Game of the Century: St. Thomas Aquinas at Minerva

Who snaps their streak?

  • St. Thomas Aquinas Knights

    Votes: 6 14.0%

  • Minerva Lions

    Votes: 37 86.0%
  • Total voters
    43
Bull GreenDog

Bull GreenDog

Well-known member
The matchup we've all been waiting for is nearly upon us. No, not Massillon-Ed's, St. Thomas- Minerva! The Lions, who boast a 33-game losing streak, will welcome the Knights, who have their own 30 game losing streak, to the far Southeastern corner of Stark County on Friday. Neither team has won since the 2020 season. Minerva's last win came in a post-playoff regular season contest on October 30 of 2020, with a 21-14 win over Hanoverton United. St. Thomas' most recent triumph came on November 17 of that same year, with a 42-26 playoff win over Garfield Heights Trinity.

No matter the outcome, one senior class will get their first win of their high school careers.

I don't have the data, but I suspect that 63 games is the longest combined losing streak entering a game in the history of the state.

Drew Pasteur has #667 Minerva as a 19-point favorite over #692 Aquinas (There are 706 total football-playing schools in Ohio). It seems STA will have the edge on offense, while Minerva has an advantage on defense. Minerva has lost it's four games by a combined score of 120-7, while Aquinas has lost it's four by a total of 199-25

Who ya got?
 
 
Bull GreenDog said:
The matchup we've all been waiting for is nearly upon us. No, not Massillon-Ed's, St. Thomas- Minerva! The Lions, who boast a 33-game losing streak, will welcome the Knights, who have their own 30 game losing streak, to the far Southeastern corner of Stark County on Friday. Neither team has won since the 2020 season. Minerva's last win came in a post-playoff regular season contest on October 30 of 2020, with a 21-14 win over Hanoverton United. St. Thomas' most recent triumph came on November 17 of that same year, with a 42-26 playoff win over Garfield Heights Trinity.

No matter the outcome, one senior class will get their first win of their high school careers.

I don't have the data, but I suspect that 63 games is the longest combined losing streak entering a game in the history of the state.

Drew Pasteur has #667 Minerva as a 19-point favorite over #692 Aquinas (There are 706 total football-playing schools in Ohio). It seems STA will have the edge on offense, while Minerva has an advantage on defense. Minerva has lost it's four games by a combined score of 120-7, while Aquinas has lost it's four by a total of 199-25

Who ya got?
Click to expand...
Amazingly Minerva had a 44 game losing streak from 2015-2019
Since 2015 their record is 3-90

But I’ll take them to win 16-8
 
Bull GreenDog said:
I don't have the data, but I suspect that 63 games is the longest combined losing streak entering a game in the history of the state.
Click to expand...
I think you’re right. The Millersport-Bellaire St John game in week 1 of the 2014 season had a combined 59-game losing streak (48 in a row for MP, 11 for BSJ.)

There is possibly a longer one where, for instance, some downtrodden southeastern Ohio program (e.g. Federal Hocking) had played a similarly-beleaguered team out of WV, but for the purposes of two Ohio teams I think that’s the high score.
 
The Dock said:
I think you’re right. The Millersport-Bellaire St John game in week 1 of the 2014 season had a combined 59-game losing streak (48 in a row for MP, 11 for BSJ.)

There is possibly a longer one where, for instance, some downtrodden southeastern Ohio program (e.g. Federal Hocking) had played a similarly-beleaguered team out of WV, but for the purposes of two Ohio teams I think that’s the high score.
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Even if there is a longer one where a team with 50 game streak played someone who was 0-10 the year before, I seriously doubt there's been a game where both teams come in with streaks of 30+ games. That has to be a first.
 
Just 2 weeks ago Minerva played Akron Springfield which had a 29 game losing streak entering the game (they had won a game in 2022 but was later forfeited)
 
Bull GreenDog said:
Even if there is a longer one where a team with 50 game streak played someone who was 0-10 the year before, I seriously doubt there's been a game where both teams come in with streaks of 30+ games. That has to be a first.
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Yeah. I think the fact that a lot of league formation (especially in the last decade) has revolved around comparable size and competitiveness is what gives this game its unusual distinction.

With how common it is today for leagues to have two teams in the absolute cellar over a period of time, the streaks will inevitably collide earlier. There’s also things like two struggling programs inking a two year non-conf deal that ends up splitting and therefore resets the timer for both teams in that span of the two years (e.g. Vanlue beats Millersport in 2023 to snap a 24-game skid, Millersport returns the favor this year to snap their 21-game skid.)
 
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nupanther said:
I know Minerva has been struggling for years, but I can't see a scenario where Louisville St Thomas Aquinas is competitive in this game.
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St. Thomas Aquinas is a prime example for where 8-man football might be what's needed to revive their program. Whether they stay 8-man or not. They need to just playing teams they might have a chance at beating for a while.
 
WSAImpact said:
35 years ago this would have been a matchup worth watching.
Click to expand...
It was a good matchup even 10 years ago.

On one hand, maybe Minerva can turn it around at some point. On the other hand, I have no idea if and when St. Thomas Aquinas can turn it around. As best I can tell, the St. Thomas Aquinas community has been overtaken by apathy in the past few years. At a small private school, apathy means alumni who don't donate and don't send their kids to the alma mater. That is a difficult situation to escape.
 
3-90 is crazy, but true. Since the end of the 2014 season, Minerva has won only 3 games.... AT West Branch in 2019 to end a 44 game losing streak. Then, the other 2 games were gifts because the Covid year moved the playoffs up to week 7...and the Lions last 2 opponents (Sandy Valley and I don't remember the second) were still in the playoffs in week 9 and 10, allowing Minerva to pick up a bad Rootstown and bad United team. Otherwise those would have been losses and we would be saying 1-92 record with a 44 and 48 game losing streaks. With that said, Lions WIN big this week. St. Thomas is that bad. Minerva 26 St Thomas 8
 
Bull GreenDog said:
The matchup we've all been waiting for is nearly upon us. No, not Massillon-Ed's, St. Thomas- Minerva! The Lions, who boast a 33-game losing streak, will welcome the Knights, who have their own 30 game losing streak, to the far Southeastern corner of Stark County on Friday. Neither team has won since the 2020 season. Minerva's last win came in a post-playoff regular season contest on October 30 of 2020, with a 21-14 win over Hanoverton United. St. Thomas' most recent triumph came on November 17 of that same year, with a 42-26 playoff win over Garfield Heights Trinity.

No matter the outcome, one senior class will get their first win of their high school careers.

I don't have the data, but I suspect that 63 games is the longest combined losing streak entering a game in the history of the state.

Drew Pasteur has #667 Minerva as a 19-point favorite over #692 Aquinas (There are 706 total football-playing schools in Ohio). It seems STA will have the edge on offense, while Minerva has an advantage on defense. Minerva has lost it's four games by a combined score of 120-7, while Aquinas has lost it's four by a total of 199-25

Who ya got?
Click to expand...
Few more than 706. Not sure how many more but, Federal Hocking is #706 and Belpre Ohio who they just beat is #710. So at least 710
 
SportsLife10 said:
Since the end of the 2014 season, Minerva has won only 3 games.... AT West Branch in 2019 to end a 44 game losing streak.
Click to expand...
Such an underrated anecdote considering the general success that West Branch would go on to achieve after the 2019 season, i.e. a 35-3 regular season record across the four seasons that followed 'that loss.'
 
National record for consecutive losses is believed to be 82. So neither team is even halfway there yet
 
Sykotyk said:
Depends if you're counting OHSAA members or all teams
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This part I'm curious about.

Drew's F50 tab says comparing "706 OHSAA teams." In the "non-Ohio opponents" page, he has Dohn Community and Foxfire listed.

If it is a difference of four teams, are these the four teams?

Peebles
West Union
North Adams
Southern Buckeye



None of the homeschool/Christian-oriented collective programs in the state this year are playing Ohio opponents that are playoff-eligible, I think. Columbus Crusaders does play both Peebles and Dohn, as well as Middletown Christian and Landmark Christian, but I don't see where the Crusaders could be one of the four.

I wonder if he has Dohn and Foxfire categorized separately because they both play actual school-sponsored programs sanctioned by the respective state governing bodies (Dohn played Struthers and Thurgood Marshall, Foxfire played Paden City WV.)
 
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