Kirtland Hornets own Longest Active Win Streak in America

Kirtland4580

Kirtland4580

Well-known member
What an accomplishment for Kirtland. Would they get beat by 50+ teams in Ohio? Probably. But all the hard work put in over the last 15+ years by Tiger LaVerde & his staff and players has culminated to this. Good for them.

The Hornets will have an enormous target on their back come the playoffs; so it will be interesting to see if they can hold on. Region 17 is very good this year.
 
 
CJK84 said:
Congrats to Kirtland - fantastic program that plays with class.

(but I hope the Hornets eventually face Versailles and the MAC team wins!)
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Dude Kirtland vs Versailles would be epic!!!! Especially with the Hornets creeping up on the tigers win streak record.
 
Kirtland4580 said:
What an accomplishment for Kirtland. Would they get beat by 50+ teams in Ohio? Probably. But all the hard work put in over the last 15+ years by Tiger LaVerde & his staff and players has culminated to this. Good for them.

The Hornets will have an enormous target on their back come the playoffs; so it will be interesting to see if they can hold on. Region 17 is very good this year.
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Agreed…D5 is stacked this year. Outside of R17 you have Versailles…and don’t sleep on Ironton, only loss to a top 10 D1 team (Moeller), who they played tough
 
Kirtland4580 said:
What an accomplishment for Kirtland. Would they get beat by 50+ teams in Ohio? Probably. But all the hard work put in over the last 15+ years by Tiger LaVerde & his staff and players has culminated to this. Good for them.

The Hornets will have an enormous target on their back come the playoffs; so it will be interesting to see if they can hold on. Region 17 is very good this year.
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Kirtland would NOT get beat by 30+ teams, much less 50+, it I appreciate your modesty. Congrats!
 
Saw a local Cleveland media person on twitter comment that Kirtland should move up a division since they've won so much.

Consider:
- Kirtland is a D6 level school playing at D5 because of competitive balancing,
- They flipped to the larger division in their league
- EVERY regular season game is with a school at least 2 divisions higher than Kirtland actually is

Bottom line - this is something EVERY football fan in Ohio can take pride in (except for the rest of the D5R17 teams . . .)
 
3 weeks ago they were 4th on that list. One went down each week since. You wouldn’t expect the the countries 3 longest streaks to end in consecutive weeks.
 
Crimson and Black said:
Does Kirtland use a ground and pound style? Do they throw it much at all?
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Yes.. Great Defense and hard pounding running game. They do throw occasionally to keep teams honest. They have been throwing a bit more this season but usually put the ball in air less then I would think a dozen times a game. While the offense tends to get the press the defense is very impressive against the run.
 
They sure are doing something the right way. If they dominate with the run game then a dozen passes a game would make defending them a nightmare.
 
Raylan_Givens said:
Saw a local Cleveland media person on twitter comment that Kirtland should move up a division since they've won so much.

Consider:
- Kirtland is a D6 level school playing at D5 because of competitive balancing,
- They flipped to the larger division in their league
- EVERY regular season game is with a school at least 2 divisions higher than Kirtland actually is

Bottom line - this is something EVERY football fan in Ohio can take pride in (except for the rest of the D5R17 teams . . .)
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A couple of things…

1.) I understand where the Cleveland media person is coming from, but as most of us know, OHSAA divisions are based on enrollment & not skill.

2.) Kirtland is actually a D5 level school (barely, enrollment wise). Competitive balance, as it turns out, has nothing to do with them being in D5 rather than D6 because their CB # is 0 & has been 0 for quite a few years. It’s just that they have a couple of larger graduating classes.

I think the cut-line is 160 boys between Division V & VI, & Kirtland is at 166. South Range I think is RIGHT AT 160 or 161; smallest school in DV.

3.) Ironically, Kirtland’s toughest game of the regular season came against D4 Perry; their schedule had five D4 teams, three D3 teams, & a D2 team. Definitely beefed up from other years, but I love South Range’s schedule so much better…

4.) Love your bottom line. Although I will end positively by adding that D5R17 can take pride in trying to end the streak.
 
serpico said:
Kirtland would NOT get beat by 30+ teams, much less 50+, it I appreciate your modesty. Congrats!
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I guess 50+ could have been a bit of a stretch; but I try to be a realist about it all. I think past year’s teams have been better than this one, so that’s probably why I said 50 rather than say 25 or 30.
 
Great streak. Great Program. About the fifty teams beating them, maybe a bit high. I’d say 30-35 and probably about 20some pickem type games. Certainly doesn’t take any shine off the program or the kids. Just my 3 cents (inflation you know).
 
Kirtland4580 said:
I guess 50+ could have been a bit of a stretch; but I try to be a realist about it all. I think past year’s teams have been better than this one, so that’s probably why I said 50 rather than say 25 or 30.
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I’m with you…for all the success Kirtland has had the past decade, this year’s playoffs makes me nervous.

Offensively, Mason Rus has been great…but it is. It like past years where you had Mason Sullivan wearing out a defense (while he had good speed for his size), then having Luke Gardner or Joey Torok take it to the house with their speed (I still remember the playoff game against Akron Manchester when Ethan Wright couldn’t catch Luke Gardner multiple times. As an aside it was a pleasure watching Ethan Wright that game. The only RB Kirtland couldn’t shut down that year.

Defensively I am even more nervous…while our
LBs have been fantastic this year, I worry about the secondary. Tough losing Joey Grazia to graduation as he could completely shut down an opponents WRs…though Ramon Lescano has been really coming on strong these past few weeks in the secondary.

South Range played Kirtland tough last year for 3 quarters, and if I remember correctly that was without Dominguez (RB) playing. They make me very nervous this year.
 
I will put Kirtland and the best MAC teams up against anybody of comparable size in the country.

Their game with Pittsburgh Westinghouse was cancelled. I don't think they would have challenged them, even though they are undefeated. The Pittsburgh City League is never much good. It would have been another win for Kirtland.

Calpreps has Kirtland at #37 overall in Ohio. Archbold and Marion Local are ahead of them.
 
One the hardest things in any sport is to go undefeated, let alone have the succession and development at the high school level to continuously win. Hats off to Kirtland. Hope to see Kirtland vs Ironton round III this year again
 
Raylan_Givens said:
Saw a local Cleveland media person on twitter comment that Kirtland should move up a division since they've won so much.

Consider:
- Kirtland is a D6 level school playing at D5 because of competitive balancing,
- They flipped to the larger division in their league
- EVERY regular season game is with a school at least 2 divisions higher than Kirtland actually is

Bottom line - this is something EVERY football fan in Ohio can take pride in (except for the rest of the D5R17 teams . . .)
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How did they fall under competitive balance?
 
Raylan_Givens said:
Saw a local Cleveland media person on twitter comment that Kirtland should move up a division since they've won so much.

Consider:
- Kirtland is a D6 level school playing at D5 because of competitive balancing,
- They flipped to the larger division in their league
- EVERY regular season game is with a school at least 2 divisions higher than Kirtland actually is

Bottom line - this is something EVERY football fan in Ohio can take pride in (except for the rest of the D5R17 teams . . .)
Click to expand...

Kirtland isn't exactly going out of their way to play tough OOC opposition. That has been one of my complaints. I would love to see Kirtland play Benedictine or STVM. I am sure those Catholic schools would love to play that game. Why not see about scheduling Hudson, Aurora, Avon, etc? Those are all bigger public school teams with strong programs. You can even look at VASJ (now that they have Rotsky) and Ursuline if you really don't want to face a school that is too large.

Kirtland has a fantastic program, but get out and take on some real challenges in weeks 1, 2, and 3.
 
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Lep2002 said:
Kirtland isn't exactly going out of their way to play tough OOC opposition. That has been one of my complaints. I would love to see Kirtland play Benedictine or STVM. I am sure those Catholic schools would love to play that game. Why not see about scheduling Hudson, Aurora, Avon, etc? Those are all bigger public school teams with strong programs. You can even look at VASJ and Ursuline if you really don't want to face a school that is too large.

Kirtland has a fantastic program, but get out and take on some real challenges in weeks 1, 2, and 3.
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Kirtland’s 2021 OOC opponents’ record: 20-3 in games not against Kirtland. They didn’t get to play Westinghouse but they did schedule them.

As far as “real challenges”, you realize they’ve won 6 titles in 10 years, right? Seems that their plan works fairly well regardless of what you think of their OOC scheduling.
 
Raylan_Givens said:
Kirtland’s 2021 OOC opponents’ record: 20-3 in games not against Kirtland. They didn’t get to play Westinghouse but they did schedule them.

As far as “real challenges”, you realize they’ve won 6 titles in 10 years, right? Seems that their plan works fairly well regardless of what you think of their OOC scheduling.
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I want to make sure that you and I are on the same page. I am not arguing that Kirtland would be better or more prepared for a D5 playoff run if they really challenged themselves once or twice a year OOC. Playing Benedictine, for example, in week 1 or week 2 has nothing to do with the playoffs. I would just like to see Kirtland schedule a really challenging out of conference game once or twice a year instead of Lutheran West, Painesville Harvey, Lakeview, Geneva, etc. It would be really fun and I am sure Kirtland would be competitive--and maybe even win some of those games. I think Kirtland fans and players would love it as well. Kirtland vs Walsh Jesuit would have been far more interesting than Kirtland vs Lutheran West--no?
 
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