It\u2019s a good thing that what Mentor lacks in experience this season it has more than made up for in resiliency and with a next-play mentality so far.<\/p>\n
Because the Cardinals needed those qualities in spades Aug. 28 against visiting Erie McDowell.<\/p>\n
Minutes after Mentor junior linebacker Cooper Russo gave the Cardinals a go-ahead touchdown with a fumble return from midfield, McDowell was knocking on the door with a fourth-and-one at the Mentor 7-yard line. But the Cardinals were flagged for having 12 players on the field, and McDowell junior QB Evan Kuhn got across the goal line on the next play to draw the Trojans within 31-30 with 1:13 left in the game.<\/p>\n
McDowell coach Aaron Slocum chose to go for two points and the win. Kuhn threw left to a running back out of the backfield, but Mentor had the play well-covered, and the pass fell incomplete, and the Cardinals won a thriller with alum and current Cleveland Brown Luke Floriea on the sideline.<\/p>\n
On a night in which the Cardinals committed numerous mistakes, some costly, their ability to respond with big plays to ultimately prevail might lead some to dub the team with a \u201cCardiac Cardinals\u201d moniker.<\/p>\n
Whatever you call them, Mentor coach Matt Gray is just happy you can call them 2-0.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe guys are tough,\u201d Gray said of his team. \u201cThey\u2019re resilient, and they just find a way. We tell the guys all the time-just continue to work, continue to believe, and find a way.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe made so many self-inflicted mistakes tonight. Penalties, turnovers, just a lot of things that we have to get corrected going forward if we want to continue to grow and develop and improve as a football team.\u201d<\/p>\n
Kuhn missed all of last season with an injury, and the dual-threat QB was a difference-maker for McDowell. He led the Trojans on an 9-play, 80-yard march to start the game in which he completed four passes, the last of which was a 22-yard strike to junior James Feronti for a 7-0 McDowell lead.<\/p>\n
McDowell senior Ben Spooner then picked off a Mentor pass near midfield, but that led to a missed field goal attempt.<\/p>\n
The Cardinals caught their first spark late in the first quarter on a third-and-21 play at the own 9-yard line, when senior QB Brogan Jones, who threw for 285 yards last week in a win over Olmsted Falls, connected with junior Cameron Dietrick, who was able to break a tackle and get free for a 36-yard gain.<\/p>\n
Mentor eventually capitalized on a Jones keeper from the 5-yard line to tie it at 7-7 early in the second quarter. The Cardinals extended their lead with a 47-yard field goal by sophomore Danny Kristo, but McDowell tied it on a 32-yard Joseph Clark field goal to make it 10-10 going into halftime.<\/p>\n
Jones connected with Berwald 12 times for 235 yards against Olmsted Falls last week, so the Cardinals knew McDowell\u2019s defense would be paying close attention to him.<\/p>\n
But Jones was able to get the ball to other receivers, including the first play of the third quarter, when he found junior Jeremiah Claridy wide open behind the defense for an 80-yard touchdown and a 17-10 Mentor lead.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe corner was just staring inside and not really paying a lot of attention,\u201d Claridy said. \u201cSo I just ran right behind him and we threw it deep.\u201d<\/p>\n
Disaster struck later in that frame for the Cardinals. They managed to force a punt, but a roughing the punter penalty gave the ball back to McDowell, and that led to a 38-yard passing touchdown from Kuhn to junior Emory Moffett.<\/p>\n
On the ensuing kickoff, the Cardinals fumbled, giving McDowell the ball at the 18. It took the Trojans two plays to score and take a 24-17 lead, this time on a 6-yard pass from Kuhn to junior Taylor Lincoln.<\/p>\n
Needing another spark, Mentor went back to what worked so well last week, as Jones found Berwald open for an 80-yard touchdown to knot the score at 24-24, and that was the tally going into the fourth.<\/p>\n
After three punts, on a first and ten for McDowell at the Mentor 45, Russo picked up a loose ball and took it to the house with 5:51 left to put Mentor up, 31-24. Russo shrugged off the credit, though, giving it to his teammates.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is a family here,\u201d Russo said. \u201cI just love all these guys, every day, every practice. They all did their job, I couldn\u2019t have done it without them.\u201d<\/p>\n
McDowell had one more chance. Starting at their own 20, Kuhn led the Trojans down the field, connecting on four consecutive passes at one point, the big one being a 42-yard completion to Penn State-bound junior Deonte Flemings.<\/p>\n
After the Trojans took advantage of the Mentor miscue and scored, Slocum didn\u2019t hesitate to go for two.<\/p>\n
\u201cGot to give a lot of credit to (Mentor). They played with a lot of class, really good football team,\u201d Slocum said. \u201cReally just proud of our guys. For us, it was our first game. I love our guys and believe in them, and I told them after the game that we\u2019ll go for two in that situation 10 out of 10 times.\u201d<\/p>\n
McDowell will host Chardon on Sept. 4, and Mentor will visit St. Ignatius, and that game will be played at John Carroll on the same night. A week after committing four turnovers against Olmsted Falls and winning, the Cardinals committed three and won against the Trojans. But Gray doesn\u2019t want to press his luck against the Wildcats.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s never going to be easy, and it\u2019s not always going to go your way,\u201d Gray said. \u201cWe have to hone in on those self-inflicted deals, the turnovers, the penalties on offense and special teams. We have to be smarter in some situations.\u201d<\/p>\n
THE SCORE<\/p>\n
Mentor 31, Erie McDowell 30<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"It\u2019s a good thing that what Mentor lacks in experience this season it has more than made up…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":274409,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[136,138,137,305,6626,115116,726],"class_list":["post-274408","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-erie","tag-erie","tag-erie-headlines","tag-erie-news","tag-high-school-sports","tag-hs-football","tag-mentor-cardinals","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/274408","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=274408"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/274408\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/274409"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=274408"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=274408"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=274408"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}