by For the second consecutive year, the Mentor Cardinals have started the season 2-0, with both wins coming against St. Ignatius and St. Edwards. Friday night took 21 unanswered points in the fourth quarter to pull past the Wildcats in the closing minutes, 38-31.
This is a position coach Trivisonno is familiar with and his message to his team after the game was simple: continue building off of the team’s first two wins while learning from last year’s mistakes at the same time.
“We’ve been in this position before and I thought we became really average after that [last year],” Trivisonno said. “We’ve got to decide that’s just two football games and those two teams we beat are going to get better and better and we better get a lot better or else we’ll lose in the playoffs.”
Heading into the fourth quarter, St. Ignatius held a comfortable 31-17 lead. Mentor running back Brian Trobel started the opening 30 seconds of the quarter with a touchdown, to get the Cardinals within seven points.
Then came the Wildcats not taking care of the ball. Quarterback Griffin Hanna fumbled on their own 27-yard line, recovered by the Cardinals.
A couple plays later, Trobel fought his way into the end zone for his fourth rushing touchdown of the night. Trobel saw 27 carries go for 146 yards and four touchdowns during the win.
Just four minutes later, Mentor’s Ian Kipp snuck his way into the end zone to give Mentor a 38-31 lead with five minutes left in the game.
The stout Mentor defense showed up all throughout the fourth quarter, especially late in the game when the team needed a stop. C
oach Trivisonno saw major improvements from his defensive unit late in the game to eventually seal the win for the Cardinals.
“They battled hard in the second half and made plays to set us up, he said. “I’m proud of them.”
Ian Kipp finished the night completing 12-of-25 passes for 175 yards through the air while also running for 150 yards and one touchdown on 15 carries. Luke Floriea led all receivers, catching seven passes for a game-high 127 yards.
The game started off with both teams going back and forth on the offensive side of the ball. Seven minutes into the game, St. Ignatius quarterback Griffin Hanna called his own name, running into the end zone but appeared to fumble the ball.
Luckily, senior lineman Nick Schwitzgebel was able to fall on in in the end zone to give the Wildcats a 6-0 lead.
One minute and 80 yards later, Mentor responded and took an early 7-6 lead after Mentor blocked the Wildcats’ extra point. Connor Cmiel wold answer back by returning the opposing kickoff back for a touchdown, the first 21 points of the game all came in one minute of play.
Mentor would then score 10 unanswered points before Griffin Hanna’s two-yard touchdown run. The converted two-point conversion gave the Wildcats a 21-17 lead heading into halftime.
The Wildcats were able to outscore the Cardinals 10-0 in the third quarter before failing to get on the scoreboard in the final 12 minutes of the game.
Griffin Hanna finished the game completing just 6 of 15 passes for 105 yards. Jack Welcsh led the Wildcats on the ground with 104 yards on 20 carries.
Two weeks down, two last-second wins for coach Trivisonno and his Mentor Cardinals. On a night where he was honored with a jersey and football from the Cleveland Browns organization, seeing his team come from behind in dramatic fashion was the ending that topped everything off.
“We talk about playing with passion and having a great will in the second half and we did that. We battled. We fought. We hung. We survived and got a win.”
