CANTON Big, bad Cleveland St. Ignatius is back where it belongs. On top ... again.
Ignatius, the Russian prize fighter to the rest of Ohio’s Rocky, didn’t get cut and didn’t bleed, but delivered plenty of knockout blows to Cincinnati Elder during the Division I state championship game Saturday night at Fawcett Stadium. To its credit, Elder kept get getting off the mat, only to lose, 28-20, before about 19,000 fans.
It was Ignatius and head coach Chuck Kyle’s 10th state title, tops in Ohio. More impressively, it was the 10th state championship since Kyle won his first 20 years ago.
It was a number Kyle didn’t care to talk about.
“I don’t count them,” Kyle said, “because this year it belongs to this team. I’m not one to count wins and losses, but someday somebody will see me in my wheelchair and I’ll be satisfied as I’m babbling away.”
This championship, however, came after a seven-year drought for Iggy.
Which may be why the Wildcats wasted little time taking control.
Ignatius went down the field on its first possession without breaking a sweat. The Wildcats crossed midfield on a typical Kyle call in a state title game. He broke tendency on a second-and-10 play and called running back Mike Anter’s number on a draw. It went for 14 yards to the 45.
On third-and-2, Kyle went back to Anter on a toss sweep. He gashed Elder’s defense 16 yards to the 21. Then quarterback Andrew Holland hit 6-foot-4 Brendan Corozzoni inside the 5. Corozzoni ran over a defender at the 1 to get into the end zone and a 7-0 lead.
The Panthers went to the air one too many times on their first possession. Quarterback Mark Miller underthrew a pass slightly and Ignatius linebacker Scott McVey picked it off at the Wildcat 24.
That was the difference between Ignatius and Elder. The slightest mistake by Elder was compounded by how precise Ignatius’ passing attack was.
The Wildcats moved the ball down the field. On third-and-11 from their own 44, Holland threw a short slant pass to Joey Parris, but Parris broke a short gain for the first down and turned it into a 20-yard gain.
Five plays later, Holland threw for Connor Ryan in the end zone. Elder’s Dominic Palmisano was in position, but Holland’s pass was perfect. It went over Palmisano’s fingers and into Ryan’s chest for a 14-0 Ignatius lead with 25 seconds left in the first.
After a three-and-out by Elder’s offense, the rout was on.
Ignatius, set up by a nice return from pint-sized Frank DeSico, started at the Elder 36. The Wildcats went old school.
Pat Hinkel took a sweep around the left end out of a double-tight end formation and scored easily from the 2. The Wildcats led 21-0.
“We told our kids before the game don’t look at the scoreboard, don’t look at the clock,” Kyle said. “Some times the scoreboard can lie to you.”
It might’ve been fibbing.
After the teams traded interceptions, Elder sort of got back in the game, but the Panthers still had a long way to go.
Miller lobbed a pass to 6-foot-4 wide receiver Tim O’Conner for a 9-yard TD pass with 3:10 left before halftime. That made it 21-7.
Ignatius sealed the game, or so it seemed, with 6:07 left in the third quarter. Faced with a second-and-24 from the 49, the Wildcats threw a modest pass to Ryan. But the senior slipped a tackle and sprinted 51 yards to the end zone to put Iggy up 28-7.
“That was huge,” Holland said.
Elder still played. The Panthers hit big passes, including a 45-yarder from Miller to Josh Jones to close the third. Near the end of the fourth, backup QB Joe Hetzger hit Tim O’Conner for a 2-yard TD pass. But the onside kick went Ignatius’ way.
“Most people realized before this game it would be a heavyweight fight,” Kyle said. “And it lived up to it.”
PLAYER OF THE GAME
Scott McVey is just a junior for St. Ignatius, but the linebacker packs a punch and changes a game. McVey had five sacks and kept constant pressure on Cincinnati Elder’s quarterback Mark Miller. McVey’s pressure threw off the timing of the Panthers’ aerial game. He wasn’t just a pass rusher, either. On Elder’s first possession, McVey dropped into coverage from his outside linebacker position, 30 yards down the field to make a fingertip pick. “Some kids are just playmakers in life and in this game,” Ignatius head coach Chuck Kyle said. “He always has a smile on his face and his motor is always running. He just loves to play the game. ... This kid is going to be like (Chris) Spielman.”
PLAY OF THE GAME
Second-and-24 from the Ignatius 49-yard line and the Wildcats held a tenuous 21-7 lead. Momentum was starting to shift toward Elder in the third quarter. The Panthers pressured Iggy QB Andrew Holland and Chuck Kyle became more concerned with running clock. Now his offense had second-and-forever. That’s when Holland threw a 10-yard pass to Connor Ryan, but Ryan ran through a tackle by Jonathan Taylor and turned a mid-range pass into a 51-yard touchdown as he streaked down the Wildcat sideline to give his team a 28-7 lead with 6:07 to play. It was enough to hold off Elder as Kyle went to a more conservative offense to run clock and preserve another — his 10th — state title.
