The Wildcats (10-1) and the Bears (10-1) square off on Saturday night at 7 in a Division I, Region 1 Semifinal in legendary and atmosphere-rich Lakewood Stadium. It will mark the first meeting on the varsity level between the school’s football programs. Along with this season, North Royalton qualified for the OHSAA playoffs in 2007 and 2009, and defending and record 11-time big-school state champion Saint Ignatius has reached the postseason 24 times since 1988.
Saturday’s game will be broadcast live by the Saint Ignatius Student Broadcasting Network, with seniors John Fanta and Greg Ziton on the call, and it will be televised by Time Warner Cable of Northeast Ohio on a tape-delay basis at 11 p.m. Veterans Patrick Pierson and Al Palowski will call it as they see it for TWC.
Here is the corner’s in-depth look at the game with Head Coach Chuck Kyle ‘69.
By Eddie Dwyer, Copyright November 2012
Ohio City – Taking a few minutes off from what was another “work day” for his Wildcats, Saint Ignatius head football coach Chuck Kyle discussed Saturday night’s opponent in the Region 1 semifinals – Coach Nick Ciulli’s North Royalton Bears.
And, as expected, the first topics of discussion were the Bears’ offense and their dynamic senior quarterback Travis Tarnowski.
“Offensively, they have been very productive,” Coach Kyle said of a North Royalton team that is averaging just under 39 points a game and is coming off a 38-35 victory over previously undefeated Willoughby South in a regional quarterfinal at South. “They throw the ball very well. Travis Tarnowski is extremely accurate and he’s a good athlete. He has a nice ability to escape and keep the ball alive. He doesn’t keep his head down and just run, he looks up field hoping he can see something break open.
“So we have to stay in coverage on this guy,” Coach Kyle continued. “He’s always looking to hit something big.”
Here we go again, another tough and heady quarterback who can make big plays with his arm and his legs. If it doesn’t sound familiar, you haven’t really followed Wildcats football this fall.
The 6-foot-1, 190-pound Tarnowski, a three-year mainstay for Coach Ciulli, is in the same mold that has produced some of the state’s other standout quarterbacks – Mentor’s Mitch Trubisky, St. Edward’s Ryan Fallon and the young man who kept the ‘Cats on their toes during their 35-26 regional-quarterfinal victory last weekend, Austintown Fitch’s Matt Futkos.
“He can get the ball there and his receivers are good athletes, they can catch the ball,” said Coach Kyle of Tarnowski and a Bears receiving corps that will try to match what is one of the top pass-catching units in Northeast Ohio in Saint Ignatius’ Mike Siragusa, Rocky Zingale, Conor Hennessey and Jack Hyland.
After leading his school to its first postseason victory in football by throwing for 362 yards and four touchdowns and rushing for a team-high 91 yards at Willoughby South, Tarnowski will enter Saturday night’s game against the Wildcats with season marks of 2,765 yards passing and 767 yards rushing.
Tarnowski, who caught everyone’s attention at Wasmer Field in the summer of 2011 when he was competing in the Gary Stevens Elite Quarterback-Wide Receiver Academy, is complemented by multi-skilled senior running back/defensive back Carl Lint, 6-3 senior wide receiver/safety Nick Krempasky and hard-nosed junior running back/safety Austin Smith.
Although he found Willoughby South’s defense to be a little stingy against the running game, Lint did haul in seven passes for 114 yards and will put his season numbers of nearly 800 yards rushing and 834 yards receiving on the table Saturday night. Smith rushed for 81 yards and a touchdown in helping the sixth-seeded Bears knock off the third-seeded Rebels and Krempasky had a game North Royalton’s faithful won’t soon forget – 12 receptions for 192 yards and two touchdowns, including a clutch 19-yard grab and second-effort run during the drive that led to senior Casey Mayell’s decisive 24-yard field goal with just over 2 minutes remaining.
Trailing, 28-14, late in the first half, the Bears pulled the “upset” by scoring 24 unanswered points and getting some timely plays by a defense that limited South’s Mr. Football candidate, Kareem Hunt, to 29 yards rushing in the second half. Hunt had 147 yards and two touchdowns rushing in the first 24 minutes. Helping lead the defensive charge were senior linebacker Britain Barnes, junior safety Henry Meinberg and junior nose guard Evan Boehlefeld.
“We’ve gone against some good quarterbacks that spread it out and throw the ball, and quarterbacks that can run with the ball. It’s not new territory for us,” said Coach Kyle, who will take a career record of 300-68-1 into Saturday’s game. That impressive mark includes a remarkable 62-12 postseason record.
“It’s just that we have to execute, and that’s what we have been working on,” Coach Kyle said of the key mistakes in the regular-season finale setback to St. Edward and the uncharacteristic five turnovers in the victory over Fitch last week.
Although its defense came up big in the second half against South, it is no secret that North Royalton has yielded its share of points this fall and has been involved in a few shootouts.
“It seems like it has been almost this ‘We’ll outscore you mentality,’” Coach Kyle said of the Bears. “They’re not a team that likes to blitz a lot, it seems. They want to keep their angles and their positions. So if they get into blitzing, a thing they don’t really like to do, OK. We’ve gone against teams that send the ship and teams that want to kind of sit back.
“We have to be patient with that area (the Bears’ defensive looks),” Coach Kyle continued. “I think our pass blocking has been pretty good. Our usual procedure is that we have plans and now let’s see how we have to adjust our blocking. If teams are going to play it back like that, Timmy is going to find some seams. I have great faith that he will.”
Coach Kyle was referring to his outstanding senior tailback Tim McVey, who has rushed for 1,329 yards and has scored 28 touchdowns this season. Tim now has 50 career TDs and is two touchdowns shy of surpassing the Wildcats’ all-time career touchdown mark of 51 set by two-time All-Ohioan Eric Haddad, who played varsity from 1991 through 1993. McVey is five touchdowns away from tying Haddad’s single-season mark of 33 TDs and is right on the heels of Eric’s career scoring record of 308 points. And Tim has played less than two quarters in two games this season and a quarter in another. Need we say more?
“As soon as we start to run the ball, that sure helps the passing, and vice versa,” said Coach Kyle of the balance he and veteran offensive coordinator Nick Restifo always strive for.
It was offensive balance and a sound defense that led the Hudson Explorers to a 19-7 victory over North Royalton on the final weekend of the regular season. Hudson, behind its all-state fullback/linebacker and Michigan recruit Ben Gedeon, had Tarnowski watching from the sideline as it ate up minutes and kept the Bears off the scoreboard until late in the third quarter.
Helping the 'Cats maintain their balance is senior southpaw quarterback Mike LaManna, who has passed for 2,141 yards and 20 touchdowns this fall.
Coach Kyle, in appraising his own defensive situation, doesn’t believe the Bears have faced a 3 look quite like the one Saint Ignatius employs.
“I think our guys run it quite well,” said the man who is in his 30th season as the head football coach at his alma mater.
Those guys include the all-senior front three of end Matt “Canadian” Gawlik, nose tackle Dave Katusha (Air Force bound) and end Kevin Kavalec (a Boston College recruit). The “Chairmen of the Board” are supported by an athletic group of linebackers headed by junior Kyle Berger, seniors Nick Chapek, C.J. Haag and Brett Bendokaitis, senior safety/linebacker Zak Baker and an aggressive secondary of senior cornerback Tommy Fanning, junior corner Scott Arthrell, junior safety Dameon Willis Jr. and senior safeties Bryan Fisher and Mike Gibbons.
Chapek had 14 tackles against Fitch, including five for losses and 2 sacks, and he also came up with a key fumble recovery. Bendokaitis was in on 13 tackles.
NOT QUITE STRANGERS: As we mentioned at the top, Saturday will mark the first varsity football encounter between the Bears and the Wildcats. However, three years ago on a muddy field in North Royalton the current senior classes met on the freshman level and the Bears came away with a touchdown victory.
Saint Ignatius and North Royalton had some tough battles in basketball, especially in the early 1990s when Ted Wypasek, one of the state’s best, was working his magic for the Bears. And who will ever forget this past spring, when the Wildcats’ varsity baseball team, with center fielder Tim McCoy ’12 and right fielder Dan Oaklief ’12 throwing out runners at the plate with consecutive picture-perfect throws, held on to defeat the Bears, 3-2, in a district championship game at Strongsville.
A CLASS ACT AND A HECK OF A COACH: That’s the best way to describe Bears head coach Nick Ciulli, who gave this corner many memorable moments to report on during the fall of 2002, when Coach Ciulli guided the Valley Forge Patriots to their only OHSAA playoff appearance.
Rounding the corner and looking forward to returning to Lakewood Stadium, where I was privileged to gather so many rich memories in my career. I say it all of the time and sincerely mean it, that when my final -30- takes place, I would love to have part of me spread around the grand facilities (football and baseball) on Bunts and Madison.