by Parma, OH – On a night that saw a near miracle comeback from Mentor, the lights go out in the stadium for 20 plus minutes, and two St. Ignatius Wildcats rushers go for over 100 yards each, in the end, the Wildcats advanced with a 35-32 win over the Cardinals.
St. Ignatius got supreme efforts from Marty Lenehan and Joey Georges who both rushed for over 100 yards on the night while their quarterback Joey Pfaff through for over 100 yards and two touchdowns. Pfaff only had to throw the ball 3 times in the second half.
As for Mentor, Evan Harper rushed for over 100 yards and scored, while Michael Norwood went for over 100 receiving yards and also had no issues finding the end zone. Quarterback Jacob Snow had a playoff game to remember with multiple touchdown passes and over 250 yards in the air.
It was an absolute wild night, but it will now be the St. Ignatius Wildcats moving on to play at Stow next weekend.
The Cardinals had the ball first, and used passes to Norwood of 15 and 42 yards to march right down the field. A 9-play drive would eventually fizzle out, and they had to settle for a Matt Moegling 20-yard field goal to take the early 3-0 lead with 7:44 left.
St. Ignatius would attempt to answer on their first drive as they put together a nice 70-yard drive themselves, but it would result in a missed 24-yard field goal. The next time the Wildcats got the ball back, still down 3-0, they went right back to work with another impressive drive. This time they cashed it in on the final play of the first quarter as Marty Lenehan took a screen pass 18 yards for a touchdown.
A bit later on in the second quarter after forcing St. Ignatius to punt for the first time all game, the Cardinals struck quick. On a third and short, Evan Harper took a handoff 66 yards to the house as no one could catch him. Harper is a speedster, converted wideout now starting at tailback in the absence of Panhorst. He showed that lethal speed as he blazed the Cardinals to a 10-7 lead with 8:25 left in the half.
Charlie Dunstan would return the kickoff all the way to the Cardinal 38 moments later. Then it was Lenehans turn to show his speed taking it 38 yards to the house himself on the very first play. Just like that, punches in bunches and it was 14-10 with 8:15 left in the opening half. The half would end with that same score.
The Wildcats got the ball to begin the second half and began to make an effort to extend their lead. Slowly but surely they moved to the Cardinal 32 yard line. A nice mixture of runs with Lenehan and Georges got them there. They would cap it off with a beautiful 26 yard over the shoulder pitch and catch to Max Muresan to extend the lead to 21-10 with 10:45 to go in the third quarter.
After a big defensive stop gave the ball back to St. Ignatius at midfield, Joey Georges rattled off some nice runs and the Wildcats were threatening to score again. Eventually it would be Georges taking off for a 22-yard touchdown run down the sidelines to extend the St. Ignatius lead to 28-10 with still 6:25 to play in the third quarter.
The Wildcats forced another Cardinal punt and took advantage of a short field once again. It was the same mix of Georges and Lenehan to grind the clock, and the yards away as they advanced the ball. This time however, it was Charlie Dunstan getting the score on a jet sweep to make it 35-10 in the closing seconds of third quarter.
Down 35-10 to start the fourth quarter, the Cardinals were in desperation mode and struck quick. A 53-yard bomb to Nick Farley would then set up a Harper touchdown run and slice into the lead at 35-16. At the exact moment of the extra point however, the lights went out.
Yep, you just read that correctly. With 11:36 to go in the game, we had a 20-minute delay for lack of lights. Eventually they would come back on and the extra point was good to make it 35-17.
After forcing another punt, the Cardinals kept the miracle comeback hopes alive with a quick scoring drive highlighted by a massive 32-yard pass to Sam Kish. A few plays later it was Snow finding Norwood in the corner of the endzone for a 11-yard touchdown. Just like that, with 7:28 to go, it was now 35-24.
With 2 plus minutes to go, the Cardinals would score and covert a two-point conversion to really making it interesting. The crazy comeback would wind up short, as the Wildcats hung on to win 35-32 in what became a thriller.
Players of the Game
St. Ignatius QB joey Pfaff with 2 touchdown passes
St. Ignatius RB’s Joey Georges & Marty Lenehan with over 100 yards each on the ground.
Mentor WR: Michael Norwood with double digit catches and over 100 yards.
Mentor RB / WR – Evan Harper with over 100 yards on the ground and multiple scores.
