Here’s Norm Weber’s preview:
By Norm Weber
nweber@sehs.net
Back to the state final four, St. Edward football has a Division I semifinal engagement against Gahanna Lincoln at 7 Friday on Mansfield’s Arlin Field.
Both teams won their computer regions and the on-field regional championships. Also, both clubs are 13-1 on the season. The defending state team champions, St. Edward also won the state poll championship a month ago.
The Golden Lions’ only loss came at the hands of Centerville, which was eliminated last week by Springfield, the school St. Edward played to win the state championship in 2021. The only Eagle loss came against the still-playing Massillon in a three-point decision.
One point is that they have had no common opponents. The second point is that the two teams are unknown to each other.
“It presents a challenge for both teams,” St. Edward Head Coach Tom Lombardo said. “It’s a test of tracking information. We won a region and now we are going up against an unknown opponent. We have tradition so they might know of us.”
There is some tradition with St. Edward and Gahanna Lincoln in the computer playoffs. The two teams met in the 1976 in the state semifinals. It was the first year of St. Ed’s Hall of Famer Dan Flaherty as the head coach. Lincoln won that game, but went on to lose to Moeller in the finals.
This is the 12th final-four appearance for St. Edward. The second was against Lincoln.
“It's a tough week because we don’t know them (the current version),” Lombardo said. “We haven’t played them or had a common opponent.”
Coach Lombardo and his coaches have been doing quick research since Saturday. Assistant Norm Stickney is strong in this area.
The Golden Lions have multi-sport student-athletes, as does St. Ed’s, and has shown it in their other sports most recently.
“They have players,” the coach said. “They have all kinds of Division I players. They have a Colgate commit, a Marshall commit, a Michigan commit. They are as big as us. They have kids who are fast. The track team is awesome. I saw them at state track in the spring. Their basketball team made it to the regional final. They certainly have outstanding athletes. It’s quite a challenge.”
Offensively, the Golden Lions are as good as anybody.
“We have to eliminate the explosive play,” the coach said. “A lot of their yards come on a handful of plays. They are really good on the explosive plays. They have a tailback (Diore Hubbard) who is the district player of the year down there, who has rushed for 2,000 yards. If we load up on them, they have speedsters who can win the one-on-one matchups.”
The Golden Lions defeated Pickerington Central twice this season, first by two points and two weeks ago, 38-14.
“They beat a good playoff team in Pick Central (state champs twice within the last five years),” Coach Lombardo said. “They hit Ty Staples (#12) on an inside swing. They got caught in a one-on-one matchup and it went for a touchdown.”
This is the time when the Eagles’ playing an extremely tough schedule (five opponents are still alive in the playoffs) might give them an advantage in the overall preparation.
“From the Massillon game on, we played some really tough opponents,” Coach Lombardo said. “We had Ignatius during the regular season, Moeller, Football North Canada, and Hoban. It was a four-game stretch and we won all four games (both Hoban and Moeller were ranked No. 1 in the state (in their respective divisions) before losing to St. Ed’s and ironically Massillon and Hoban are playing against each other in the D-II semifinal). We parlayed this into the playoffs. We are going to get a better shot from these teams in the playoffs and then the weather changes around. We had to win games in different ways.”
The Eagles did it with a running offense, a passing offense, special teams, blocked kicks and more. St. Edward has outscored its playoff opponents, 146-13.
“Some we won with our defense, through the air in some games, obviously ran the ball to win some games,” Coach Lombardo said. “We did all those things in one way or another.”
The Eagles burned seven minutes off the clock with the running game against Mentor Friday before scoring their third touchdown with just over four minutes to go in the game, much the same as they did against Moeller, running off 10-of-12 minutes in the fourth quarter with the running game.
For Lincoln, Ty Staples is #12. Quarterback is Brennan Ward, #2. He is a sophomore. The Colgate commit is #63, Isaac Perkins. Griffin Flusche #55 and Lucas Lynn #58 are big offensive and defensive linemen. Their defensive ends are big (Jayden Yates #5, and Kamari Burns #40). One of them is going to Cincinnati. Flusche is going to Marshall. One of the fastest wide receivers in the state is Makai Shahid, #6.
“We have to go through their film and social media to find information on them,” the Eagles’ coach said. “We don’t have that problem as much when we play Ignatius, Mentor or Moeller. We’re used to the kids on these teams because we play them every year.”
Then there’s the schedules. The only thing close to a common opponent is that St. Ed’s defeated Pickerington North in a scrimmage. Lincoln defeated North in a game, 42-2.
“We might have played a little bit of a tougher schedule. Not by much. Columbus is a good area for football with Pick Central and New Albany,” the coach said. “They played both twice.”
St. Edward’s schedule is rated No. 1.
Currently, in addition to Hoban (13-1) and Massillon (13-1) playing in the D-II semifinal, Toledo Central Catholic (13-1) is playing Kings Mills Kings (13-1) in the other D-II semifinal (if CC wins it could mean both St. Ed’s opponents in the D-II championship game). Moeller (13-1) is playing Springfield (12-1) in the other D-I final), and Cherry Creek (11-2) is playing Pine Creek in the Colorado 5A semifinals Saturday. Cherry Creek is the three-time defending state champs. Dave Logan’s team is ranked #1 in Colorado.