The News Herald (Willoughby, OH)
Panthers ‘have to be more disciplined’ after loss
The St. Ignatius Wildcats hadn’t lost the first two games of a football season since 1987 until Mentor trampled them, 28-7, last week.
It has been 52 years since they started 0-3, and they were not about to go there.
St. Ignatius, a perennial playoff team (they’ve missed the playoffs only twice since 1988), scored two dramatic touchdowns in the third quarter Sept. 7 at Euclid Community Stadium and went on to claw the Euclid Panthers, 21-6. Euclid is 2-1. “The last three weeks, we played the top three teams in the area,” St. Ignatius coach Chuck Kyle said. “I think the kids really felt this was an important game right now. Right now. We had to do this, whether it’s offense, defense or special teams. Let’s go, and I think we did.”
St. Ignatius was beaten by Akron Hoban the first week of the season.
Panthers coach Jeff Rotsky was not on the Euclid sideline. He was serving a one-game suspension for a verbal altercation with Lorain coaches after the game the Panthers won Sept. 2, Euclid Schools superintendent Dr. Marvin Jones said during the game. Rotsky was allowed to coach his team leading up to the game.
“He’ll be back in action next week,” Jones said.
Losing the game was bad enough for the Panthers, but they also lost nimble junior quarterback Dion Valentine to an injury with 11:55 remaining in the fourth quarter. Valentine limped as he walked to the sideline with the aid of trainers after temporarily lying on the turf.
Acting head coach Johnnie Lemons said after the game Valentine was walking on his own, though he said he does not know exactly what Valentine’s injury entails. Lemons was upbeat despite the loss.
“We just have to retool and come back next week,” Lemons said. “(Penalties) hurt us a little bit. The way we play, we have to be more disciplined. That’s all there is to it.”
Euclid broke into the scoring column with 56 seconds to play when backup quarterback Vincent Jackson connected with Dre’Von Lindsay on a 16-yard fade route on fourth down.
St. Ignatius turned a 7-0 halftime lead into a 14-0 advantage on its first possession of the third quarter when senior quarterback Patrick Delahunty threw a bubble screen to 6-foot-2 junior Connor Cmiel at the Wildcat 46. Cmiel sprinted down the sideline in front of the Wildcat bench and outraced his Euclid pursuers to the end zone.
The Wildcats expanded their lead to 21-0 when Daniel Scelza blocked a punt by the Panthers’ Nick Rice inside the Euclid 25. The ball bounced, skipped and rolled until St. Ignatius senior Mitchell Puhalsky covered the ball in the end zone for a touchdown.
Ignatius scored the only touchdown in a defensedominated first half when Delahunty hit wide-open Cmiel on a post pattern at the Euclid 5 on third-and-6 from the Panthers’ 17 after faking a handoff to senior running back Jahadge Floyd.
The Wildcats were in position for a touchdown earlier in the quarter, but Euclid linebacker Jaylen Jacobs pounced on a St. Ignatius fumble at Panthers’ 5 to keep the game scoreless at the time.
The Panthers’ only legitimate scoring drive of the first half was snuffed out when a pass by Valentine was tipped and picked off by St. Ignatius linebacker Caden Campolieti.
Euclid was penalized seven times for 76 yards in the first half, and that doesn’t count the flags that were picked up when penalties were declined.
The Panthers were penalized a total of 13 times for 121 yards. Jaabir Mujihad led the Panthers with 44 rushing yards on 14 carries. Valentine completed 8 of 19 passes for 70 yards.
Treshawn Luton led Euclid with four catches for 35 yards.