D IV State Championship: Lake Catholic (8-2) vs. Van Wert (10-1) — Sunday at 12:00pm

Who wins?

  • Van Wert

    Votes: 57 58.2%

  • Lake Catholic

    Votes: 41 41.8%
  • Total voters
    98
 
Normally default to pulling for public schools in these type of matchups. Know very little of VanWert except watching some video of that Shelby game. They flew around the field it seemed like they had 15 guys on defense.

Love the LC QB. Love their D. Love their story. What I don't love is as soon as Monday 11/23 gets here the knuckleheads for "open playoffs" & "everybody gets a shot" will be coming out of the woodwork and they'll be using LC as their example.

All that said . . . Go Cougars!!
 
Nash said:
Is a missed PAT involved?
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Is this in any way a reference to 2000 (but in D3), when Van Wert went up against Canton CC (also wearing Green and White btw) and came up just short 27-26 in 2OT due to a missed PAT?
 
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I wish Van Wert and Lake Catholic well in this year's final. Hoping both teams can stay safe and healthy this week.
 
VanWert has continued to be dominant and surprise quality teams throughout the playoffs. I think they'll continue that this week. I'll go with:

VanWert 28
Lake Catholic 21
 
Just like last week and the previous two weeks, the LC defense will need to continue to play like it has. I don’t know much about Van Wert, but it looks like they score a lot of points. The lower the scoring, the better for the Cougars. The LC Cougars that is.

I‘m still in shock on what has transpired with this team in the postseason. They were down 21-7 to CVCA at halftime three weeks ago. I remember Lake fans worrying about recovering onside kicks from this kicker. Now three weeks later in the state championship? Since that win, I don’t think many expected Lake to move forward. And every week they find a way. Truly remarkable job by the staff and the kids.

This run has made me think about a couple of Lake teams that have missed the playoffs the past nine years and how they would’ve faired. Looking back the only team I think that deserved, but missed was 2018. They were playing well as the season came to an end. Though, they were in region 9 that season with the eventual state champion in Kenston.

Lake is 3-0 lifetime in state championship games, however all three were won in Massillon. It would be very tough to top that 2001 game. But, if there’s any team that can do it, it’s definitely this one.
 
BC was able to make the LC offense 1-dimentional - 40 total yards passing which is concerning to me if I'm an LC fan. I don't know anything about VW's D but if they can contain LC's QB runs then they have a good shot at a W.
 
IronLion34 said:
BC was able to make the LC offense 1-dimentional - 40 total yards passing which is concerning to me if I'm an LC fan. I don't know anything about VW's D but if they can contain LC's QB runs then they have a good shot at a W.
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Van Wert has done a good job containing their opponent's running game throughout the playoffs.
 
IronLion34 said:
BC was able to make the LC offense 1-dimentional - 40 total yards rushing which is concerning to me if I'm an LC fan. I don't know anything about VW's D but if they can contain LC's QB runs then they have a good shot at a W.
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I agree...I don't think 17 points will be enough to beat VW. But who knows with the way the LC defense has been playing!
 
IronLion34 said:
If i'm a HS team in the playoff I'd be happy to have an all state kicker. Not sure where you're going with that.
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Our all state kicker missed two PAT's during the 2000 state championship where we lost 27-26 in double OT against Canton Central Catholic.
 
I'm happy for Lake Catholic community and hope they pull it out but how did they not end up in Div III due to competitive balance? My guess is they just are not drawing from as many Catholic grade schools as they have in the past and it is just a core group headlined by places like St. Gabes and Mater Dei, sure helped them with their multiplier. Regardless this run should help them when going up against NDCL where they overlap. The new Crown Conference should help too, with no more Benny & Hoban on the schedule it is much more manageable as the computer points needed in Div IV is a much lower bar than in Div III where they run into a much deeper cast in Region 9 than Region 13.
 
Lake Catholic is a pretty solid D4 at the moment. Van Wert's actually slightly bigger, but both LC and VW are in the middle of the D4 enrollment spread. With the state title games, it is interesting to note that St. Francis de Sales is at the very top of D3, just missing out on being classified as D2, and Kirtland is also pretty low down on the list for D5 teams.
 
Auggie said:
I'm happy for Lake Catholic community and hope they pull it out but how did they not end up in Div III due to competitive balance? My guess is they just are not drawing from as many Catholic grade schools as they have in the past and it is just a core group headlined by places like St. Gabes and Mater Dei, sure helped them with their multiplier. Regardless this run should help them when going up against NDCL where they overlap. The new Crown Conference should help too, with no more Benny & Hoban on the schedule it is much more manageable as the computer points needed in Div IV is a much lower bar than in Div III where they run into a much deeper cast in Region 9 than Region 13.
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They basically draw kids in significant numbers from only three schools (Gabes, St. Mary Mentor and Mater Dei) so their multiplier number might be down. But so is overall enrollment. Lake was pushing 200-plus (100-plus boys) per class for a while but that number is south of 150 now.
 
IronLion34 said:
BC was able to make the LC offense 1-dimentional - 40 total yards passing which is concerning to me if I'm an LC fan. I don't know anything about VW's D but if they can contain LC's QB runs then they have a good shot at a W.
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LC is 1-demntional. They have been all year. We may not like it, but it's who they are. Hopefully they can complete some passes down field to keep VW honest. But I don't anticipate them really changing the game plan up at this point. LC's QB will run the ball close to 20 times. If VW stops it they will win.
 
Auggie said:
I'm happy for Lake Catholic community and hope they pull it out but how did they not end up in Div III due to competitive balance? My guess is they just are not drawing from as many Catholic grade schools as they have in the past and it is just a core group headlined by places like St. Gabes and Mater Dei, sure helped them with their multiplier. Regardless this run should help them when going up against NDCL where they overlap. The new Crown Conference should help too, with no more Benny & Hoban on the schedule it is much more manageable as the computer points needed in Div IV is a much lower bar than in Div III where they run into a much deeper cast in Region 9 than Region 13.
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The last thing Lake is thinking or worried about is NDCL. NDCL has not beat Lake in 3 years. But yes, the new conference should be good for Lake.

Speaking of NDCL, where is parkhaven? Or my Mentor buddy? Both said LC was on the verge of closing.
 
Auggie said:
I'm happy for Lake Catholic community and hope they pull it out but how did they not end up in Div III due to competitive balance? My guess is they just are not drawing from as many Catholic grade schools as they have in the past and it is just a core group headlined by places like St. Gabes and Mater Dei, sure helped them with their multiplier. Regardless this run should help them when going up against NDCL where they overlap. The new Crown Conference should help too, with no more Benny & Hoban on the schedule it is much more manageable as the computer points needed in Div IV is a much lower bar than in Div III where they run into a much deeper cast in Region 9 than Region 13.
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Thank you for the back handed compliments Auggie lol
 
lchsman said:
The last thing Lake is thinking or worried about is NDCL. NDCL has not beat Lake in 3 years. But yes, the new conference should be good for Lake.

Speaking of NDCL, where is parkhaven? Or my Mentor buddy? Both said LC was on the verge of closing.
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He is cheering on the Notre Dame Academy volleyball team :)

By the way is there any back story as to why Lake Catholic did not get Caroline Jurevicius to become a Cougar? I think this educates some folks that students going to Catholic grade schools in larger metro areas are not property of a geographic area or even where dad went to school, they make decisions based off of what feels best to them.
 
wickb2233 said:
Thank you for the back handed compliments Auggie lol
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Not meant to be back handed.

By the way check out the DeSales thread and see how happy those folks are that they are no longer in Div II. I sure wish Benny was in Div III with their 261 boys...
 
Auggie said:
He is cheering on the Notre Dame Academy volleyball team :)

By the way is there any back story as to why Lake Catholic did not get Caroline Jurevicius to become a Cougar? I think this educates some folks that students going to Catholic grade schools in larger metro areas are not property of a geographic area or even where dad went to school, they make decisions based off of what feels best to them.
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Caroline Jurevicius went to NDCL because the VB head coach there is her club head coach. Kinda hard to leave him during the hs season then go back for club. Don't think it works like that.
 
Cougar Nation said:
Caroline Jurevicius went to NDCL because the VB head coach there is her club head coach. Kinda hard to leave him during the hs season then go back for club. Don't think it works like that.
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Actually it happens quite a bit. Some of the key Gilmour girls play on the same AVC club as Caroline, most were surprised she ended up at NDCL but Lake was never in the conversation and dad was arguably one of the best to ever play there.

Sorry about the quick detour back to talk about this game... The Lake players that were Juniors last year played hard against Benny in '19 but were not very athletic. If I was Coach Gibbons I would do whatever possible to shorten the game and stay in it. You never know what is going on through teens heads and come the 4th Q anything can happen.
 
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