MENTOR, Ohio — The top-seeded Mentor Cardinals looked every bit the team to beat in Division I, Region 1 on both sides of the football, scoring on three of the their first four possessions while locking down St. Ignatius on defense, for a 31-7 victory in the first round of the OHSAA playoffs on Friday night.
The Cardinals advance the regional quarterfinals next Friday to face Strongsville, a team Mentor defeated earlier this season, 44-17.
Mentor head coach Matt Gray has seen his team grow immeasurably against the Wildcats over the last two seasons. Losing to them twice last season, including in the first round of the playoffs, the Cardinals have now come full circle with a pair of wins over St. Ignatius in 2024.
“We preach to our kids all the time, one day at a time,” Gray said. “We’re consistently getting better and these guys are working extremely hard. They’re playing tough, physical football and they’re doing some great things.
“We’re really proud of our guys on how they’re showing up.”
There was no question the Cardinals had all the motivation to end the Wildcats’ season, but the game was also a chance to see just how much they have improved since a week two victory over St. Ignatius by a final score of 20-14.
“We had a lot of missed opportunities the first time we played this team and we thought about that all week, we had a lot of motivation coming into this week for (last year),” junior Justen Hodge said. “We had a lot of motivation coming in, we just wanted to do our job and execute.”
Execution was the key to the Cardinals’ hot start to quickly put the Wildcats in a hole that would be tough to dig out of. Hodge used his speed to get the Cardinals on the board first with a 22-yard quick out pass he worked into the end zone for a 7-0 advantage.
Despite some injuries to the defense and offensive line, the Cardinals’ front seven worked hard to contain the Wildcats’ dynamic offense with playmakers at each position.
“Physical, tough, just attacked like crazy and did a great job against a very talented team over there,” Gray said, reflecting on his defensive line. “Our kids, they just battled. They had a chip on their shoulder, especially offensively when we got off to a hot start, then the offense kind of slowed down there and the defense didn’t back down and they had several stops tonight.
“Really proud of how they responded and how hard and tough and physical they played.”
The Cardnials were led on offense by West Virginia commit Scotty Fox, who has shown in his career how accurately he can sling the ball all over the field. The senior used his legs after a defensive stop for a career long 59-yard run through the Wildcats’ defense.
Fox had rewarded the defense with some rest thanks to a long drive for the first score, but after his quick score, the defense looked hungry to get after the ball again to give the ball back to their playmakers.
That’s when the rushing attack of the Cardinals started to establish itself. Moving the ball effectively behind the injured and rotating offensive line, junior running back Jackson Farley got into a rhythm getting the ball up field.
Farley’s first highlight came on a one-handed grab near the goal line that set him up for a 4-yard score to push the lead to 21-0 in the second quarter.
“Coming into this, despite their record, they played the toughest schedule in Ohio and we knew this was a good team,” Fox said. “From week two to now, our mindset is to keep getting better every day, I think we’re still going uphill on that and we’re going to work on that more to be the best team we can be.”
Fox noted that his team stepped things up a bit during this week of practice to come together for the fast start the helped push them into a regional quarterfinal win.
“Every single day of practice this week we’re getting better, guys really honed in as one unit this week,” Fox said. “The O-line did a great job up front, even though we still don’t have all of our guys (healthy) they did a great job.”
It wasn’t all smooth sailing for the Cardinals, though. The Wildcats posed a threat all game long and got within striking distance before the half with a score, thanks to running the wildcat offense with the speedy Owen Colwell at quarterback.
Locked into a two-score game for most of the second half, the Wildcats had answers on defense for the Cardinals, but not on offense.
Both sides struggled on offense before the half and through the third quarter, with both defenses coming up with interceptions.
Despite some second-half struggles on offense, the Cardinals took advantage of a short field as Fox and Hodge hooked up for their second score of the night from 11-yards out, putting the game on ice with just over two minutes remaining in the game.
“It shows that through adversity, when something goes bad and they swing, it just shows that our guys are going to swing back and keep fighting,” Hodge said. “That was big for us.”
St. Ignatius head coach Ryan Franzinger focused on his senior class afterward.
“The class, they had a number of teammates who decided not to play this year, so I give them a ton of credit to them for sticking through it,” Franzinger said. “Football is not an easy game, they they’ve earned my respect and in a lot of ways you’re always their coach, so that’s just a special relationship and I appreciate these guys for going into battle and representing our school and our program.”