Mentor, Mentor, OH
Mentor reaches No. 1 goal
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After leading a defense that answered many questions on the field, Mentor linebacker J.J. Laseak dodged a big one in a raucous locker room Friday night. Who’s the best team in the area now? "I can’t say that because we haven’t played them all," Laseak shouted over a booming stereo. "But we proved we can hang with any team." There was no arguing that after the No. 2-ranked Cardinals pulled away from a 10-10 halftime tie to beat No. 1 St. Ignatius, 38-17, in front of 10,500 fans at Osborne Stadium in Mentor. "This means a lot in our ability to show everybody we’re as good as anybody around," Mentor coach Steve Trivisonno said. "We just had to learn to play harder, and I think we did that for four quarters." It seemed fitting that Mentor won the game with a second-half offensive and defensive effort that St. Ignatius (3-1) did not have to make while winning its previous two games by combined scores of 100-0. Mentor, which beat Strongsville and Solon the past two weeks, is 3-1 and, as Trivisonno noted, "battle-tested." While the Cardinals clearly enjoyed winning the most highly anticipated game so far this season, Trivisonno said it felt like a prelude to something bigger. "This was huge for us," he said, "but it’ll be different in Week 12 or 13 or whenever we meet them again [in the playoffs]."
As Mentor learned from losing to St. Ignatius last season, Wildcats coach Chuck Kyle hoped the loss would send a message to his 3-1 team. ¶
"A little bit of our inexperience kicked up tonight, a feeling of unnerving," Kyle said. "We’ll grow from that and get to be a better team." ¶
Mentor senior quarterback Bart Tanski was anything but unnerved. He had yet another brilliant big-game performance, passing for 323 yards and three touchdowns. He was 20-of-32 and did not throw an interception, but lost two fumbles. ¶
Tyler Schutz caught nine passes for 122 yards and two third-quarter TDs that put Mentor ahead, 23-10. Junior running back Tom Worden continued to emerge as a major factor with 99 yards of total offense and two fourth-quarter touchdown runs that sealed the game. ¶
Schutz dropped a pass in the end zone early in the third quarter but quickly made up for it with TD grabs of 29 and 15 yards. ¶
St. Ignatius wideout Connor Ryan made a leaping grab of quarterback Andrew Holland’s pass for a 16-yard touchdown early in the fourth quarter. ¶
Mentor answered with an 80-yard drive led by Worden, who ran for 28 yards and caught a key, 10-yard pass for a first down at the 1. He plowed in from there, and Mentor led, 31-21, following a two-point conversion. Worden also walked in on a 4-yard touchdown with 2:01 left. ¶
Perhaps the biggest play was Tanski’s 50-yard touchdown pass to Cory Zikesch with 27 seconds left in the first half to erase the Wildcats’ 10-3 lead. A costly dropped pass on third down forced St. Ignatius to punt, giving Mentor another chance to score. ¶
Mentor was at the 50, and instead of setting up for a long field-goal attempt by Kevin Harper, whose 61-yarder last week set a state record, Tanski went deep down the right sideline and connected with Zikesch. ¶
"That was huge," Kyle said.
To reach this Plain Dealer reporter:twarsinskey@plaind.com, 440-602-4784
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