The News Herald (Willoughby, OH)
Euclid bows out of playoffs with setback
St. Ignatius takes control in the second half to thwart Euclid on its home field, 30-20, in a Division I, Region 1 second-round clash. Mike Fitzpatrick has a recap from East 222nd Street.
The schools with the Saints in their name continue to bedevil the Euclid Panthers.
The St. Ignatius Wildcats used an aggressive defense and the crafty and hardrunning of junior running back Marty Lenehan to take down the Panthers, 30-20, in a Division I regional quarterfinal at the Euclid Community Stadium.
The loss dropped Euclid to 5-3 on the year while St. Ignatius improved to 3-4.
It was the sixth time in six playoff appearance that Euclid has watched its playoff dreams extinguished by either St. Ignatius or St. Edward.
The 5-foot-9, 180-pound Lenehan finished the night with 170 yards rushing and two touchdowns to lead the Wildcats to the win. He carried the ball 37 times.
St. Ignatius knew it would have to run because Euclid’s defensive back field features Michigan State recruit Michael Gravely and Kentucky recruit Armond Scott.
Lenehan scored on runs of 6 and 13 yards. The Wildcats, who will move on to
face Medina — which upset No. 1-seeded St. Edward — also got field goals of 52, 40 and 26 yards from toe of senior kicker Declan Mangan and a pick-6 touchdown from Chris Snyder.
Snyder’s 20-yard interception return came on the first play of the third quarter and with St. Edward nursing a 17-14 lead.
“It’s disappointing,” Euclid coach Jeff Rotsky said inside his team’s locker room following the loss. “I believe we are every bit as good as St. Ignatius. It was 17-14 half. We missed some wide open receivers. We had a huge play called back and you can’t turn the ball over against the Saints and I think we turned it over
three times and you can’t do that.”
The win extended St. Ignatius’ win streak against Euclid to 15 in a row.
St. Ignatius quarterback Joe Pfaff threw for 130 yards. He finished the night 11-for-20 with one interception.
The first half was a study in momentum.
Euclid came out the more aggressive of the teams and forced an early turnover when Ahjay Cody punched the ball away from Lenehan and Jordan Rees recovered the ball.
Euclid capitalized when quar terback A nd rew Rallings found Jayvon Colvin on a waggle, which turned into a 17-yard touch
ST. IGNATIUS 30, EUCLID 20
down pass.
But then St. Ignatius took control, running off the next 17 points to take a 17-7 lead.
Euclid looked poised to get back in the game when late in the second quarter Scott made an unbelievable bobbing catch that turned into a 74-yard touchdown reception to close St. Ignatius’ lead to 17-14 just before half.
But on the first play from scrimmage of the third quarter, Smith jumped in front of a Rallings pass and streaked 20 yards down the sideline and into the end zone to give the Wildcats a 24-10 lead.
“That pick, he just read it perfectly,” legendary St. Ignatius coach Chuck Kyle said of Smith’s pivotal pick.
‘I just jumped it (the route) and took it to the house,” said Smith.
Smith’s big pick was hardly the only big play from the St. Ignatius defense.
The Wildcats’ pass rush consistently pressured Rallings and his back-up Malachai Davis and ended up registering five sacks.