Ohio City – In a time when many are calling for separate OHSAA tournaments that would result in a Public School champion and a Catholic or Private school champ, this corner says Thank You to the football programs at Mentor High School and Saint Ignatius High School.

On Saturday night at 7, the Cardinals and the Wildcats will match 11-1 records in the Division I, Region 1 championship game at Parma's Byers Field. It will be an intense and physical encounter for 48 minutes (or more). That’s a given.

However, no matter which team walks off the turf at Byers with a trip to the state semifinals, Mentor and Saint Ignatius will continue to respect one another and the skills each program brings to the field.

And as long as Steve Trivisonno (133-52) and Chuck Kyle ’69 (301-68-1) are guiding the Cardinals and the Wildcats, respectively, two of the most talented and classiest programs in the nation are going to continue to play on a regular basis. Coach Trivisonno would have it no other way. To be the best, you play the best is how “Coach Triv” has molded his Cardinals into one of the very best.

"We’re no strangers is right,” said Coach Kyle, whose team will be facing Mentor for the fourth time in two seasons and the 15th time overall. Saturday night will mark the second consecutive year that the Cardinals and the Wildcats have squared off in the Region 1 title game. The all-time series stands in favor of the 'Cats, 10-4.

On a Friday night in 2011, Sept. 9 to be exact, Saint Ignatius traveled to Mentor’s Jerome T. Osborne Sr. Stadium for a Week 3 regular-season game and ran into an offensive machine that featured the endless skills of then junior quarterback Mitch Trubisky.

With Trubisky passing for 469 yards and three touchdowns and rushing for two more scores, the Cardinals amassed 608 total yards en route to a 38-24 victory. But oh my, what a difference a couple of months made.

On a brisk Saturday night, Nov. 19, 2011, Mentor and Saint Ignatius went at it again in Lakewood Stadium with much higher stakes – the Region 1 championship. Behind a staunch effort by their defense, the passing of quarterback Eric Williams (now at Yale), the clutch receiving of Jake Mooney ’12 and Conor Hennessey ’13 and a time-consuming and game-clinching drive that featured a 3-yard run by tailback Tim McVey ’13 off a fourth-and-1 from the Saint Ignatius 40, the Wildcats stunned the Cardinals, 23-17. Mentor was making its first regional-championship game appearance since its back-to-back state runner-up seasons of 2006 and 2007.

Now comes 2012 and the Cardinals, with Trubisky and his array of gifted receivers hungry for revenge, play Saint Ignatius in what has become a traditional early regular season encounter.

The Wildcats, with McVey rushing for 199 yards and three touchdowns and senior southpaw quarterback Mike LaManna throwing for 298 yards and three TDs, defeat the Cardinals, 48-21, on Saturday night, Sept. 8 at Byers Field.

So what is the battle cry from the Mentor faithful this week? “Let’s turn the tables!”

In 2011, the Cardinals dominate the regular season matchup only to be turned away in the regional title game. This season, Saint Ignatius controls the regular season game so --------. Stay tuned.

"Week 3, we played a very good game against them,” said Coach Kyle. “Offensively, defensively and with the kicking game, we did some nice things. But that was 10 games ago, so that’s like another season.

"It looks like their defense certainly has gotten better, just with their reads and their technique,” Coach Kyle continued. “So that’s what they needed. Offensively, they’re very good, obviously. Week 3, we played really well defensively. I hope we can match that intensity and that kind of effort. We kept good field position, we had good coverage sacks, we took the ball away and sometimes we had a good blitz that disrupted the whole thing.”

Coach Kyle emphasized that the Wildcats can’t let Trubisky, a North Carolina recruit, get his timing down.

After throwing for 3,852 yards and 41 touchdowns as a junior, the 6-foot-3, 205-pound Trubisky has passed for 3,302 yards and 37 TDs this fall while completing nearly 70 percent of his throws. In engineering last weekend’s 63-56 victory over previously unbeaten and top-ranked in Ohio St. Edward in a Region 1 semifinal at Byers Field, Trubisky completed 36 of 48 passes for 476 yards and two scores and he also rushed for two touchdowns.

In what was one of the most dramatic games in the history of the OHSAA playoffs, the Cardinals rallied with 28 unanswered points after trailing by 21 points with 5 minutes and 44 seconds remaining in the third quarter.

"The thing that makes him special, and you can see it, is his ability to run,” Coach Kyle said of the multiple skills Trubisky possesses. “He’s fast, big and he’ll break tackles. He’ll run the ball 20 times a game. He’s like a 6-3 running back.”

Trubisky, who before deciding on North Carolina had offers from all over the country, including Alabama, rushed for 656 yards and 12 TDs in 2011 and this fall he has 657 yards and 12 touchdowns on the ground.

"It’s quite a chore. There is a lot of work to be done in practice,” said Coach Kyle, who has guided his Wildcats to 14 Region 1 championships, a record 11 Division I state championships and three national titles (1989, ’93 and ’95). “It’s a busy, busy week, because every time you call a blitz you have to be sure you have solid coverage behind it. You have to go through every single detail.”

Saint Ignatius’ standout senior safety Bryan Fisher, who came up with a huge red-zone interception when Trubisky and Company were trying to mount a comeback in Week 3, couldn’t agree more with his head coach.

"They have so many weapons out there you have to look at their formations,” Fisher said. “They can go to any player out there and when they go five-wide, all five receivers are capable of making big plays at any time. We have to know our responsibilities, make sure we talk amongst ourselves and make sure there are no breakdowns in the coverage.

"We’ve gotten better every week,” Fisher continued in reference to the progress of the Wildcats’ secondary. “We played some tough offenses at the beginning of the season (including Mentor), played well, but as the weeks have gone on we’ve gotten better as individuals and as a group.”

Leading the way for Coach Trivisonno’s big-play wideouts are two of the toughest covers in the state - 6-5, 210-pound Brandon Fritts and 6-2, 190-pound Conner Krizancic. Fritts has 59 receptions for 1,087 yards and 15 touchdowns and Krizancic, the son of Mentor’s outstanding head basketball coach Bob Krizancic, has hauled in 64 passes for 894 yards and 10 touchdowns. Krizancic has also rushed for 341 yards and six touchdowns while averaging 7.4 yards per carry. In the triumph over St. Edward, Fritts had 14 receptions for 242 yards and four touchdowns.

As Coach Kyle pointed out, the Cardinals’ running game has improved greatly since early in the season. Showing the way in that improvement is senior Nick Delisa, who has rushed for 798 yards and 12 touchdowns and has an impressive 8.3 yards average per carry. Delisa touched up St. Edward’s defense for 136 yards and two TDs on 16 carries.

When it comes to the running game, Saint Ignatius features one of the state’s premier backs and arguably the top running back in the Northeast Lakes District in McVey.

In what was one of the greatest performances in OHSAA playoff history and one of the top efforts in the rich history of Saint Ignatius football, McVey scored a school-best seven first-half touchdowns as the Wildcats dominated North Royalton, 56-0, in a Region 1 semifinal at Lakewood Stadium. Tim, a two-time first-team all-district selection and an All-Ohio pick in 2011, enters Saturday night’s game as the Wildcats’ all-time single season touchdown leader (35), career touchdown leader (57) and all-time season and career leader in points with 210 and 342, respectively.

Complementing Tim are senior quarterback Mike LaManna (2,452 yards and 21 touchdowns) and a group of wide receivers who can hold their own with any receiving corps in the state – Hennessey, Rocky Zingale, Mike Siragusa and Jack Hyland.

Providing the seams for Tim and giving Mike the time he needs is an offensive line anchored by first-team all-district selections Mike Cray and Jim Byrne. Counted on to provide the heat is a ‘Cats’ defense that features two-time first-team all-district end Kevin Kavalec, an All-Ohio selection in 2011 and a Boston College recruit, and first-team all-district linebacker Kyle Berger, who each have nine sacks on the season. If you have any questions about the progress of Saint Ignatius’ defense, there are some players out in North Royalton who can provide the answers.

Saturday’s game will mark the fourth postseason encounter between the Cardinals and the Wildcats. Saint Ignatius defeated Mentor, 38-13, in a regional final in 1992, the Cardinals handed the Wildcats a 31-0 setback in a regional semifinal in 2003 and, as we mentioned earlier in the story, Saint Ignatius eliminated Mentor, 23-17, in last year’s Region 1 final.

AIR WAVES: Just a reminder that the Saint Ignatius Student Broadcasting Network will bring you Saturday night's game live, with seniors John Fanta and Greg Ziton calling the signals. SportsTime Ohio is televising the game live and on the radio, it's the live broadcast by Ed Daugherty and Mike Gibbons '70 over WHKW-AM 1220.

See you on the visitors' side of Byers Field.