by The Mentor Cardinals enjoyed a stress-free 48-6 blowout victory over the Euclid Panthers Friday night.
The first quarter featured all kinds of fireworks, starting with a Mentor touchdown drive that lasted less than three minutes. Jackson Farley finished things off with a one yard touchdown run, but a fumbled snap on the PAT kept the score at 6-0.
On the second play of Euclid’s first drive, running back Marquise Hall took the wildcat snap 63 yards to the house for a touchdown. The Panthers went for two, and they failed. The score became even at 6.
Despite nearly fumbling the ensuing kickoff, Mentor picked up right where they left off. After a dropped pass from Justin Hodge set up 4th down, the Cardinals never panicked. Running back Gino Korzunowski took the handoff 52 yards for Mentor’s second touchdown of the first quarter, giving them a 13-6 lead.
The Mentor defense began to consistently stop the I formation being run by Euclid athletic director and interim head coach Tony Fisher. When the cardinals received the ball back, they didn’t keep it for long. Fox sailed a pass that was intercepted by Euclid defender Jamal Jefferson Jr. Despite excellent field position thanks to the pick, the Panthers offense stalled out due to multiple penalties.
Gino Korzunowski came up big on another fourth down and ran up the gut 28 yards to get deep into Euclid territory to end the first quarter. The second quarter then started by Fox finding a wide open Grant Cerny for a 24 yard touchdown, extending the Cardinal lead to 20-6.
After getting another stop on defense, the Cardinal offense went back out there and continued to cook. Fox found his reliable target Grant Cerny once again, this time for a 9 yard touchdown. 27-6 Cardinals.
Mentor tacked on one more score in the first half, as running back Jackson Farley took a screen pass 36 yards to the house for his second TD of the game and blowing the game open 34-6.
The Cardinals continued to find soft spots in the defensive zones coming out of the half. On their first play back from the intermission, it only took a few plays to get on the board again. Fox threw yet another touchdown pass, with Austin Van Huss the recipient to extend the lead to 41-6.
Mentor’s starters all exited the game before the end of the third quarter. That didn’t stop the Cardinals from continuing to play add on. Backup running back Dominic Burks churned out some nice runs culminating in a one yard score to make it 48-6.
Rynell Taylor scored a 3 yard touchdown as time expired to soften the blow for the Panthers, making the final score 48-12.
Player of the Game
Tonight’s player of the game goes to Mentor QB Scotty Fox, who completed 11 passes for 196 yards and 3 touchdowns. Mr Fox was fantastic today and made author Roald Dahl proud. Congrats kid!
