42

GlenOak 9  3 15 15 — 42

Hoover 10 22 16 12 — 60

GLENOAK (2-1, 0-1) — Da’Shona 7-0-14, Shelton 1-11-13, Cashner 1-0-3, Vance 1-1-3, Maley 0-1-1, Brown 4-0-8. Totals: 14-13-42.

NORTH CANTON HOOVER (2-0, 1-0) — Drabick 8-1-17, Blyer 5-6-17, Manos 2-2-6, Green 3-0-6, Bentler 2-0-4, Fehlman 1-0-3, Roshack 3-1-7. Totals: 24-10-60.

3-point goals: Blyer, Fehlman, Cashner. Rebounds: GO, 28; Hoo., 32 (Drabick 15). Fouls: Hoo., 20-19. JV Score: Hoover, 32-25.

GREEN 45, LAKE 37

Green 11 13 11 10 — 45

Lake 11 14  6  6 — 37

GREEN (2-0, 1-0) — Trainer 2-1-5, Pearce 6-6-22, Carson 1-0-2, Jackson 4-2-12, Maynard 1-2-4. Totals: 14 11-15 45.

LAKE (1-2, 0-1) — Snow 8-3-21, Miller 2-0-5, Butler 1-0-2, McSherry 1-2-4, Leising 1-0-3, Tobin 1-0-2. Totals:14 5-10 37.

3-point goals: Pearce 4, Jackson 2, Snow 2, Miller, Leising. Fouls: Lake, 15-14. Rebounds: Gre., 20 (Jackson 7); Lake, 20 (Snow 6). Turnovers: Lake, 10-7. JV score: Lake, 32-25.

CANTON MCKINLEY 53, PERRY 28

McKinley 8 12 14 19 — 53

Perrry 2  5 13  8 — 28

CANTON MCKINLEY (2-0, 1-0) — Bell 10-1-22, DeGraffenried 5-0-10, Flowers 3-0-6, Cunningham 0-6-6, Young 2-0-5, Hastings 1-0-2, Terrell 1-0-2 . Totals: 22 7-8 53.

PERRY (2-1, 0-1) — Pireu 2-1-6, Layton 2-2-6, Cauthon 2-0-4, Borck 2-0-4, Morosko 2-0-4, St. Jean 1-1-3, Parks 0-1-1. Totals: 11 5-10 28.

3-point goals: Bell, Pireu Fouls: McK., 14-9. Rebounds: McK., 22 (Bell 8); Per., 20 (Layton 6). Turnovers: Per., 25-9. JV score: McKinley, 36-12.

CANTON SOUTH 53, ALLIANCE 28

Alliance 2  8  4 14 — 28

CantonSouth 12 15 14 12 — 53

ALLIANCE (0-1, 0-1) — Johnson 4-0-8, Hogan 3-1-7, Davis 1-0-2, Zan. Dixon 3-0-6, Zai. Dixon 0-1-1, Mason 2-0-4. Totals: 13 2-7 28.

CANTON SOUTH (3-0, 1-0) — Tharp 7-2-18, Moore 4-2-10, Myers 1-2-4, Martin 1-0-2, Saiello 1-0-2, Mitchell 2-0-4, Noll 1-0-2, Em. Thompson 5-1-11. Totals: 22 7-16 53.

3-point goals: Tharp 2. Fouls: All., 19-15. Rebounds: All., 22 (Johnson 4); CS, 42 (Er. Thompson 9). Turnovers: All., 11-8. JV score: Canton South, 36-15.

MINERVA 37, WEST BRANCH 33

Minerva 10  8 11 8 — 37

West Branch 8 12  8 5 — 33

MINERVA (2-0, 1-0) — Gassman 4-3-12, Pattorf 3-0-6, Burchett 2-0-5,Pearson 0-2-2, Chaddock 1-4-6, Kinsey 2-0-4, Frigyes 1-0-2. Totals: 13 9-11 37.

WEST BRANCH (1-1, 0-1) — Hahn 3-6-12, Rankin 4-0-10, Walsh 2--4, Hovorka 1-0-2, Manning 0-3-3, Rito 0-2-2. Totals: 10 11-20 33.

3-point goals: Rankin 2, Burchett, Gassman. Fouls: Min., 16-12. Rebounds: Min., 24 (Gassman 7); WB, 20 (Rankin 6). JV score: West Branch, 41-21.

SHAKER HEIGHTS 63, BRUNSWICK 40

Brunswick 9 13  8 10 — 40

Shaker Heights 15 18 15 15 — 63

BRUNSWICK — Andrew 5-2-14, Benner 2-2-7, Salisbury 3-0-6, Skrzypek 2-0-4, Payne 1-1-3, Campbell 2-0-5, Billetz 1-0-2. Totals: 16-5-40.

SHAKER HEIGHTS — Zeigler 9-0-19, D’Adams 5-2-12, Husotn 4-2-10, Graham 3-0-6, Harris 1-0-2, McGee 1-3-5, Mitchell 2-0-5, Strong 1-0-2, Wright 1-0-2. Totals: 27-7-63.

3-point goals: Zeigler, Mitchell, Andrew 2, Benner, Campbell.

PARMA PADUA 63 BRECKSVILLE 39

Padua 24 11 16 12 — 63

Brecksville 10 12 10  7 — 39

PARMA PADUA FRANCISCAN (3-1) — Al. Conroy 3-0-7, Rauhe 7-5-21, Pillin 3-2-8, Medaglia 4-1-10, Zagore 1-0-2, Ad. Conroy 2-1-5, Lusnek 1-4-6, Rapacz 1-0-2, Plisko 1-0-2. Totals: 23 13 63.

BRECKSVILLE (0-3) — Lesesky 4-0-10, Livingston 4-5-15, Boehlefeld 1-0-2, Labes 2-0-4, Tichy 1-0-2, B. Boehlefeld 0-2-2, Green 1-0-2, Pfeiffer 1-0-2. Totals: 14 7 39.

3-point goals: Rahue 2, Lesesky 2, Livingston 2, Al. Conroy. Fouls: Bre., 15-13. JV score: Brecksville, 42-36.

WOOSTER 57, BUCHTEL 52

Buchtel 13 11 16 12 — 52

Wooster 20 12 14 11 — 57

BUCHTEL (1-3) — Brice 0-2-2, Hatcher 7-0-18, Thomas 1-0-2, Skinner 1-0-2, Giles 8-4-20, Biddings 1-0-2, Harmon 3-0-6. Totals: 21 6-13 52.

WOOSTER — Kotulock 1-0-2, S.Clapp 3-0-6, N.Brown 11-3-25, Sigler 0-4-4, Stoll 4-3-12, Riro 2-0-4, Smith 2-0-4. Totals: 23 10-29 57.

3-point goals: Hatcher 4, Stoll. Fouls: Buc., 20-14. Rebounds: Buc., 25 (Giles 13). Turnovers: Buc., 24.

HUDSON 67, PAINESVILLE RIVERSIDE 24

Riverside 7  6  5  6 — 24

Hudson 22 24 10 11 — 67

PAINESVILLE RIVERSIDE (0-3) — Brit. Prugel 1-0-2, Apanavicius 1-1-3, Bri. Prugel 2-2-6, E. Parsons 1-0-2, Fiore 0-1-1, Funnel 2-0-4, J. Parsons 3-0-6. Totals: 10-4-24.

HUDSON (1-2) — Marquez 1-0-2, Klemencic 4-4-12, Stizak 1-1-3, Hinkle 0-1-1, Prosser 4-1-12, Cristofoli 6-0-12, Thomas 4-0-8, Chiarappa 4-2-11, Madar 1-4-6. Totals: 25-13-67.

3-point goals: Prosser 3, Chiarappa. Fouls: 16-16. JV score: Hudson, 44-28.

NORTHWESTERN 67, MAPLETON 33

Mapleton 15  4  3 11 — 33

Northwestern 13 25 18 11 — 67

MAPLETON — Edwards 5-0-13, Gorsuch 1-0-2, Lowman 2-0-4, Dress 2-0-4, Krause 0-1-1, Baker 1-0-2, Love 0-2-2, Pelton 1-3-5. Totals: 12-6-33.

NORTHWESTERN (3-0) — Kandel 5-8-18, Gortner 6-2-17, Wright 2-2-6, Kline 1-1-4, St. Clair 3-0-6, Reed 0-1-1, Stough 2-0-4, McKay 1-0-2, Nairn 4-1-9. Totals: 24-15-67.

3-point goals: Edwards 3, Gortner 3, Kliner. Fouls: Map., 16-8. Rebounds: NW, 37 (Nairn 10). JV Score: Northwestern, 40-27.

NEWTON FALLS 40,
ST. THOMAS AQUINAS 38

Aquinas 4 13  8 13 — 38

Newton Falls 9 10 10 11 — 40

ST. THOMAS AQUINAS — M. Rhodes 5-5-18, Dempsey 30-66, A. Rhodes 2-1-5, Rorie 1-1-3, Hiestand 3-0-6. Totals: 14-7-38.

NEWTON FALLS — G. Kline 6-2-15, Harnicker 2-0-5, Hutson 0-0-0, Barrect 2-4-8, I. Kline 3-5-12. Totals: 13-11-40.

3-point goals: Rhodes 3, I. Kline, G. Kline, Harnicker. JV score: Newton Falls, 27-20.

Sam’s Pizza Classic 
CHIPPEWA 67, GARRETTSVILLE 62

Garrettsville 16 16 15 15 — 62

Chippewa 19 13 16 19 — 67

GARRETTSVILLE (0-2) — Jurcevic 3-0-7, Brown 2-1-5, Geddes 5-0-14, Rose 6-1-15, Pfile 1-0-2, Jones 5-4-15, Kirk 1-0-2. Totals: 17 6-9 62.

CHIPPEWA (3-0) — K.Richardson 3-0-6, Sammons 0-3-3, Richards 0-3-3, A.Richardson 11-6-28, Dressler 1-0-3, Pappas 1-2-4, Koncz 5-5-20. Totals: 21 13-20 67.

3-point goals: Koncz 5, Geddes 4, Rose 2, Jones, Jurcevic, Dressler. Fouls: Gar., 17-12. Rebounds: Chippewa, 25 (A.Richardson 14). Turnovers: Chi., 17. JV score: Chippewa, 39-26

Queen City Classic 
WADSWORTH 65,
MORGAN COUNTY (Ga.) 37

Wadsworth 20 10 19 16 — 65

Morgan County 7  6 14 10 — 37

WADSWORTH (2-0) — Conley 0-1-1, Sonntag 0-2-2, Lance 4-1-9, Jo. Johnson 5-10-20, Palitto 5-0-13, Chaney 1-0-2, Je. Johnson 1-2-4, M. Banks 1-0-2, P. Banks 2-2-6, Fortner 3-0-6. Totals: 22-45 18-27 65.

MORGAN COUNTY (4-2) — Brown 2-0-4, Davis 5-1-14, Nash 3-2-9, Belser 2-0-4, Fortune 1-2-2, Adams 1-0-2. Totals: 14-45 5-9 37.

3-point goals: Davis 3, Palitto 3, Nash. Fouls: MC, 23-16. Rebounds: Wad., 33 (Lance 6); MC, 22 (Nash 4. Turnovers: MC, 16-12.

NORDONIA 65, KENSTON 43

Kenston 9 10 11 13 — 43

Nordonia 14 9 20 22 — 65

KENSTON (0-2) — Taylor 1-0-2, Hajdu 1-2-4, Maynard 1-0-3, Adams 1-0-2, Carpenter 0-2-2, Doran 1-0-2, Rendlesham 1-0-2, Barnes 5-7-17, Stehn 3-1-7, Horn 1-0-2. Totals: 15 12-20 43.

NORDONIA (3-0) — Turley 5-0-14, H. Groff 4-1-9, Barnes 5-2-12, Karalic 5-1-11, J. Groff 3-0-6, Richards 2-1-5, Zambach 1-0-2, Perrind 2-0-4, Bradley 1-0-2. Totals: 28 5-10 65.

3-point goals: Turley 4, Maynard. Fouls: Nor., 15-8. JV score: Kenston, 35-26.

NORTON 60, COPELY 50

Copley 13 10 16 11 — 50

Norton 5 12 23 15 — 60

COPLEY (1-1) — Janis 2-2-6, Brenner 3-3-9, Blackaniec 4-7-8, Jackson 2-6-12, Elias 6-7-14, Murray 1-2-1. Totals: 16 18-26 50.

NORTON (4-0) — Housley 2-4-14, Miller 3-9-3, Shearer 1-5-10, Kraus 0-2-2, K. Hosey 2-4-6, P. Hosey 0-2-0, Ab. Murawski 2-2-12, Howell 0-1-4, Al. Murawski 1-3-1, Lester 1-1-2. Totals: 23 8-23 60.

3-point goals: Miller 3, Housley 2, Shearer. Fouls: Nor., 24-20. Rebounds: Cop., 32 (Elias 6); Nor., 47 (K. Hosey 11). Turnovers: 16-16.

JACKSON 53, AUSTINTOWN FITCH 46

Fitch 8  9 15 14 — 46

Jackson 15 11 13 14 — 53

AUSTINTOWN FITCH (0-1) — Franczkowski 1-0-2, Obradovich 6-0-14, Mukaabya 3-0-6, Lynn 1-0-2, Sallee 8-0-19, Scrocio 1-0-2, Hunter 0-1-1. Totals: 20 1-5, 46.

JACKSON (3-0) — Becton 1-0-2, Mikesell 9-10-32, Tytler 2-2-6, Lee 5-2-13, Davive 0-0-0. Totals: 17 14-20 53.

3-point goals: Mikesell 4, Sallee 3, Obradovich 2, Lee. Fouls: Aus., 15-14. Rebounds: Aus., 41 (Mukaabya 13); Jackson 29 (Tytler 16). Turnovers: Aus., 23-21. JV score: Jackson, 30-25.

NORTHWEST 43, CUYAHOGA FALLS 38

Cuyahoga Falls 2  8  7 21 — 38

Northwest 5 14 12 12 — 43

CUYAHOGA FALLS (0-1) — Huffman 1-3-5, L.Dieterich 2-0-4, Freeman 1-2-4, S.Dieterich 2-0-6, Brooks 4-4-12, Merten 1-1-3, Shelton 2-0-4. Totals: 13 10-21 31.

NORTHWEST (1-3) — Kellman 0-1-1, Heard 2-1-5, Macko 0-2-2, Wordan 3-7-15, Soutty 2-0-5, Luriring 2-0-4, Backer 1-3-5, Sprading 3-0-6. Totals: 13 14-23 43.

3-point goals: Wordan 2, S.Dieterich 2, Soutty. Fouls: NW, 20-17. Rebounds: CF, 19 (Freeman 7). Turnovers: CF, 13. JV score: Cuyahoga Falls, 46-36.

ARCHBISHOP HOBAN 77,
 CLOVERLEAF 58

Hoban 32 14 21 10 — 77

Cloverleaf 18  9 16 15 — 58

ARCHBISHOP HOBAN (1-1) — Tecca 6-2-19, Chessar 7-0-18, Marshall 6-3-15, Carlson 4-0-11, Weidt 3-0-6, Roberts 2-2-6, Minter 1-0-2. Totals: 29-58 7-11 77.

CLOVERLEAF (3-1) — Civittolo 4-9-19, Illig 3-1-8, Limas 3-3-9, Barnum 2-2-6, Miglich 2-0-6, Kemp 2-1-6, Jordan 1-0-4. Totals: 18-48 16-26 58.

3-point goals: Tecca 5, Chessar 4, Carlson 3, Civittolo 2, Miglich 2, Illig, Kemp. Fouls: Hob., 22-11. Rebounds: Hob., 34; Clo., 33 (Civittolo 15). Turnovers: Clo., 24-22. JV score: Hoban won.

Late Friday

CVCA 59, WOODRIDGE 50

Woodridge 14  6 13 17 — 50

CVCA 12 17  9 21 — 59

WOODRIDGE (0-2) — Esterak 6-4-19, A. Howard 5-3-13, Williams 5-2-12, DeBord 1-0-2, Lovelace 2-0-4. Totals: 19-9-50.

CVCA (3-0)— Mitchell 6-3-17, Radcliff 8-5-21, Wright 5-6-16, Judge 2-0-5, Bartel 0-0-0. Totals: 22-14-59.

3-point goals: Esterak 3, Mitchell 2, Judge. Rebounds: CVCA 39 (Radcliff 11), Woo., 33 (A. Howard 7). JV Score: CVCA, 28-19.

Schedule

Monday’s Games

(All games 7:30 p.m., unless noted)

Buchtel at North, 6:30 p.m.

Dover at Tusky Valley

Ellet at Garfield, 6:30 p.m.

Firestone at Manchester, 7 p.m.

Heartland Christian at Lake Center Christian

Kenmore at East, 6:30 p.m.

Loudonville at Norwayne

Marlington at Carrollton

Northwest at Fairless

Ravenna at Canfield, 7 p.m.

St. Vincent-St. Mary at Twinsburg

Triway at Dalton

Waterloo at Alliance

Windham at Grand Valley

———

Tuesday’s Game

Lucas at Hillsdale, 7 p.m.

———

Wednesday’s Games

(All games 7:30 p.m., unless noted)

Archbishop Hoban at Hathaway Brown

Aurora at Kent Roosevelt

Brecksville at Cuyahoga Falls

Canton Central Catholic at Manchester

Conotton Valley at Waterloo, 6 p.m.

Copley at Barberton

Cloverleaf at Coventry

Crestwood at Garrettsville

CVCA at Tusky Valley

East Canton at Garaway, 6 p.m.

Fairview at Buckeye

Field at Norton

Hudson at Nordonia

Lake at Buchtel

Lake Center Christian at Mogadore

Massillon at Canton South

Medina at Elyria

Northwest at Indian Valley

Revere at Highland

Rootstown at Southeast

St. Vincent-St. Mary at Youngstown Ursuline, 7 p.m.

Springfield at Streetsboro

Strongsville at Brunswick

Tuslaw at Jackson

Twinsburg at North Royalton

Wadsworth at Stow, 7 p.m.

Warrensville Heights at Garfield, 7 p.m.

Windham at Marlington

Woodridge at Ravenna

PARMA: The Catholic school juggernaut that is the Lakewood St. Edward football team ended Stow’s perfect season Saturday night in a Division I state semifinal.

Simply put, St. Edward was bigger, stronger and faster at several positions and used those advantages to defeat Stow 45-7 at Parma’s Byers Field.

“We made some mistakes early that put us behind the eight ball a little bit, and you can’t make those kinds of mistakes against St. Ed,” Stow coach Mark Nori said. “If you do that, you are going to be in trouble.

“We lost the battle of field position early and we never climbed out of it.”

St. Edward (13-1) scored on its first two possessions to lead 10-0 in the first quarter, and Stow (13-1) never caught up to the defending Division I state champions.

St. Edward will play Huber Heights Wayne in a state final at Ohio Stadium in Columbus at 3 p.m. Saturday.

Eagles senior quarterback Jimmy Keefe completed 14-of-16 passes for 208 yards and two touchdowns for coach Tom Lombardo, who previously coached at Highland. Senior Cole Gest rushed 12 times for 65 yards and two touchdowns. Keefe and Gest only played in the first half, as the clock ran in the second half because of St. Edward’s 38-0 halftime lead.

Stow’s players kept competing for Nori and his staff, but were outmanned.

“I am extremely proud of them,” Nori said of his players. “They’re gonna hang their heads because they are competitors, but as far as I know, they are the best team to ever walk through the hallways of Stow High School. They are trailblazers as far as I’m concerned because of what they did.”

St. Edward senior Jake Budyka kicked a 43-yard field goal with 7:47 on the clock to make it 3-0. Keefe tossed a 42-yard touchdown pass to senior Carl Jones at 3:09 and Budyka kicked the extra point to make it 10-0. The Eagles ran a fake punt with senior Delmar Hall gaining four yards on a fourth-and-3 to extend the second drive.

The Eagles upped their lead to 17-0 with 10:06 remaining in the second quarter on a 1-yard touchdown run by Gest. The drive covered 75 yards on eight plays, and included a 12-yard penalty on St. Edward and Keefe completing four passes to senior Teddy Gordon for 82 yards.

Stow’s deficit got worse with three more St. Edward scores before the halftime whistle. Gest rushed for a 9-yard touchdown at 4:40, Keefe tossed a 6-yard touchdown pass to senior Matthew Gonzalez at 2:49 and junior Curtis Szelesta rushed for a 6-yard touchdown at 1:41.

Stow cut its deficit to 38-7 with 2:27 to go in the third quarter with a nice drive that culminated with a 9-yard touchdown pass from junior quarterback Kyle Vantrease to senior Monte Board. Junior Austin Burnham kicked the extra point.

St. Edward tacked on another touchdown in the fourth quarter to end the scoring.

Vantrease completed 9-of-23 passes for 85 yards, one touchdown and one interception. Senior Jayson Gobble gained 42 yards on 21 carries in his final game as a Bulldog.

Stow senior Jakob Madgar gave a solid effort defensively along with junior Andrew Shockling, freshman Adrian Woliver and others.

Notebook

Stow junior Jared Wright entered as a reserve quarterback in the fourth quarter. His father, Ron Wright, is Hudson’s coach. Wright was in the press box Saturday providing color commentary on the radio with Tom Linder.

Michael Beaven can be reached at 330-996-3829 or mbeaven@thebeaconjournal.com. Read the #ABJVarsity high school blog at www.ohio.com/preps. Follow him on Twitter at www.twitter.com/MBeavenABJ.

ANN ARBOR, Mich: When the rout was over, when a tumultuous week ended with Ohio State’s 42-13 victory over Michigan Saturday afternoon, left tackle Taylor Decker broke away from the mob before the traditional singing of Carmen Ohio.

Decker wanted to intercept offensive coordinator/offensive line coach Ed Warinner, who had just made his way down from the press box. Decker was joined by running back Ezekiel Elliott and the three embraced.

It was Warinner’s first game all season calling the plays from upstairs as coach Urban Meyer dramatically changed the offensive game-day operation. The plan, and the offense, worked to perfection as the Buckeyes ran up 369 yards rushing and five touchdowns to the Wolverines’ 69 yards on the ground.

“Coach Warinner’s been down on the field with us, so he didn’t have the sole responsibility of calling all the plays. The criticism he was taking was not deserving,” Decker said. “He’s a damn good coach and I love him and I’d take one right here for him.”

Decker pointed to the center of his forehead.

Hours later, the defending national champion Buckeyes’ hopes of making the four-team College Football Playoff virtually ended with Michigan State’s 55-16 rout of Penn State. Shut out of next week’s Big Ten Championship Game, the Buckeyes need national upsets and a miracle.

If OSU is not among the top four, Meyer will be to blame.

After offensive coordinator Tom Herman left to become coach at Houston, Meyer botched the offensive play-calling structure and waited too long to fix it.

He took too long to realize that J.T. Barrett should be the starting quarterback and wrecked the confidence of both Barrett and Cardale Jones in the process.

He fell in love with Jones’ big arm and the deep passing attack in the final three games of the 2014 season. He didn’t see that the Buckeyes’ injury-wracked receiving corps, which also lost Jones’ go-to guy Devin Smith to the NFL, didn’t have the talent to make that work in 2015.

Even as Buckeye Nation celebrated beating Michigan, it was hard to avoid the question of what took so long to get the offense fixed.

Warinner wanted to be on the sideline with his starting offensive linemen. So new co-offensive coordinator/quarterbacks coach Tim Beck, stationed upstairs, joined the collaboration with Warinner and Meyer. After Heisman Trophy candidate Ezekiel Elliott touched the ball just 12 times and gained 33 yards in the Nov. 21 loss to Michigan State, Elliott criticized the play-calling, sparking a national controversy.

It wasn’t until Tuesday that Meyer decided drastic changes were needed.

Warinner went upstairs. He left his graduate assistant Jim Cordle, a former OSU lineman, to handle the sideline with tight ends coach Tim Hinton, who moved downstairs.

“We had to make a move. We were not getting the game called ... to coach all five guys and be involved in the play-calling, that’s tough,” Meyer said. “About Tuesday I said, ‘We’re going to do this.’ You can only do that with a veteran offensive line. You do that with a young offensive line and it’s a mess because you’ve got to make adjustments.”

Warinner said he had a quicker handle on the down and distance. The offense moved at a faster pace. The running game was crisp, and unstoppable.

“We did what the offensive line has been asking for,” Decker said. “We did a lot of tempo and tight zone and gap-scheme plays. It just wears the defense out. The game plan was very simple, but it was high execution.”

Meyer knows how hard it is to go undefeated. He knows how hard it is to repeat as national champions. That’s why he deemed this season “The Grind.”

There’s a chance the Buckeyes could end up in the Rose Bowl, no small consolation prize. Meyer will enjoy another win over Michigan. On Saturday, he said the bounce-back victory for the Buckeyes was a big accomplishment for the program.

“I don’t want to go where what if we didn’t do that,” Meyer said. “It would be dire straits right now. You could win a million games in a row and you lose two in a row and you’re back to square one.”

It’s not dire straits. It’s not square one. But when fans look for reasons why one of the most talented Buckeyes teams in program history didn’t reach the heights it could have, they need to start with Meyer.

Marla Ridenour can be reached at mridenour@thebeaconjournal.com. Read her blog at www.ohio.com/marla. Follow her on Twitter at www.twitter.com/MRidenourABJ.

CLEVELAND: Nineteen thoughts for 19 fouls committed in a hard-fought 90-88 win over the Brooklyn Nets on Saturday…

1. David Blatt has been promoting J.R. Smith as a two-way player since shortly after Smith arrived here in a January trade from the Knicks. Smith strung together one of his finest defensive performances of the season Saturday, so Blatt stuck with him in the game’s most crucial moments.

2. Smith nearly made him regret that decision. But LeBron James is strong enough to wash away the most egregious of basketball sins.

3. It was curious to me that Blatt left Smith on Joe Johnson for the final two possessions Saturday. Smith did a nice job throughout the night – he had a career-high four blocks and he baited Johnson into an offensive foul earlier in the fourth – but the game’s final minute is typically the time James takes over the opponent’s top shooter. In this case, that’s Johnson.

4. A couple reasons why that didn’t happen: James had been on Jarrett Jack for a lot of the fourth and Blatt wanted to keep it that way. It might seem curious to have James on Jack, but the Cavs were switching on 1-5 pick-and-rolls, so James was switching onto Brook Lopez and Tristan Thompson was picking up Jack. That had been working well (Lopez only had two baskets in the fourth) so the Cavs didn’t want to sway from it.

5. That left Smith on Johnson, who got a good look at a potential game winner with 18 seconds left, but it rattled out. Then with the Cavs leading by three and 15 seconds left, Smith stayed on Johnson and got hung up on a screen. He tried to recover, but instead crashed into Johnson for a costly, crucial and senseless foul. Smith hung his head immediately.

6. “Brook set a pretty illegal screen so he got space and I tried to catch up and couldn’t slow down,” Smith said. “Sigh of relief because if we would have lost this game I don’t know what would have happened in here. I don’t know if somebody would’ve came at me or I would’ve came at myself, something. It was very nerve-racking for me. Fortunately they were telling me the whole time, ‘Keep your head up, we’re going to win this game’ and we did.”

7. James has gotten on Smith before about fouling shooters. He sent Nic Batum to the line for three shots early in the third quarter Friday, then it happened again Saturday. The foul overshadowed what was otherwise a very, very good night for Smith defensively.

8. “For me, it says two things,” Smith said when asked what it means that Blatt trusted him on Johnson late. “If we lose, blame this on J.R.” Smith and everyone around him cracked up.

9. “No, it gives me a lot of confidence,” he said. “Coach has been believing in me since I got here and I appreciate it and I just have to keep working.”

10. James, of course, bailed out Smith and the Cavs on a night it was clear early on they didn’t have any legs. James conceded Friday’s win at Charlotte took a lot out of them and Blatt thought the travel along with the third game in four nights left them tired.

11. Kevin Love admitted as much, too. Love said 11 of his 14 shots Saturday were 3-pointers because he was tired. “I mean seriously that was a lot of the reason,” he said. “The first five minutes of the game I don’t know, I just needed to catch my second wind.”

12. Back to James. His half hook/half floater, runner in the lane to win it was the first time he could recall using that shot on a game winner. It wasn’t as smooth as his typical drives to the rim or a pull-up jumper, but it was certainly just as effective. James used a Tristan Thompson screen to get open and lofted the shot over 7-foot Brook Lopez. 

13. “Brook did not think in his wildest years I was going to shoot that one,” James said. “I got to my spot where I wanted to get to and I just trusted what I’ve always done. I work on those shots. I work on my game a lot. And I just floated it up. Sometimes it’s a little easier when you get someone bigger because you got to get it over top of them.”

14. Remember when people wondered if James was a clutch player? Well he leads the league in scoring during the final minute when the game is within 3 points on either side. James is shooting 50 percent in such situations and his 17 points are the most in the league. His three assists under the same parameters also lead the league, which means James has actually had a hand in eight baskets during the final minute of tight games. Sounds pretty clutch to me.

15. Russell Westbrook, incidentally, is second on that list with 13 points. DeMar DeRozan and Reggie Jackson are tied with 11 points and Victor Oladipo has 10.

16. Funny moment postgame. James took a long time to talk to reporters tonight because he wanted to get dressed first (sometimes he talks in a towel, sometimes he gets dressed. When it’s a milestone game or a game-winner like tonight and he knows his interview will be played everywhere, he tends to get dressed first before talking. But James began watching League Pass games while he was getting dressed, which slowed the process even more.

17. James’ locker is in the corner near the door to the trainer’s room. Richard Jefferson stuck his head out of the door and tried to get out, only to see the sea of reporters swarming James. Now remember, this is about an hour after the game ended and James was just doing media.

18. Jefferson: “Dawg you still talking?”

James: “I just started, I just started.”

Jefferson: “Geez.”

James: “I just started.”

 “We finished a six-pack back there,” Jefferson said while walking out of the locker room. And after a long pause added, “Oooooof water. Relax.”

Even James cracked up.

19. Blatt joked about the dark circles under everyone’s eyes from a long week of travel. Very true. Cavs are taking Sunday off before practicing Monday for the first time in two weeks. Then it’s the Washington Wizards at home on Tuesday. Talk to you then.

CLEVELAND: Prosecutors on Saturday released a frame-by-frame analysis of the surveillance camera footage first made public a year ago that shows a white Cleveland police officer fatally shooting a black 12-year-old boy who had a pellet gun.

The additional images taken from surveillance video at a recreation center where Tamir Rice was shot and killed don’t appear to contain any new or substantive information. The new footage was released in the “spirit of openness,” said Cuyahoga County Prosecutor Tim McGinty.

The analysis also doesn’t show whether Tamir, as police officials have maintained, was reaching into his waistband for the pellet gun when then-rookie patrolman Timothy Loehmann shot him less than two seconds after getting out of the car.

The enhancement by a video expert will be presented to a grand jury that will decide if Loehmann or his field training officer should be charged criminally for Tamir’s death. Loehmann shot Tamir outside Cudell Recreation Center on Nov. 22, 2014.

Saturday’s release of the enhancement comes the same day that attorneys for the boy’s family asked the prosecutor to allow their use-of-force experts to testify before the grand jury. The request follows the release of reports by use-of-force experts hired by prosecutors that concluded the shooting was justified because the officers had no way of knowing that Tamir’s pellet gun wasn’t a real firearm.

Loehmann and patrolman Frank Garmback were sent to a Cleveland recreation center after a man called 911 to report that a man was waving a gun and pointing it at people. The caller told the dispatcher that the gun might not be real. The call also said the man might be a juvenile, but that information wasn’t passed on to the officers.

In a letter to Cuyahoga County Prosecutor Tim McGinty dated Friday, attorneys for the Rice family reiterated their demand that McGinty step aside and allow a special prosecutor to take over the case. The letter called the prosecutor’s presentation to the grand jury “biased” and “improper” after the release of three expert reports that called the shooting justified. The grand jury began hearing evidence about the shooting five weeks ago.

The use-of-force experts hired by the Rice family “strenuously disagreed with the conclusions of your so-called experts who concluded the shooting of Tamir Rice was reasonable and justified,” the letter said.

A spokesman for McGinty said Saturday that there will be discussions with the Rice family attorneys about allowing their experts to testify before the grand jury.

The family’s experts said bad police tactics led to Tamir’s death. Roger Carr, a consultant from Santee, California, noted in his report that Garmback, Loehmann’s training officer, should have stopped the cruiser a distance away from Tamir to give the officers time to assess the situation.

“The officers created the alleged danger here,” Carr wrote in his report.

Carr criticized the prosecutors’ experts for assuming that Loehmann warned Tamir to raise his hands before he shot him, which a Cleveland deputy chief told reporters shortly after the shooting. Investigators from the Cuyahoga County Sheriff’s Office noted in a report that there was no evidence Loehmann shouted anything.

Jeffrey Noble, the family’s other California-based expert, noted in his report that the “reckless tactical decision” by Garmback and Loehmann to stop so close to the boy “directly led to Tamir’s death.”

Akron police have identified but not yet apprehended two men wanted in a deadly strip club shooting.

Daymond L. Hooks, 29, of 4th Avenue in Akron, and Phillip R Key, Jr., 32, of Sparhawk Avenue in Akron, are wanted for the late night shooting death of Jerry Stallings on Nov. 17 at Centerfolds strip club on East Archwood Avenue.

Hooks has been charged with murder and felonious assault and Key with complicity to commit murder.

The shooting followed an argument between Hooks and Stallings, which escalated into a fight inside the strip club shortly after midnight, police said. Much of the incident was caught on security cameras.

“After the fight was broken up, Hooks left the night club with friends, only to return several minutes later,” Akron Police Lt. Rick Edwards, the department’s spokesman, said Sunday after police reviewed the video footage. “Key tackled Stallings to the ground while Hooks pulled out a handgun and fired a shot at Stallings.”

Police found Stallings lying dead near an entrance at the East Akron strip club with a gunshot wound to the chest.

An Akron detective said Sunday that police have yet to make an arrest in the case. Anyone with information is asked to contact Akron police at 330-375-2490 or call 9-1-1 if the suspects, who are considered dangerous, are spotted.

Hooks has been charged multiple times for criminal damaging, trespassing and domestic violence since 2005. Key’s criminal record also dates back to 2005 and includes passing bad checks, forgery, domestic violence, theft and marijuana charges.

The shooting this month was the 50th time police have visited the strip club since 2010.

In March, police reported that two women had been fighting and rolling around on the ground inside the strip club. One was struck in the head with a beer bottle during the scuffle.

In May, a woman told police that her purse, and $7,000 cash in it, had been stolen from her chair while she watched a Cavaliers game with a friend at the club.

Doug Livingston can be reached at 330-996-3792 or dlivingston@thebeaconjournal.com. Follow on Twitter: @DougLivingstonABJ.

NEW YORK: Tens of millions of Americans returning home after the long Thanksgiving holiday weekend Sunday had cooperative weather and mostly efficient airport operations to thank for smooth traveling conditions.

Besides a winter storm that will bring freezing rain and snow to the central Plains on Sunday night and into Monday, weather across much of the country is seasonably mild, said National Weather Service meteorologist Bruce Sullivan.

“Enjoy it while it lasts,” he said.

Most airports across the country were running with delays of 15 minutes or less, according to Federal Aviation Administration air traffic control system data. But a large volume of passengers at Dulles International and Reagan National airports in Washington, D.C., as well as LaGuardia in New York, led to slightly longer delays, the data show.

In Atlanta, officials are projecting 88,000 travelers to pass through the world’s busiest airport by the end of Sunday, making it their busiest travel day of the year. A spokesman for Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport says the prior record for the year was 80,000 people on Columbus Day.

Lobbying group Airlines for America estimated more than 25 million passengers would take to the sky on U.S. airlines during the 12 days surrounding Thanksgiving.

And the motoring group AAA estimated that nearly 47 million Americans were expected to travel at least 50 miles from home via car, plane or bus over the weekend — the highest number since 2007.

At Pennsylvania Station in New York City, college junior Seth Greenspan said the normally chaotic transit hub appeared strangely calm as he awaited an Amtrak train back to the College of William & Mary in Virginia after spending Thanksgiving on Long Island.

“Amtrak itself can be unreliable, whether or not it’s a holiday,” he said ahead of an eight-hour trip. “So far it seems OK.”

Toni Baines and her husband, Marlon, who spent Thanksgiving in the Bronx and were heading back to their home in Richmond, Va., said it appeared transit officials anticipated an influx of travelers and planned accordingly.

“They’ve been running a lot of extra trains,” she said. “So far we haven’t had any problems.”

Highway patrols and state transit officials across the country advised drivers to budget extra time, particularly during the peak travel hours of 11 a.m. to 3 p.m., in anticipation of heavy volume of cars on the road.

In New Jersey — home to the heavily traveled New Jersey Turnpike and Garden State Parkway — traffic was moving smoothly, though some congestion was reported.

“Things seem to be going well so far,” state police Sgt. Jeff Flynn said.