Blue Jays use 7 turnovers to crush Shadyside in D-6 final

Published 12:47 am Sunday, December 5, 2010

CANTON (AP) — With one dream game that will last a lifetime, Chris Pohlman and Delphos St. John’s seniors erased a year of recurring nightmares.

The Blue Jays forced seven turnovers and scored the most points in Ohio high school football tournament history in a 77-6 rout of Shadyside to win their sixth Division VI championship on Friday.

A year ago, Delphos St. John’s suffered its only title-game loss on a quarterback sneak by Norwalk St. Paul in the final five seconds.

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“There’s not a day in my life since that I haven’t thought about that,” said Pohlman, voted the Division VI Defensive Player of the Year by The Associated Press for leading the Blue Jays (15-0) to their fourth undefeated season.

Evan Burgei scored a Division VI title-game record four touchdowns while Jordan Leininger ran for two scores and threw for two more for Delphos St. John’s.

The previous record for points in a tournament game since the playoffs began in 1972 was 76 by St. John’s on the way to winning the title in 1999 and by Gahanna Columbus Academy in a 2003 Division V regional semifinal.

The Blue Jays converted eight of nine red-zone chances. The only failure came when they took a knee to down the ball four consecutive times to avoid running up the score.

“I didn’t want to see 80 points on the board because I respect that team and how hard they played,” said coach Todd Schulte, 127-32 in 12 seasons at Delphos St. John’s.