A playoff atmosphere awaits the Wildcats as St. Xavier Stadium’s Ballaban Field will be rocking on Saturday afternoon.
The Bombers enter the game with a 5-3 record and in need of a victory as they currently stand ninth in the Division I, Region 4 OHSAA Harbin computer ratings. Saint Ignatius, undefeated through eight games and currently on a 14-game winning streak that dates back to last season, is second in Division I, Region 1. The top eight teams in each of the state’s 24 regions at the end of the regular season qualify for the OHSAA regional quarterfinals.
By Eddie Dwyer, Copyright October 2012
Ohio City – Saint Ignatius’ varsity football team knelt down around head coach Chuck Kyle ’69 after Tuesday’s practice and took its traditional “10 seconds” to reflect.
As most of his teammates were making their way to the locker room just outside the Wirtz Pavilion, senior defensive end and Boston College recruit Kevin Kavalec remained on Wasmer Field and took time out to share his reflections on the Wildcats’ opponent this weekend – Jesuit School rival St. Xavier from Cincinnati.
“I remember last year, they played so hard and came out with so much intensity,” said Kavalec, referring to last season’s 14-12 loss to the Bombers in John Carroll University’s Don Shula Stadium, the last defeat the Wildcats would experience in 2011 before going on to win a record 11th Division I state championship.
“They’re obviously well coached and play with a lot of discipline,” Kavalec said. “I respect that a lot.”
There will be no questioning the respect the Jesuit school programs have for each other when they meet for the 19th time on Saturday in St. Xavier Stadium’s tradition-rich Ballaban Field. It’s a series that stands in favor of the Bombers, 10-8, with Coach Steve Specht’s teams winning the last two meetings.
The kickoff will be 2 p.m., and the game will be brought to you live by the Saint Ignatius Student Broadcasting Network. Seniors John Fanta and Greg Ziton will have the call.
Time Warner Cable will be televising the game live over Channel 311. Following the Wildcats-Bombers encounter, Channel 311 will have a tape delay presentation of the St. Edward at Cincinnati Archbishop Moeller game.
One of the biggest tasks that Coach Kyle and his staff have this week is keeping the state’s top-ranked Wildcats (8-0) focused on the job at hand. Although a good portion of the local media is already anticipating next week’s annual showdown with St. Edward (8-0), Ohio’s second-ranked team, nobody knows better than Kavalec what a demanding two-game, regular-season ending stretch this is. You can argue that no other team in the state has a tougher one.
“We just do the job now, not looking ahead and taking it one week at a time,” said Kavalec, a first-team All-Ohio selection in 2011 and one of the Wildcats’ four captains this fall. “St. Xavier is a big game for us. We’re really excited to play Xavier after a couple of down weeks.”
The down period Kavalec was referring to were the easy victories over John Adams (49-0) and St. Francis (56-0) the past two weeks, games in which Coach Kyle was turning to his second and third units early and often.
“The team is a lot more focused this week, I can tell by how hard we’re going in practice,” Kavalec said, emphasizing that last season’s loss to the Bombers, which saw the Wildcats botch the snap while attempting a game-winning field goal, “really hurt.”
Do those last two words tell you how much the St. Xavier game means to Saint Ignatius, or what? The ‘Cats go on to win an 11th state championship and the sting from that sunny late October afternoon at John Carroll still lingers with the veterans a year later.
It’s a game both teams want and one the Bombers (5-3) might need, and we emphasize might. St. Xavier is currently ninth in Region 4 and closes its regular season at home against a solid Louisville (KY) Xavier team on Oct. 26.
“This is a playoff caliber game,” said Coach Kyle, who is 298-67-1 in what is his 30th season as the head coach at his alma mater. Coach Kyle’s friend and colleague, Coach Specht, is currently 86-24 in what is his ninth season directing the Bombers. Coach Specht was Coach Kyle’s Defensive Coordinator when Chuck guided Team USA to the Gold Medal of the IFAF Junior World Championship in the summer of 2009 at Canton’s legendary Fawcett Stadium.
Along with its 11 Division I state championships, Saint Ignatius was the state runner-up to Lima Senior in 1996 and St. Xavier has captured two big-school state football crowns – 2005 and 2007 – and was a state runner-up three times, with two of those losses in state-title games coming to Saint Ignatius in 1992 and 2001. Wildcats assistant coach Ryan Franzinger ’02 helped show the way in 2001.
“We have to realize that we’re going into a bit of a hornets’ nest,” Coach Kyle said in his reference to Saturday’s game in the Queen City. “These guys are ranked ninth in their region and they’ve lost to great football teams. Their schedule is the toughest in the state.
“They’ve beaten some very good teams,” Coach Kyle continued. “They smoked Cincinnati Moeller and lost to (nationally recognized) Louisville (KY) Trinity in the last 30 seconds of the game, 14-13. Colerain (ranked ninth in the nation by USA Today) beat them by three points and last week they lost to St. Eds where they had a bad second quarter, a disastrous thing, and they paid the price. So I’m sure they’re kind of angry people right now. We’ve really got to play great football.”
Coach Kyle pointed to how accurate Bombers quarterback Nick Tensing is, especially in the intermediate game, and pointed to one of Tensing’s main targets, wide receiver Kevin Milligan, and his Saint Ignatius ties. This corner had the privilege of covering Kevin’s older brother, Jesse, who was a record-setting kicker for the Wildcats in 1997.
Although it went on to lose to St. Edward, 27-16, at Lakewood Stadium last Saturday afternoon, St. Xavier saw Tensing complete 26 of 42 passes for 217 yards and two touchdowns. Milligan hauled in 13 passes for 98 yards, including a 10-yard TD grab, wideout Trey Kilgore caught six passes for 45 yards and a 20-yard touchdown strike, and wide receiver Trevor Brinkmann totaled three receptions for 38 yards. Add in 86 yards rushing by Tensing on 17 carries and 74 yards on the ground off 17 carries by running back Ben Glines and you can understand how the Bombers had 367 total yards to St. Edward’s 288. The Eagles, however, won the special-teams battle – big time.
“Their defense is always good,” said Coach Kyle of a tradition Coach Specht and his staff take great pride in. “They’re a little young there, but then by the ninth game everybody is experienced. They are extremely disciplined on defense, well-coached and well-schemed. They won’t give us the long ball. With the coverage they’re doing, they’re going to make us throw short and figure that eventually they’ll tip one away or pick it off.”
Leading Coach Specht’s defense against St. Edward were free safety Ryan Berning with 10 tackles, wide safety Joe Barrett with nine tackles and an interception, will linebacker Justin Hilliard with 8 stops and strong safety Bobby Ries, who was involved in seven tackles. The Bombers’ kicking game is in the capable foot of Aaron Berry.
PLAYERS OF THE WEEK FROM THE SAINT FRANCIS GAME
On offense, we’re going with all of the guys up front, first, second and third units. Their efforts helped standout senior tailback Tim McVey score three more touchdowns, putting Tim at 22 for the season, 44 for his career and just eight TDs away from surpassing the all-time mark of 51 set by Eric Haddad ’94. The O-Line has also given senior quarterback Mike LaManna the time to eclipse the 1,500-yard passing mark for the season and fire his 15th and 16th touchdown passes in just seven games. Mike sat out the John Adams game with an ankle injury.
Defensively the honor goes to senior free safety Bryan Fisher, who in just a short amount of playing time against St. Francis had a blocked punt and two interceptions, including one in which he jumped high over the intended receiver and took the ball out of the air.
*ADDED SPECIAL MOMENTS (Courtesy of the St. Xavier home web page and the SIBN).
The storied Ohio Jesuit school rivalry is this weekend at St. Xavier High School. St. Ignatius and St. Xavier have a long-standing tradition of exciting events scheduled around the weekend the two schools play in football.
The weekend kicks off Friday night with the first concert of the year for St. X choral ensembles. St. Xavier and St. Ignatius choral programs will unite in an evening of song and community and perform at 7:30 pm in the Walter Deye SJ Performance Hall. The one hour concert is a great way to introduce the weekend.
*Note from the corner: John Fanta ’13, the savvy and good-natured voice of Saint Ignatius’ football broadcasts, will be performing for the Wildcats’ choral on Friday night.
The tradition continues into Saturday when the St. Xavier football team plays St. Ignatius at 2:00 pm on Ballaban Field. The coveted “Cannon Bell” will be awarded at the end of the game to the winning team. During the football game, the St. X football community will have many activities to show support for breast cancer awareness.
*In another note of interest from the corner, the Wildcats and the Bombers first played for the “Cannon Bell” last season and the young man who named the bell in an on-line contest last year – none other than John Fanta – is hoping the ‘Cats do everything in their power to take it home this time.
On Friday at noon, the Saint Ignatius High School Chorus will leave for Cincinnati. They will arrive at 4 pm for a meet and greet with the Saint Xavier High School Chorus. The Chorus will perform, as well as the premier on campus acapella group, the Saint Ignatius 'Cat-o-tonics. From spirituals to barbershop, Friday night will be a thrill. The Saint Ignatius Chorus members will sleep at Saint Xavier members' homes on Friday night. Director Jason Falkolfsky returns for another exciting year in Saint Ignatius Chorus.
At the game on Saturday, both choruses will join with both marching bands for the Star Spangled Banner as well as the alma maters. They will join hands and signify that there is more than the intense locking of the pads between both schools.
During halftime of Saturday's game, Father William Murphy, SJ and Father Tim Howe, SJ will join John Fanta on the SIBN to talk of the fellowship between both schools and the art of Jesuit education.
Rounding the corner and thanking God for allowing me to cover the great game that is Ohio High School Football. See you in the Queen City!