They carried the nation’s No. 1 tag from the first day of summer practice and handled every challenge that arrived, including a game for the ages on Bunts and Madison.
This summer, as the 2013 Wildcats look to make their mark in Saint Ignatius’ football lore, we celebrate what will be the 20th anniversary of one of the greatest teams to ever represent Cleveland’s Jesuit Preparatory School and Northeast Ohio football.
By Eddie Dwyer, Copyright July 2013
Brooklyn, Ohio - Saint Ignatius Hall of Fame athlete Scott Mutryn, after the Wildcats defeated Cincinnati St. Xavier, 24-14, in the 1992 state championship game, told The Plain Dealer that Saint Ignatius’ first state championship team of 1988 and state and national champion squad of 1989 set the standard and gave all the players who followed “something to shoot for.”
Mutryn would go on to say his Class of 1994 made a promise to themselves to win three state championships. “We’re two-thirds of the way there and I take it as a challenge to make it No. 3 next year,” said the talented, hard-nosed and amiable signal-caller.
Eight months later, the preseason of 1993 arrived and there they were – color photos of Mutryn, teammate and classmate Eric Gohlstin and Coach Chuck Kyle ’69 stripped across the front page of USA Today.
Before the Wildcats had taken part in a summer scrimmage, the high school staff from USA Today labeled them as the team to beat in the nation. Saint Ignatius was ranked No. 1 in the “Super 25” preseason poll.
In the story that accompanied the poll, USA Today seemed to marvel at how the Wildcats could master such a
large playbook, nearly 40 pages of schemes and sets that included several options. Saint Ignatius’ brains were taking center stage with its brawn.
The story also included remarks by Mutryn on how much he loved Cleveland and how sad he was when, as a little kid, he watched the Browns suffer those heartbreaking postseason losses to the Oakland Raiders and Denver Broncos. He pointed out how much it meant to him, his teammates and Saint Ignatius to be able to bring success and recognition to Cleveland.
Featuring preseason All-Americans in Mutryn, offensive lineman Gohlstin, senior two-way lineman Mike Buzin and senior Eric Haddad, one of the most prolific running backs in Ohio’s rich football history, the 1993 Wildcats looked upon their national ranking as a compliment, instead of a pressure cooker. While Saint Ignatius has had an array of great 1-2 punches, such as Ray Kubacki and Steve Huntz, Brian Dowling and Jim Grace and Joe Pickens and Pete Fitzpatrick, Mutryn and Haddad rank right up there with the best.
In the early going of ’93, Haddad, Gohlstin and a defense keyed by Buzin, senior tackle Jeff Forgach, senior linebackers Mike LoPresti and Mark Anghilante, junior linebackers Chuck Della Vella and Brian Stenger and
senior safety Mitch Ocampo showed the way.
Once Mutryn settled in with his new receiving corps of senior tight end Matt Schindler, senior wide receivers T.J. Donovan and Keith Laschinger, junior flanker Darin Kershner and sophomore wide receiver Drew
Haddad, the picture was complete.
In finishing 14-0 and capturing the program’s second national title and fifth Division I state championship by defeating Cincinnati Archbishop Moeller, 38-20, the ’93 ‘Cats experienced only one major challenge along the way.
But oh my, what a challenge it was.
Coach Jim McQuaide’s St. Edward Eagles, behind All-Ohio senior quarterback Bobby Adams, took the Wildcats into three overtimes before Saint Ignatius prevailed, 35-34, on Saturday night, Oct. 23 in Lakewood Stadium, now known as First Federal Lakewood Stadium.
Saint Ignatius won it on a leaping, 15-yard touchdown reception by Laschinger – a play that saw Keith take the ball away from the defender – and the ensuing extra point by senior Nick Paez. The Wildcats led, 21-7, with just over eight minutes remaining in the fourth quarter, but the Eagles stormed back behind touchdown receptions by underrated senior wide receiver Ryan Ezzie and senior tailback Kevin Knestrick. Knestrick would go on to an outstanding career as a receiver at Mount Union under legendary and recently retired head coach Larry Kehres. Kevin teamed with the ‘Cats’ Kershner at Mount Union, as Darin also made his presence felt for the perennial national champion Purple Raiders.
Before Laschinger’s exceptional and determined effort, St. Edward had taken a 34-28 lead on another touchdown pass by Adams, who, like Mutryn, played with ice in his veins.
However, the Eagles misfired on the extra point attempt and the stage was set for the Laschinger, Mutryn and Paez heroics. In what was a gut-wrenching Week 8 game for the faithful from both sides, Saint Ignatius, during the winning drive, had to overcome a penalty that wiped out a touchdown run by Mutryn and a sack. And believe me folks when I tell you Mutryn was under heavy pressure again when he rolled out and let loose with the pass to Laschinger.
“I am so tired, my God what a great football game,” Mutryn told The Plain Dealer after the Wildcats and the Eagles tested each other’s will for more than three hours. “St. Edward is a great, great team. They just kept answering us."
Coach McQuaide, who is currently the head coach of the always sound and solid Solon Comets, was, as always, the epitome of class following the three-overtime thriller.
“I have always heard about the ‘Game that nobody deserved to lose,’” Coach McQuaide said to this corner. “Well, if there is such a thing, this was certainly it.”
The 1993 Saint Ignatius-St. Edward match up attracted a standing-room, sitting-in-the-aisles crowd of more than 13,000 to Lakewood Stadium. Fans without tickets were standing on the hoods and roofs of their cars along Madison Avenue, trying to get a glimpse of the action. By the first overtime, there was a traffic jam so significant along Madison Avenue that the Lakewood police had to clear it up.
Simply put, it was an epic battle that goes down with the Wildcats’ 1989 one-point, regional-final playoff victory over the Robert Smith-led Euclid Panthers as two of the greatest games in the history of Ohio high school football. And this corner will take the liberty of saying those 1993 and 1989 games, along with the first state championship game against Cincinnati Princeton in 1988, are the greatest in the numerous laurels of record 11-time state champion Saint Ignatius.
In what was a first for The Plain Dealer, two players from the same game – Mutryn and Adams – were
selected as the Players of the Week. Mutryn passed for 229 yards and five touchdowns, and Adams threw for 231 yards and four touchdowns. During the fall of 2003, this old-timer was humbled and privileged to be a major part of a 10-year anniversary cover story on the game in The Plain Dealer’s “Locker Room.”
Adams and Eric Haddad, who looked as capable as they did that storied October night 10 years earlier, graced the Locker Room cover.
Eric Haddad highlighted a dominant 1993 postseason by scoring five touchdowns against then Division I Walsh Jesuit on a Canton Fawcett Stadium field that was muddy and rain drenched. Saint Ignatius overpowered the Warriors in a state semifinal match up, 34-0. Shortly after that game Fawcett Stadium switched to an artificial turf surface.
From there, it was on to another state-championship encounter with Moeller. The ‘Cats, behind Pickens’ powerful arm (311 yards and three touchdowns), defeated the celebrated program from the Queen City, 34-28, in the 1989 Division I state championship game that was played on a Sunday afternoon in Ohio Stadium on the campus of The Ohio State University.
The 1993 state-title match up with Moeller was, as we mentioned above, pretty much all Saint Ignatius. Behind Mutryn’s right arm, Eric Haddad’s power inside and outside, Gohlstin’s imposing work up front and some sure handed receptions by Kershner, the Wildcats wore down the Fighting Crusaders en route to the three-touchdown victory.
Moeller, which won its eighth state championship in 2012 and has agreed to meet the Wildcats in the 2014 and 2015 regular seasons (see the corner's story from two weeks ago), entered the 1993 state championship game ranked sixth in the nation by USA Today.
Played two weeks before Christmas in Massillon’s Paul Brown Tiger Stadium, the 1993 state championship game marked the last time the Division I title was decided during the day. Day or night, it probably wouldn’t have mattered weather-wise that Saturday in Stark County as the first half was played in a combination of on-and-off again flurries and sunshine. In the second half, Mother Nature came with blitzes of whiteouts.
Why two weeks before Christmas? Well, the 1993 big-school playoffs for Regions 1, 2 and 4 were delayed after a Region 3 court dispute between Lima Senior and Westerville North over a playoff spot was decided on
the field.
As for the weather that day in Massillon, the ‘Cats were almost oblivious.
The line by The Plain Dealer’s outstanding columnist Bill Livingston following the game said it all: “Eric Haddad can cut on a snowflake.”
THEY SAID IT
Coach Kyle on his ’93 Wildcats: “I think the kids kept their cool the whole way. The team had a nucleus
of very good players. But to be honest, there were a lot of guys who weren’t going to go on to play college football who played key roles. This was their time. They loved playing football, but they weren’t looking for it to be a career.”
Scott Mutryn: “They say in life we spend so much time worrying about the destination that we forget to enjoy the journey, but I admit I enjoyed every minute of the journey,” said Mutryn, who was a backup quarterback on the 1991 state-championship team and 28-0 as the 1992 and 1993 starter.
“To me, two things stand out. Obviously, the St. Ed’s game for the sheer battle and gut-wrenching twists and turns. There were moments of excitement and emotion followed by agonizing moments of despair. The other great memory was the final moment the gun sounded in the state championship game. I will always remember hugging Eric Haddad and Coach Restifo (veteran offensive coordinator Nick Restifo) and crying some tears of sadness because it was over, but mostly tears of joy in knowing that we set out to be perfect and we fulfilled that promise.
“I am blessed to have played with such wonderful men, and not a day goes by that I don’t think about them and that team and thank God that I was fortunate to be part of such an amazing, wonderful, perfect group.”
HOW SOON THEY FORGET
If I see another post on the Wildcats’ dramatic 40-33 regional final victory over Maurice Clarett and the Warren G. Harding Raiders in 2001 that doesn’t credit Ryan Franzinger ’02 for his HUGE and DECISIVE roles in the triumph, I am going to lose all faith in today’s quick hit and little history journalism. Please, check out the film on the game some time.
SEE YOU AT MINI CAMP 5 ON JULY 24.