‘We played our hearts out’: UA’S great run ends
MANSFIELD — There’s an unflinching belief that comes with making a run.
A seed of confidence starts to grow with the first win, and it swells with the next, and the next, and the next, until it becomes conviction.
Upper Arlington took 14 straight wins worth of belief into the state football semifinal on Friday. Lakewood St. Edward was going to be a formidable opponent, after winning its first four playoff games by a combined score of 188-20, but the Golden Bears believed.
They believed, when Sam Cannon caught a kickoff on his own 6-yard line, that he wasn’t going to stop until he hit the end zone. He didn’t, and after Upper Arlington gave up a 48-yard touchdown pass on the previous play, the game was tied.
They believed, when Chris Mazzaferri
went up for a 27-yard catch at the end of the third quarter, trailing 14-10, that he was going to come down with the ball in his hands. He did, but St. Edward’s defense held strong and forced a punt three plays later.
And they believed, even when a safety made it 16-10 with 22 seconds left, that they could recover the onside kick and still have a chance. But even the most fervent belief can’t change the flight of the ball.
The kick flew right into the chest of a St. Edward player. The Golden Bears didn’t even get a chance to attempt a recovery. The Eagles took a knee on the next play, and Upper Arlington’s run came up six points short of a berth in the state championship game.
“They’re a great team,” UA quarterback Simon Monnin said through tears. “We played our hearts out. They played their hearts out. We drew the short end of the stick, but I’m so proud of our team for how we battled and how we played all year. This wasn’t the way we wanted to go out.”
Sixteen points is the fewest St. Edward has scored all year, but 10 is also the fewest points for the Golden Bears. In a battle between the defenses, the Eagles’ offense was able to do just enough to come out on top.
“It’s obviously disappointing to end up one step short of where you want to be,” Upper Arlington coach Justin Buttermore said. “But I thought we played with tremendous effort all night long. I thought the defense fought their butts off to keep them out of the end zone and keep a much bigger team at bay most of the night. We just couldn’t get anything rolling offensively.”
The Golden Bears hadn’t played for a spot in the state championship game since 2000, when they went undefeated and won the only state title in school history.
In the coming days and weeks, Upper Arlington’s players will grow to appreciate everything they accomplished, even though the ending wasn’t what they believed it was going to be.
But Friday night, as tears fell and realization sank in that the season was over, the loss stung too deeply to truly reflect on the season as a whole.
“We did a lot,” Monnin said. “But at the end of the day, our expectation is to win every game, and we didn’t do that.”
Basketball
Despite trailing by 12 points after the first quarter, 2021 Division I state runner-up Westerville Central came back to beat Newark 45-39 behind 16 points for junior forward Donovan Hunter on Wednesday.
Junior center Chase Walker went 18of-22 from the free-throw line and scored 22 points to lift St. Charles to a 53-48 win over Dublin Jerome on Wednesday.
A day after his father’s death, Westerville South forward Drey Carter scored a game-high 18 points, including the first seven points of the game, to lead the Wildcats to a 74-53 win over Northland.
Granville junior combo guard Ella Wigal scored 22 points and had seven assists in a 59-38 win over John Glenn on Tuesday. Through three games, Wigal is averaging 19.3 points.
In the absence of star forward Bella Ward, Clarke Jackson dropped 19 points to lead Gahanna to a 46-36 win over Westerville North on Wednesday.
Mya Perry, an Ohio State commit, led Reynoldsburg with 24 points in a 7650 win over Westerville South on Tuesday.
Delaware Hayes senior Chloe Jeffers, a Butler commit, scored a careerbest 37 points as she led the Pacers to a 62-52 win over Olentangy on Tuesday.
Worthington Kilbourne senior Lauren Scott, a Wright State commit, suffered a knee injury in Tuesday’s season opener and will miss the entirety of the season with a torn ACL. Scott was 21 points away from becoming Kilbourne’s all-time leading scorer. bjohnson@dispatch.com @baileyajohnson_