The News Herald (Willoughby, OH)
Saints march in, then march out with losses
Mentor topples Wildcats to start 2-0 vs. West Side powerhouses
The Mentor football team put an exclamation point on its season Sept. 1 — and the Cardinals are only two weeks into the season.
Sophomore quarterback Ian Kipp ran for two touchdowns and passed for another, and the Cardinals’ defense held St. Ignatius to less than 100 yards total offense until the final two minutes of the game, giving Mentor a 28-7 win over the Wildcats at Byers Field in Parma.
With the win, Mentor improved to 2-0 with wins against Division I powerhouses St. Edward and St. Ignatius.
The Cardinals will go for three in a row next week against Glenville.
“I think we made a statement to the whole state,” said Mentor’s junior receiver Luke Floriea, “showing how good we are and what we can do consistently.”
This is the fourth time since 2012 that Mentor has defeated St. Edward and St. Ignatius in back-to-back weeks, the others being in 2012, 2013 and 2017.
Each of those occurred in the playoffs.
This is the first time Mentor has started its season 2-0 against the two Catholic powers from Cleveland.
“It’s good for us. It takes the pressure off,” said Mentor coach Steve Trivisonno, regarding playoff positioning with wins against two marquee programs.
“But we’ve got to get better. We’ve got to go to work. ... Keep grinding, because there is a long way to go.”
Mentor blitzed St. Ignatius from the get-go, using a deep passing game it hadn’t shown in the preseason scrimmages or in the Week 1 win over St. Edward.
On the Cardinals’ first drive of the game, Kipp hit Floriea on a deep seam pattern, with Floriea making a one-handed fingertip catch and outrunning the defense to the end zone.
Floriea ended with six catches for 166 yards and a touchdown, though he narrowly missed another long touchdown reception when he tripped in the open field.
“They bring their safeties up a lot,” Floriea said of St. Ignatius’ defense. “We
thought we’d try to take advantage of that and get in the seams. When they’d bring ’em up, we’d check to that.”
Noah Gladdish’s interception in the end zone thwarted a St. Ignatius scoring drive, then the Cardinals responded with a four-yard touchdown run by Kipp to make it 14-0.
Kipp ran for a team-best 88 yards, but threw for 212.
“It depends on what they give us,” Trivisonno said of his team’s offensive mindset. “We knew we’d have to pass a little bit more.”
The lead grew to 21-0 at the half when Kipp went around left end from 24 yards out.
Brian Trobel (78 yards rushing) capped Mentor’s scoring with a 40-yard touchdown run on the first drive of the third quarter.
About the only thing that might have outshone Mentor’s offense was the performance of the Cardinals’
defense. St. Ignatius was held to 38 yards in the first half and finished with 132 — more than half came on the last drive of the game.
Mentor held St. Ignatius to 27 yards rushing on 25 carries, though a botched snap on a punt and a bad snap over the quarterback’s head contributed to those low numbers.
St. Ignatius’ only score came on a four-yard drive after Mentor turned the ball over.
“”We’re just not executing to play at this level — we’re just not,” St. Ignatius coach Chuck Kyle said. “When you play great football teams, those little issues/problems are magnified. We had two straight games when they were magnified.”
St. Ignatius lost to Akron Hoban in Week 1.
Mentor’s defense played well, but particularly defensive end Noah Potter, who
repeatedly was in the St. Ignatius backfield and had many quarterback hurries. On one sack, he lost his helmet going around the tackle and still got the sack.
“He was good. That’s what we expect out of him,” Trivisonno said of Potter. “When you’re an Ohio State guy, you have to play like an Ohio State guy, and he did that tonight.”
With the two big wins under their belt, Mentor turned its attention to Glenville.
St. Ignatius plays at Euclid in Week 3, trying to avoid a rare 0-3 start.
This is the first year since 1960 that St. Ignatius and St. Edward are 0-2 after two weeks of play.
“This is a veteran football team. This team went a long way last year,” Trivisonno said of his Cardinals. “We can’t get too high or too excited. We’ll enjoy this tonight and get back to work tomorrow.”