by MENTOR, Ohio – For the St. Edward Eagles, the word of the day on Friday was “compete”. Following a 48-minute battle with the Mentor Cardinals, St. Edward’s head coach Tom Lombardo was pleased to see his squad compete for the better part of those 48 minutes at Jerome T. Osborne Stadium.
The Eagles erased an 11-point deficit and came back for a 28-24 win over the Cardinals, all by switching to a vaunted running attack. Three different rushers combined for 363 yards on 61 carries as the ground rotation gave Mentor fits all night.
“Our defense set the tone early with a goal line stand to create some momentum,” said Lombardo after his team’s comeback. “Our offensive line played a great game and our rushers ran hard. The main mantra we had was to compete. We saw our kids compete for four quarters no matter the score.”
St. Edward’s passing game struggled early as junior quarterback Christian Ramos was intercepted by senior Evan Boyd on St. Ed’s first drive of the game.
Boyd’s interception put the Cardinals inside the ten yard line with the ball. The Eagles goal line stand stood up as they denied Ian Kipp at the one yard line twice, taking the ball over on downs.
Mentor’s secondary struck again as Michael Call put Mentor up 7-0 with an 11-yard pick six.
Mentor was stopped on fourth down at the goal line. Next play: William LaMonica picks off the Ramos pass and goes 11 yards pick six. Mentor up 7-0 with 3:51 left in 1st. pic.twitter.com/MVsPnsIuut
— Tyler Stotsky (@tstotskySID) September 11, 2020
The Eagles responded with a new strategy against the Mentor defense: pound the rock between Ramos, senior Malachi Watkins and junior Daniel Enovitch. St. Edward marched 80 yards on 12 plays (all rushes), including converting two fourth downs for a score.
“We wanted to be aggressive from the start. We started getting some momentum running the football,” said Lombardo. “And we found something that was working and kept going with it.”
Ramos scored on a nine-yard keeper as the Eagles cut into the deficit, beginning the second quarter. The extra point was blocked as the Eagles trailed 7-6 with 10:23 left in the first half.
Christian Ramos calls his own number from 9 yards out. Extra point blocked as Mentor leads 7-6 with 10:23 left in 2nd quarter. pic.twitter.com/D4GfnKEcMM
— Tyler Stotsky (@tstotskySID) September 11, 2020
St. Edward used a short field after a Mentor punt for a chance to take back the lead. After five rushing plays, Ramos connected with senior Andrew Cook from six yards away. The Eagles gained a 13-7 advantage with 5:26 to go in the second quarter.
Mentor’s next drive featured 12 plays, along with a clutch fourth down completion from Kipp to Colin DePasquale but only came away with three points. Andrew Smith nailed a 47 yard field goal in the final minute of the half. Mentor trailed 13-10 at the halftime break.
Andrew Smith good from 47 yards. Mentor cuts lead to 13-10. 53 seconds left in half pic.twitter.com/bLZ9pzrvJF
— Tyler Stotsky (@tstotskySID) September 11, 2020
Mentor’s defense made a slight adjustment after halftime as they halted St. Ed’s first drive of eight run plays.
Kipp drove the Cardinals down the field on an nine play, 76-yard drive over a three minute span. Kipp found Evan Harper for a three-yard score, putting Mentor back on top 17-13 with 4:20 left in the third quarter.
Ian Kipp to Evan Harper from 3 yards out. Mentor regains lead 17-13 with 4:20 left in 3rd quarter. pic.twitter.com/5vSjNbJbly
— Tyler Stotsky (@tstotskySID) September 12, 2020
Mike Harrison nabbed Mentor’s third interception of the night, allowing Mentor to add to the lead. Kipp wasted little time as he tossed a dart to DePasquale from 40-yards out on the second play. Mentor scored 17 straight points, pushing the lead to 24-13 with 56 ticks on the clock in the third quarter.
Ramos put the exclamation point on a St. Ed’s seven play, 80-yard drive as he ran for his second score of the evening. His 15 yard scamper and corresponding two-point toss to Watkins trimmed the Cardinal lead to 24-21 with 10:52 left.
Christian Ramos runs in from 15 yards. His two point conversion is good to Malachi Watkins makes it 24-21 with 10:52 left. pic.twitter.com/0LxXOp57eo
— Tyler Stotsky (@tstotskySID) September 12, 2020
After Mentor went three and out, St. Edward embarked on a clock-dripping drive on the ground. The Eagles drained nearly eight minutes off the clock with 17 plays total and 16 rushes. During the drive, the Eagles converted three fourth downs (two rushing and one penalty).
Ramos deflated the Mentor faithful with his third touchdown of the night – a five yard keeper with 2:05 remaining. The Eagles used a 15 point swing, to erase the 11-point deficit and led 28-24.
St. Edward takes the lead with 2:00 to go. Christian Ramos goes 5 yards on the keeper. 28-24 Eagles. pic.twitter.com/dvb9AbkNQg
— Tyler Stotsky (@tstotskySID) September 12, 2020
With the momentum on St. Edward’s side, senior Jaylen Castleberry picked off Kipp on the first play of Mentor’s next drive.
The Cardinals forced a three and out, using all three timeouts. They got the ball back with 1:18 to go, down four.
The rally was short-lived as Kipp was picked off again by a different Castleberry. Junior Joel iced the game with Kipp’s second interception in 40 seconds.
After a meat-grinder type schedule to start the year, St. Edward has faced the likes of Massillon Washington, Akron Hoban and Mentor in the first three weeks. They picked up two of three wins to start 2-1, with a battle-tested attitude. Next week, they continue the ride with a date with St. Ignatius.
Coach Lombardo added, “We had 19 new starters and this team is a work in progress. With us having to build belief, this was huge for our kids to come on the road and get a win against Mentor.”
Mentor’s head coach Matt Gray spoke about the importance of building from key mistakes and opportunities. “We’re going to see these guys again, we’ve got to learn from it and we’ve got to do a better job of executing in those type of situations — and handling those situations, that falls back on me as a head football coach. I’ve got to prepare this football team in being able to do that. When we see these guys again, we will.”
St. Edward outgained Mentor 386-217 in total yards, while running 25 more plays overall. The final rushing numbers put the Eagles up 363-51 while the Cardinals won the passing game battle 166-23.
For the Eagles, Ramos was three of six passing with one touchdown and three interceptions. But he made up for it with 95 rushing yards on 18 carries and three scores. Overall, he scored four touchdowns on the night.
Watkins finished with 134 yards rushing on 24 carries and Enovitch added 134 on 19 attempts, fueling the three-headed rushing monster.
Kipp completed 14 of 23 passes for 166 yards passing with two touchdowns and two interceptions. He led the team in rushing with 40 yards on 12 carries. Riley Coughlin returned to the mix with five carries for 13 yards. Hutch Baird was the leading receiver with five catches for 67 yards.
The Cardinals (2-1) will head to Brunswick next week for a Greater Cleveland Conference matchup.
Player of the Game: Christian Ramos, QB – 95 rushing yards (18 carries), four touchdowns (three rushing, one passing)
Great recap!! Can’t wait till next week. Any chance of Riverside vs. Chardon?