Saturday’s regional quarterfinal will mark the third playoff encounter between the Falcons and the Wildcats.
Coach Chuck Kyle’s Wildcats and Coach Phil Annarella’s Falcons enter the game with 9-1 records and are ranked fourth and eighth, respectively, in the Associated Press Division I state poll. The game will be played on Parma’s Byers Field with the kickoff scheduled for 7 p.m.
If you are unable to attend the game, seniors John Fanta and Greg Ziton will have the call for you over the Saint Ignatius Student Broadcasting Network. The game will also be broadcast live on WHK-AM 1420 with Ed Daugherty and Mike Gibbons '70 calling it as they see it.
HERE IS THE CORNER'S PREVIEW
Brooklyn, Ohio – The players who represent the 2012 Saint Ignatius Wildcats were not born when Saint Ignatius and Austintown Fitch first crossed paths on the gridiron. And the same can be said for the 2012 Falcons.
However, this corner is sure that a few, if not several players from each current program, have been told about that fall night in 1990.
Saint Ignatius, 10-0, riding a 39-game winning streak and coming off back-to-back state championship seasons that included a national title in 1989, took on the Austintown Fitch Falcons, then 8-2, in a first-round playoff game at a packed Baldwin-Wallace College Finnie Stadium. The Wildcats’ 39 consecutive victories marked the longest unbeaten streak in Ohio since Cincinnati Archbishop Moeller won 45 in a row from 1976 to 1981.
In a postseason encounter that matched the state’s No. 1 (Saint Ignatius) and No. 7 teams, Austintown Fitch played its way to a 33-21 lead with 1 minute and 31 seconds remaining in the third quarter. Despite an impressive rally by the Wildcats, the Falcons were able to turn away Saint Ignatius after the ‘Cats marched to the Fitch 20-yard line with 1:38 left in the fourth quarter.
In what was a final score that ran on the front page of sports sections throughout Ohio, the Falcons prevailed, 33-28.
Saint Ignatius and Austintown Fitch would meet again in the postseason with a very different outcome.
On Nov. 28, 1992, the Wildcats, carrying a 12-0 record, would face the 10-2 Falcons and their vaunted Wing-T offense in a state-semifinal matchup at Massillon’s Paul Brown Tiger Stadium. After Fitch scored the game’s first seven points, Saint Ignatius powered its way to a 31-7 triumph and would go on to win its second of a state-record five consecutive Division I state football championships by defeating St. Xavier, 24-14, at Canton’s legendary Fawcett Stadium.
As Saturday night’s game approaches, Wildcats head coach Chuck Kyle ’69 emphasizes that the 2012 Fitch Falcons have quite a different look from those days when Coach Kyle and veteran defensive coordinator Dan Corrigan ’78 spent numerous hours preparing for the Wing-T.
“They give you a spread look that is similar to St. Edward,” said Coach Kyle, who will enter Saturday’s game with a career record of 299-68-1. “Like St. Eds, they do a lot of counter blocking. Massillon was able to throw the ball against them, so maybe we can have some success there.”
Coach Kyle was referring to Fitch’s only setback this season, a 34-14 loss to the 10th-ranked Tigers in Week 7 at Paul Brown Tiger Stadium.
The Falcons’ offensive production this fall has been impressive, to say the least.
In seven of its nine victories, Fitch has scored 68 points, 56 points, 52 points, 49 points twice, 45 points and 35 points. The other two triumphs came by scores of 28-6 over Uniontown Lake and 24-10 over Warren G. Harding on opening night. That was Harding’s only setback of the season, as the Raiders are preparing for Saturday night’s regional quarterfinal at Mentor.
The Falcons, who have rebounded in style after an injury-plagued 6-4 season in 2011, closed out their current regular season by defeating Youngstown Cardinal Mooney, 49-7, in what has been reported in the Warren and Youngstown areas as the worst setback Mooney received in a decade.
Saint Ignatius opened its season with a 31-7 victory over Cardinal Mooney in the annual Charity Game at Browns Stadium. Although maybe a bit overrated in preseason, the Cardinals were a much different team on opening night than the one that walked away from the Fitch pounding with a 3-6 record.
Keying the dominant performance against the Cardinals were quarterback Matt Futkos, who passed for 152 yards and a touchdown and had three rushing TDs, and running back Darrin Hall, who galloped for 139 yards and two scores. Fitch was up 42-0 at the mid-point of the third quarter.
The victory over Cardinal Mooney was the 200th in the 32-year career of Falcons head coach Phil Annarella. Annarella is no stranger to Coach Kyle. In 1989, Annarella was coaching at Warren Western Reserve High School when the Wildcats prevailed over that school, 16-7, in a very physical opening-round playoff game at Finnie Stadium. Coach Annarella became the head coach of the then newly consolidated Warren G. Harding High School and in 1990 he guided the Raiders to a 14-0 record, the Division I state championship and a fifth-place ranking nationally by USA Today.
“They will blitz their linebackers and come after you with five or six guys at times,” said Coach Kyle of Fitch’s defense. “So we will have to mix our blocking schemes.”
Leading the Falcons’ defense is 6-foot-4, 312-pound senior lineman Billy Price, an Ohio State recruit and a first-team All-Ohio selection in 2011. A young man who Coach Kyle said moves extremely well, Price is also one of the top throwers in track and field that the region has to offer. He doubles as an offensive lineman.
Helping fuel Saint Ignatius’ defense are junior linebacker Kyle Berger, senior end Kevin Kavalec and senior linebacker C.J. Haag.
Berger, a 6-3, 210-pound outside backer, leads the team with 86 tackles, including 39 solos and an impressive 38 stops for losses. He has totaled 7.5 sacks, an interception, a forced fumble and four pass deflections.
Kavalec, a 6-3, 240-pound Boston College recruit and a first-team All-Ohio selection in 2011, has racked up 48 tackles, including 32 solos and 26 tackles for losses. Kevin enters the playoffs with seven sacks, four fumble recoveries, a forced fumble, a safety and a touchdown.
The 6-1, 192-pound Haag, one of the most underrated players in the area, has made 75 tackles, including 38 solos and 20 tackles for losses. C.J. has six sacks, two fumble recoveries, a forced fumble and an interception.
Leading the way on the other side of the ball is senior tailback and Buffalo recruit Tim McVey.
A three-year varsity performer, Tim has rushed for 1,127 yards and has scored 26 touchdowns this fall despite playing only one quarter in two games and a half in two others. He is coming off a 192-yard rushing performance against top-ranked St. Edward and needs four more touchdowns to surpass the Wildcats’ all-time career mark of 51 set by Eric Haddad ’94.
*The corner will take a look at the 84th Boys State Cross Country Championships later this week. After a state runner-up finish in 2011, Saint Ignatius, ranked second in Ohio, will attempt to run to the gold on Saturday at the National Trail Raceway course in Hebron, Ohio.