by Earlier this season, Mentor handled Medina 37-19. While Medina held exceptional wins the past two weeks, Mentor prevailed yet again over Medina, winning the Division I OHSAA Regional Championship 49-14 in Mentor.
The Cardinals have not lost at home in 14 years and maintain not only their home field perfection, but also their perfect record against the Bee’s, moving to 9-0 all time.
Mentor’s sheer offensive dominance paired with turnovers and penalties from the Medina side led to the lopsided victory. The Cardinals scored on their first five possessions while two untimely fumbles from Drew Allar and 80 yards of first half penalties crippled the Bees’ attack.
Both the Bees and the Cardinals were firing on all cylinders offensively at the beginning of the game, however. After a fumble from QB Drew Allar on the opening drive, Mentor got off to a quick 7-0 lead when Mentor’s Ian Kipp hit wideout Evan Harper for a 12 yard screen and score.
Seeking to avoid the same fate as their matchup in August, the Bee’s established the run game off the back of Dorian Boyland. On their second drive, Allar handed the ball off to Boyland on five straight plays for 24 yards.
Despite a Mentor timeout to try and slow down the attack, Boyland added 12 more yards on two carries to reach the endzone, tying the game at seven apiece. Boyland would end the game with 13 carries for 57 yards with the TD.
Mentor responded with a boiler plater drive, grinding 68 yards over a 3:44 timespan to regain the lead at the end of the first, 14-7.
It took every trick in Medina’s playbook to tie up the game on their opening drive of the second quarter. Facing a long fourth down on the Mentor 44, Medina sent the snap to the senior wide receiver Luke Hensely on a fake punt.
Along with snagging five catches for 67 yards in the first half, Hensley showed off his arm, slinging the ball 16 yards to Michael Rodak for the first down. Thriving off the momentum, again in a fourth and long position, Allar found his man in the endzone to even up the score again at 14 apiece. Hensley would only grab one more catch for seven yards in the second half.
Despite the balanced play, Mentor turned the tide into a tsunami and never looked back. Immediately after a shortened kick from Medina, on the first play from scrimmage, Kipp once again found Harper for a short screen that turned into a 60 yard touchdown. Despite having no catches in the second half, Harper had a lights out night in just two quarters of play, grabbing four catches for 98 yards and 2 TD’s.
Once again, it was Medina’s turn to respond. Starting from their own 20, the Bee’s put together their own 3+ minute drive down into the Mentor redzone. This time, however, with a different result. Under center, Allar fumbled the ball into the clutches of the Cardinal defense. That proved to be the Bees’ last drive into the Mentor redzone.
Kipp and the Cardinals would put together two more drives downfield before the end of the half, generating 21 unanswered points in the last nine and a half minutes, stunning the Mentor crowd and the Medina sideline. Heading into the half, Mentor led by almost as much as they had won by during the last matchup in August: 35-14.
Medina had opportunities to respond, but when Allar missed his mark on a couple of deep bombs, confidence on the away side began to wear. Combining a drive where Medina self inflicted 30 yards of penalties and the persistent peskiness of the Mentor defense led by Jeff Norwood with four tackles, Medina had nothing to show in the way of offense the remainder of the game.
In spite of junior standout Andrew Delac leading the Medina D with over eight tackles, the Cardinals, led by a six touchdown performance from Kipp and the dynamic run game of Riley Coughlin in the first half (12 rushes, 93 yards) and Brenden Panhorst in the second (10 rushes, 76 yards, TD) were unstoppable.
Mentor’s first possession without a touchdown came over three minutes into the third quarter, and Mentor first punted the ball with 2:40 remaining in the game. By then, the 49-14 decision had been solidified.
Mentor:
Ian Kipp: 11/15, 202 yards 6TD’s, two rushing TD’s, 65 yards rushing
Medina:
JuJuan Jackson: 3 catches 77 yards, 1 TD
