Saint Ignatius and Mentor are meeting in Week 13 for the third consecutive year. In 2011, the Wildcats, en route to their
record eleventh Division I state football championship, turned back the Cardinals, 23-17, in a regional final at Lakewood Stadium (now First Federal Lakewood Stadium).
Last season, in what was one of the greatest games in the history of the OHSAA playoffs, Mentor edged Saint Ignatius, 57-56, in triple-overtime in a regional final on Parma’s Byers Field.
Saturday’s kickoff is 7 PM from Byers Field in Parma's Robert M. Boulton Stadium and the game will be broadcast live by the Saint Ignatius Student Broadcasting Network with Pat McGuire ’14, Cole Larson ’14 and Carter Spearry ’16 on the call. The game will also be televised live by SportsTime Ohio and broadcast live by WHK AM-1420.
Ed Daugherty and Al Pawlowski will call it as they see it over WHK.
Brooklyn, Ohio – Throughout Saint Ignatius’ storied OHSAA playoff run, the Wildcats’ passing game has been the subject of many well-deserved stories and accolades.
With head coach Chuck Kyle ’69 and his veteran offensive coordinator Nick Restifo having produced nearly 20 quarterbacks since 1988 who received All-Ohio recognition and some who were also bestowed with All-American status, it is easy to understand why Saint Ignatius’ air attack has become well known and respected throughout the entire state.
That said, you only have to be around Coach Kyle for a brief time to hear a word that is a constant in his football
vocabulary – “Balance!”
Without that balance, or a very complementary running game, if you will, the Jesuit Preparatory School on Cleveland’s near West Side would not have a record 11 Ohio High School Athletic Association Division I gold football trophies glowing in its hallways.
While there is no question that Coach Kyle and Coach Restifo produced a passing game in 1988 that was, quite frankly, light years ahead of most of the competition at that time, history shows that a hard nosed and extremely productive running game wrote its own memorable chapters in Saint Ignatius’ state championship lore.
From All-Ohio tailbacks Pete Fitzpatrick in the late 1980s, Eric Haddad in the 1990s and Tim McVey ’13, Saint Ignatius has been able to adjust at any moment and give you a steady diet of 4, 5 or 10-or-more yards on the ground.
And that potent running attack has come to the fore many times in the Wildcats’ well-documented postseason runs.
When the Grand Lady known as Lake Erie sends her gales of November early, you better be able to pick up those tough yards on the ground or more than likely you will be going home with a trophy that isn’t gold.
As another Week 13 playoff match up with the outstanding football program at Mentor approaches, it is only human nature for Greater Cleveland’s football-savvy fans to look back on the regular-season encounter that takes place in what is one of the premier Public School versus Catholic School rivalries in the nation – the Wildcats versus the Cardinals.
Saint Ignatius and Mentor will square off in Week 13 for the third consecutive year when they kick off at 7 on Byers Field
in Parma’s Robert M. Boulton Stadium on Saturday night.
In what was a September 6th Week 2 matchup at Mentor’s Jerome T. Osborne Sr. Stadium this season, the Wildcats
defeated the Cardinals, 26-6. It was the only setback Coach Steve Trivisonno’s Cardinals have experienced this fall as they enter Saturday night’s OHSAA Region 1 third-round playoff game against the Wildcats with an 11-1 record.
Saint Ignatius stands 8-4 after playoff victories over Canton McKinley and Hudson.
Mentor and Saint Ignatius were ranked sixth and 10th, respectively, in the final Associated Press Division I State Poll for 2013. Saturday night will mark the 200th career game for Coach Trivisonno.
Although the Cardinals trail their all-time football series with Saint Ignatius, 11-5, they entered this season’s regular-season game having won three of the five previous meetings with the Wildcats, including one of the greatest games in the history of Ohio High School football – last year’s 57-56 triple-overtime Regional Final victory on Byers Field.
On what was a picture-perfect fall night in Mentor on Sept. 6th, Coach Kyle not only got a superb effort from a Dameon
Willis Jr.-led defense, but also that offensive balance he and his staff covet.
With its offensive line controlling the battle up front, Saint Ignatius complemented senior quarterback John Thomas’ 209 yards and two touchdowns passing with an authoritative rushing attack that featured the passionate running of senior tailbacks Mike Vitale, Enzo Cannata and Kyle Daugenti and the pad-rattling blocking of senior fullback Stan Elad.
Cannata, who this corner would refer to as “Enzo the Touchdown Maker” during his frequent and high percentage scoring jaunts for the junior varsity team in 2011, led the solid ground game with 110 yards on 23 carries. Vitale finished with 85 yards on 15 carries as the Wildcats racked up more than 400 yards of offense.
"We knew we were going to run it heavy in the second half,” Cannata told this corner moments after the Sept. 6th game. “The offensive line stepped up and created huge holes and the same with Stan (Elad). He was blowing up the outside linebacker and giving me an opening. There were key blocks the whole game.
"We have three Italians in the backfield, we’ll take care of business,” Cannata added that night.
An impressive victory, no doubt, and one that computer-points wise eventually helped send the Wildcats into what is their 25th OHSAA playoff appearance since 1988.
However, the Mentor Cardinals, simply put, are not the same team that Saint Ignatius played 11 weeks ago.
Shortly after that early September setback to the Wildcats, the Cardinals put what was an unsettled situation at quarterback into the hands of one of the premier athletes in Ohio – senior Conner Krizancic.
Krizancic, who is also a mainstay for Mentor’s defending Division I state champion basketball team that is coached by his dad, Bob, moved from a wide receiver position that he excelled at to become the Cardinals’ field general. Conner has committed to the University of Cincinnati as a wide receiver.
Entering another regional showdown with Saint Ignatius, Krizancic has passed for nearly 2,400 yards and 27 touchdowns and has rushed for more than 1,190 yards and 18 TDs. He also has three touchdown receptions. Coach Trivisonno recently told The News Herald’s outstanding reporter and columnist John Kampf that he strongly believes Conner is a solid candidate for Ohio’s Mr. Football Award by the Associated Press, a prestigious honor that Mentor's All-Ohio quarterback Mitch Trubisky (now at North Carolina) ran away with last season. Another of Coach Trivisonno’s pupils, quarterback Bart Tanski, was Ohio’s Mr. Football in 2007.
"Just looking at the film, the first thing you have to talk about is the uplift on the crispness of his throws,” Coach Kyle
said of Krizancic, who was battling a sore arm when the ‘Cats and the Cardinals met in the regular season and played very little time at quarterback. Conner did account for Mentor’s only score that night on a 70-yard touchdown run.
"You look at him and you realize that he is a really good runner,” Coach Kyle continued in his evaluation of Krizancic. “People ask what the difference is between Krizancic and Trubisky, well they both run their offense really well. That’s just the truth. Conner is probably the better runner and he is throwing the ball well enough now that you can’t cheat on him. What he does fits nicely into what Mentor can do.”
Krizancic is complemented by tailback Eddie Daugherty, who has rushed for more than 700 yards and has a combined 13 touchdowns rushing and receiving. A cut-back threat every time he touches the ball, Daugherty has a team-high 65 receptions for 850 yards.
Senior wide receiver Brandon Fritts (6-5, 215), a first-team All-Ohio selection in 2012 and a North Carolina recruit, has
hauled in 49 passes for 840 yards, the underrated Corey Plavcan has 10 touchdown receptions and Alex Matthews has rushed for 460 yards and nine TDs.
"When those guys get their hands on the ball they can make something big happen, that’s the dangerous thing,” said Coach Kyle of Krizancic’s supporting cast. “Guys who have history in big games, they certainly have them.”
Mentor, which is making its 14th playoff appearance and was the Division I state runner-up in both 2006 and
2007, has improved its defense immensely since the start of the season.
Helping key a Cardinals’ defense that is forcing turnovers and has pitched playoff shutouts over Brunswick and Stow is a D-front of Kent Berger, Von Maddox, Nico Lautanen and Trevor Morrison, and active linebacker Justin McMahon.
"I think their front line is pretty strong,” Coach Kyle said of Mentor’s defense while pointing to the play of Kent Berger.
“They are giving their offense good field position.”
Since the return of Vitale in Week 8 against St. Edward, Saint Ignatius’ running game has reestablished its consistency.
And, along with Running Backs Coach Terry Fergus’ “Italian Stallions” – Vitale, Daugenti and Cannata – and the blocking and tough yards provided by Elad, much of the credit for that goes to what could be one of the most underrated
offensive lines in Northeast Ohio.
"I think they’re finding their persona,” Coach Kyle said of an offensive line that includes All-Ohio senior tackle and Notre
Dame recruit Jimmy Byrne (6-4, 296), sophomore tackle Liam Eichenberg (6-5, 260), who has already been offered a scholarship from The Ohio State University, senior guards Ryan Dadich (6-4, 267) and Tom Stuhldreher (5-11, 245) and senior center Frank Rolf (5-10, 260). Stuhldreher is a relative of Massillon native Harry Stuhldreher, the late quarterback for the legendary “Four Horsemen of Notre Dame” backfield.
"We’ve run the ball and our protection is good,” Coach Kyle continued in reference to an O-Line that is coached by former Wildcat standout center and former Georgetown Hoya Adam Rini ’99 and former Padua Bruin and John Carroll University graduate Paul Yappel. Now in his second season on Coach Kyle’s staff, Paul was an assistant football coach at Archbishop Hoban for eight years.
"To get any type of pass rush, teams have to commit to the blitz now and that certainly helps,” said Coach Kyle. “I think
our running backs would tell you right away that they have had some good blocking.”
Rolf, whose game was honed as a young kid under former Our Lady of Angels coach and former St. Edward football standout, Cleveland Police Officer Mr. Tim Riley, brings a lunch-pail work ethic to his center position every day.
“We’ve really come together and everyone has just stepped up and held their own,” said Rolf of the ‘Cats’ work in the
trenches. “As Coach Rini says to us every week, we’ve got to take the initiative. It all starts with the offensive line. If we don’t do our jobs, then nothing else is going to happen.”
With the subject of separate playoffs for Public and Catholic/Private Schools still lingering in Ohio, Coach Kyle spoke
again of what has truly developed into a special rivalry.
“To be at this stage in the playoffs, you need to play some good opponents during the year,” said Coach Kyle of the willingness of Coach Trivisonno’s program to step up and play the Wildcats every year. “They learned a lot from that game earlier in the season and we learned a lot from that game. Have they improved? Yes. Have we improved? I
think so. It’s going to be another great regional battle. The kids are excited about it and I think Northeast Ohio is excited about it because that is good football, Mentor versus Saint Ignatius.”
THE CORNER'S PERFORMERS OF THE WEEK FROM THE HUDSON GAME
Offense: Senior wide receiver and captain Jack Hyland with 8 receptions for 101 yards and a touchdown reception late in the first half that put the Wildcats back in the game and senior tailback Mike Vitale with 31 carries for 110 yards and a clutch second-half touchdown run.
Defense: Junior end Dre'Mont Jones, who caused headaches for Hudson all night and consistently knocked the Explorers off their offensive path, and senior cornerback Scott Arthrell, who prevented a Hudson score with an interception late in the first half, came up with another INT that helped seal the game in the fourth quarter and made several one-on-one pass breakups throughout the four quarters.