United States 41, Canada 3
Junior World Championship: U.S. football team romps to title
OSU recruit Klein helps squad roll past No. 1 seed
Monday, July 6, 2009
By Zach Swartz
The Columbus Dispatch
Bob Rossiter | The (Canton) Repository
Members of the U.S. team crowd around the IFAF Junior World Championship trophy after yesterday's win.
CANTON -- The IFAF Junior World Championship game didn't get off to the kind of bang that Team USA was used to, but it didn't really matter.
The No. 2-seeded U.S. team, which had scored a combined 133 points in its first two tournament games, led No. 1 seed Canada 18-3 at halftime; it was the Americans' smallest halftime lead in the tournament.
Also, Canada had done something that neither of America's first two opponents had been able to do: score.
But Canada wouldn't score again. The U.S. team, which had lost to Canada in the previous three NFL Global Junior Championships, won 41-3 to lock up the first International Federation of American Football Junior World Championship gold medal.
"The kids came from all over America with a couple things to bind them together -- a love of the game of football and the love of their country," said coach Chuck Kyle.
Ohio State freshman and U.S. team captain Storm Klein helped lead a defense that allowed a three-game total of 91 yards. On the second play of the game, the former Licking Valley linebacker picked off Canada quarterback Jeremie Doyon-Roch, and the U.S. team scored on the next play: a 17-yard pass from future Baylor quarterback Bryce Petty to Jamal Davis of Florida Atlantic.
The U.S. team finished with 408 total yards, its fewest in the tournament.
"We understood that we were going into this tournament against a Division-I football team in the making," said Canada coach Glen Constantin, whose team finished with 49 total yards. "We're humble enough to understand that."
Petty, the game's MVP, was 14-for-14 passing for 190 yards and three touchdowns. Soon-to-be Virginia Tech running back David Wilson ran for 87 yards and a touchdown.
Both Klein and offensive lineman Jack Mewhort, a future Buckeye teammate, started each of the three games. Klein finished the tournament with six tackles, one sack and the interception. Fellow Ohioans Pat Hinkel, a safety from Cleveland St. Ignatius, and David Herman, a Cincinnati St. Xavier linebacker, added 2 1/2 and three tackles, respectively.
"We went out there, and we had something to prove," Klein said. "Whoever ranked us No. 2, hopefully next time there is something like this, he thinks about that next time we play. I think our game and what happened out on the field speaks for itself, and we're No. 1."
No safety or not, just how in the fuck do you go from your opponent's 37 yard line and end up having to kick the ball out of your own end zone to avoid a defensive TD? What was the "to-go" yardage on 4th down when they attempted the punt...4th and 60?
