MANSFIELD, Ohio — There was no quit in St. Edward in Friday’s state semifinal at Mansfield’s Arlin Field, despite trailing by two scores late in the third quarter. The Eagles drove right down into Olentangy Liberty’s red zone, but the drive stalled out as they turned it over on downs.
The Patriots offense, meanwhile, was in a groove, and on third-and-6, Andrew Leonard found Christian Moulton on a go-route that turned into an 80-yard TD and a 21-0 Patriot lead.
St. Edward responded with a TD of its own, but it was too little, too late as Olentangy Liberty held on for a 21-7 win.
“Battling through the injuries we did all year to get to this point, winning 22 straight playoff games in Division I. You know, that’s pretty special for this group of seniors,” Eagles head coach Tom Lombardo said. “I’m just so proud of them. I really, really am. We just, you know, we didn’t play a great game today. Give credit to Liberty.”
Olentangy Liberty (13-2), was in it’s first state semifinal since 2018. Much like this year, the Patriots ran into seventh seeded St. Edward, which ended their season en route to Lombardo’s second state title. Before that, the two sides faced off in 2014, which was also a win for the Eagles.
St. Edward beat Hilliard Bradley last year in Mansfield, following a 2022 win over Gahanna Lincoln and a 2021 win over Upper Arlington. The Patriots are the fourth different state semifinal opponent the Eagles have faced in the last four years.
Olentangy Liberty is in its second season under John Sansbury. They have a chance to win their 14th game in next week’s state championship after finishing last season 4-8.
“We had a chip on our shoulder,” Patriots quarterback Andrew Leonard said. “We just got dominated last year, and we didn’t have a great year. And then this offseason, we worked hard with the chip on our shoulder, like I said, just ready for this year do something special.”
Olentangy Liberty avenged a regular season loss with a win over Upper Arlington two weeks ago before a 21-9 victory over Pickerington North in the regional final. They also beat Glenville, the lone mutual opponent between the two sides, in the regular season, which the Eagles were unable to do.
St. Edward (9-6) is a different team than it was at that point, however. The Eagles pulled off a 13-7 upset of top seeded Mentor in the regional final to keep their four-peat hopes alive. That win came on the heels of victories over Toledo Whitmer and Perrysburg. A win Friday would have tied the state record for most consecutive playoff victories.
St. Edward won the coin toss and decided to open the game with possession. A Thomas Csanyi interception on the first play from scrimmage gave the ball right to the Patriots. Carter Kuhn returned the ball for a TD, but a penalty brought it back to the 32-yard line.
Two minutes later, with 9:42 left in the first quarter, Leonard, a finalist for this season’s Mr. Football award, went 17 yards into the end zone and put the Patriots up 7-0.
“We have this mentality called ‘Take,’“ Patriots defensive lineman Charlie Donahue said. ”Take everything, forcing all these turnovers as we can, just being as aggressive as we can and and that that really translated into this game. And that’s what helped us there to get some of the momentum in the first half.”
Bradley Eaton took the ensuing kickoff out to the 30-yard line but a fumble at the end of the return gave it right back. The Eagles’ defense, like it has all postseason, held strong and kept points off the board as Olentangy Liberty’s Sean Kendricks missed a 43-yard field goal.
“We didn’t have a great start,” Lombardo said. “And, I mean, that set the tone, not in a good way, although it was just 7-0 at halftime, even with the bad start.”
The Patriots got the ball coming out of halftime but the Eagles forced a three-and-out. Liberty took it right back on the Eagles’ ensuing possession after a mishandled snap exchange, and a few plays later Jake Struck went 39 yards to make the score 14-0 with 9:15 left in the third quarter.
“I hand them the ball off, and then it’s just like a show,” Leonard said. “I watch it, I sit back, and I just see him go to work.”
The Eagles marched all the way into Patriot territory, but with just under three minutes left in the third quarter they completed a pass short of the sticks, turning the ball over on downs.
On the Patriots’ possession that followed, Leonard scrambled to the right on third-and-6 and found Christian Moulton open downfield. The footrace was on and Moulton would not be denied as he went 80 yards to the house to put the Patriots up 21-0.
Leonard was 7 of 12 passing for 135 yards and a TD, while also adding 43 rushing yards and a TD with his legs on 11 carries. Struck put up 87 yards and a TD on 10 carries.
The Eagles scored on a five-minute, 15-play drive that ended with a short TD run from Nate Gregory to cut the lead to 21-7.
Gregory had a pair of sacks in the game to go with 27 yards and a TD on five carries, while Eaton finished with 18 carries for 97 yards.
“Bradley Eaton made some runs, Nate Gregory, you know, they were warriors. They basically played the whole game as senior leaders. That‘s tough to do in Division I, play both ways, but they did it,” Lombardo said. “(Gregory) is the heart and soul of our team. I mean he’s the mike linebacker, fullback, your blocking back. Led us in tackles. He started, gosh, 47 straight games him and Bradley Eaton. You know, that’s a record at St. Ed’s I think.”
The Eagles got the ball back with about five minutes left, but another turnover on downs effectively ended the game.
The Patriots finished it off with a knee to advance to the state championship next week against Cincinnati Moeller.
“We’ve been waiting on this class for a really long time. We have 31 seniors. I think we returned nine guys on our defense. So we, we had a ton of experience,” Donahue said. “I think last year, hurt a lot. I think it was kind of something that we could all feel in the off season, in the weight room, you know, in our spring practices, is just we never wanted to feel that again. And here we are.”