by **This recap is brought to you by Taresa Sabin with Taresa Sabin C21 Asa Cox Homes**
LAKEWOOD, Ohio – After back-to-back Mentor drives in the fourth quarter ended with an Ian Kipp fumble, it looked like the defending D1 state Champion St. Edward would reign supreme in the season opener at First Federal Lakewood Stadium on Thursday (August 29).
Kipp led the Cardinals on an eight-play, 70 yard drive to regain the lead with two and a half minutes to go. A late Devin Harper interception sealed the win for the Cardinals.
Mentor head coach Steve Trivisonno spoke about his team’s play on Thursday, “We talked about two things this week – play the first half with passion and the second half with great will. I think we did both.”
St. Edward opened the scoring with a touchdown on their first drive after the Eagles forced Mentor to punt. Conor O’Malley found Nick Dottore for a 34-yard TD less than four minutes into the game.
The Cardinals answered back with an 80-yard drive that lasted four and a half minutes. After Kipp completed a 29-yard pass to Luke Floriea, Brian Trobel scored four plays later with a six-yard TD run. Mentor tied the game at seven with 3:58 left in the first quarter.
Mentor stopped the Eagles on a fourth down in Mentor territory before the Cardinals took their first lead of the night. Mentor converted two fourth downs, leading to an 11-yard TD pass from Kipp to Floriea.
Ian Kipp to Luke Floriea from 11 yards. Mentor leads 14-7 with 9:32 left in 1st half pic.twitter.com/oBW2u2Rirn
— Tyler Stotsky (@tstotskySID) August 30, 2019
Both teams came up empty on fourth down on their next drives, but St. Ed’s made sure to tie the game in the final minute of the first half. O’Malley found Joe Formani on a 24-yard screen pass with 48 seconds left in the half, tying the contest at 14.
St. Edward cashed in on their first drive of the second half. O’Malley put the Eagles up 21-14 with a 43-yard TD pass to Nathan Simon two minutes into the third quarter.
Mentor punted on their first drive of the second half but got an interception from Sonny Oddo, taking the ball back with seven and a half minutes left in the third. Trobel found the endzone from five yards out as he tied the game at 21.
Brian Trobel answers with a 5-yard scamper. Tied at 21 with 4:30 left in 3rd pic.twitter.com/0jp9DPRxul
— Tyler Stotsky (@tstotskySID) August 30, 2019
Three minutes later, O’Malley broke free on a 24-yard TD run as the Eagles took back the 28-21 lead as we headed to the fourth quarter.
On the final play of the third quarter, Trobel broke off a 61-yard run as he broke tackles and dodged his way to the Eagles’ five-yard line. On the first play of the fourth, Kipp fumbled the ball at the goal line and Joseph Wilber recovered it for a touchback.
The Cardinals’ defense held tough as they forced the Eagles to punt. On a windy night in Lakewood, the snap for the punt sailed over the punter’s head and rolled 40 yards to the endzone, where Mentor picked up a safety. They closed the gap to 28-23 with 8:45 to go.
Kipp and the Cardinals started to drive before Kipp fumbled the ball for the second time near midfield. Jeffrey Pietrowski Jr. pounced on the loose ball and the Cardinals had to rely on their defense.
Despite Formani running with ease earlier in the game, Mentor came up with a three and out and they gave Kipp and the offense one more shot at trying to take the lead.
Kipp set the table nicely with a key completion to Trobel for 26 yards and busted a 32-yard run into the red zone. Three plays later, Kipp redeemed himself with a three-yard TD run. Mentor tried for two but came up short as the lead was 29-28 with 2:23 left.
Kipp 3 yard run. Mentor leads 29-28 with 2:23 left. pic.twitter.com/Xzac35jQGH
— Tyler Stotsky (@tstotskySID) August 30, 2019
Kipp on his two fumbles, “I was really down, but I knew I couldn’t show it. I couldn’t do anything about it. It was over. I just had to move on to the next one, and my teammates helped me realize that. They picked me up. We wouldn’t win that game without everyone, side-by-side.”
St. Edward had the ball with two minutes left and a chance to retake the lead. On the second play of the drive, O’Malley’s pass was picked off by Harper and Mentor had the chance to close out the game.
Interception Devin Harper..,@MentorRedline ball pic.twitter.com/m6kA9z7C5X
— News-Herald preps (@NHPreps) August 30, 2019
Mentor needed one first down to kill the clock and Kipp converted a first down with a seven-yard run and Mentor held off the Eagles 29-28.
Kipp finished with 133 yards passing and 129 yards rushing with a total of two touchdowns. Trobel had 27 rushes for a game-high 191 yards and two touchdowns. Mentor totaled 450 yards of total offense.
O’Malley had 165 passing yards with four total touchdowns and two interceptions. Formani led the Eagles’ rushing attack with 168 yards on 31 carries.
Mentor will host St. Ignatius next Friday (Sept. 6) at the JTO while St. Edward will host Cass Tech next week.
