Week 11: Mentor @ St Ignatius

St Ignatius (6-4) vs Mentor (5-5)

  • St Ignatius

    Votes: 34 72.3%

  • Mentor

    Votes: 13 27.7%
  • Total voters
    47
cardzfan1234

cardzfan1234

Well-known member
The two legendary programs renew their playoff rivalry Friday evening. I think both programs wouldn't have minded waiting a week before having to play each other, but it is what it is. Most of the games recently have been at Byers Field. Mentor is 3-0 against St Ignatius in playoff games at Byers, 0-1 at Lakewood, and 1-0 at Bedford. I have plenty of thoughts on where these two teams have gone since their Week 2 game (Mentor won 28-26), but first I wanted to share my thoughts on the playoff history between the two. The read is filled with some highs and lows for both fan bases...more highs than lows for Mentor. But St Ignatius has the 11 state championships, so I think they can more easily handle the disappointment of Mentor getting in the way of one or two more possible state titles - namely in 2012 and 2017. St Ignatius was in the way of Mentor's quest for a title in 2011.

I'm not sure if this game deserves its own thread or not. These aren't the best versions of the program by any means. But with playoff expansion, is there are more interesting game on paper than this one? Certainly not in Division I.

Mentor/St Ignatius - A Playoff Rivalry Renewed

This Friday, Mentor and St Ignatius will renew their playoff rivalry at Byers Field. This will be the 8th time the two programs have played ...
mentorfootball.blogspot.com mentorfootball.blogspot.com
 
 
Great summary.

2003 was a massacre. I was at 2 other Mentor games that season and was very worried for Ignatius. Hoyer was a turnover machine in that game.

I can't even talk about 2012. Go for 2 Chuck.

2017 I was enraged when Ignatius had 4th and short from the 49 and punted. Mentor goes down and kicks the winning FG. Ignatius had a huge line and a good RB. No reason at all to punt. Zero.
 
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E.S. Furgeson said:
I would say that one of the programs is legendary.
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Yeah...I gotcha. Different kinds of legendary. Maybe a different word for Mentor is better. Two "elite" programs? Obviously Mentor isn't in the same class as St Ignatius historically. Never has been, never will be. But the 2000's were a lot of success for Mentor. Unfortunately, just never quite had enough to win that final game.
 
You can bet that Iggy is going to be bringing heavy pressure on Snow. In the week 2 regular season matchup, Snow was 7/8 for 178 yards and 3 TDs in the first half. Iggy made some halftime adjustments and blitzed Snow, forcing Mentor into several mistakes. Only the late game heroics of Evan Harper and CB Mike Harrison prevented Iggy from pulling out a W. Mentor will need to figure out how to beat the Ignatius blitz, no doubt with Harper playing a big role. On defense, Mentor needs to concentrate on stopping Lenehan and forcing Pfaff to beat them.
 
Has anyone heard if this is a Spectrum game? They are supposed to announce by Noon Monday, but I can't find anything
 
PDC said:
Great summary.

2003 was a massacre. I was at 2 other Mentor games that season and was very worried for Ignatius. Hoyer was a turnover machine in that game.

I can't even talk about 2012. Go for 2 Chuck.

2017 I was enraged when Ignatius had 4th and short from the 49 and punted. Mentor goes down and kicks the winning FG. Ignatius had a huge line and a good RB. No reason at all to punt. Zero.
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Ouch. Really? I would never ever ever give a Triv-led Mentor (of all teams) the ball back in that scenario. That's something the Browns would do, lol.

(nor would I to a Kyle-led Iggy).
 
Wildcat97 said:
Has anyone heard if this is a Spectrum game? They are supposed to announce by Noon Monday, but I can't find anything
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I've got a card from Ignatius stating that I am entitled to "complimentary admission for two" for any Ignatius game played at Byers Field. Living in Arizona, the card is just gathering dust. Anyone in Cleveland want it?
 
When you compare the path that the two teams have taken since Week 2, it is easy to identify that St Ignatius is the better team. St Ignatius has gone 6-2 since Week 2 while Mentor has gone 3-5...despite the Wildcats having a clearly tougher schedule.

Like Mentor, St Ignatius has inserted a few different starting QB's this season due to injury. St Ignatius is a team that doesn't rely on their QB to be "superman" as much as Mentor has. I don't know whether Pfaff will be healthy and ready to go on Friday or if the sophomore will get a shot. I heard he looked good against Football North, but so did Mentor's freshman backup QB that threw for 375 yards and 5 TD's against our neighbors to the north. St Ignatius will hope to control this game with a good line and a talented back in Lenehan. That was the strategy in Week 2 and I expect that to be their identity this week too. One area of the game that St Ignatius didn't take much advantage of in the Week 2 was their sizeable advantage in the passing game. The wideouts for Ignatius are big as any I remember. Mentor's secondary is small and poorly coached. This should be an advantage for Ignatius no matter the QB.

For Mentor, they have historically been able to be effective on offense even against some good St Ignatius defenses. Unfortunately, this current offense doesn't have the kind of success people are accustomed to seeing with Mentor. Two areas that are concerning are QB and line play. Jacob Snow has to absolutely be the best QB in the game. Mentor's offensive line blocked very well in the first half of Game 2, but then suddenly couldn't open up anything in the passing or running game in the second half. It was suggested that the hot August sun had an impact on the St Ignatius defense, but then they took over once the sun went down. Maybe that's all it was? Mentor has a decent back in Mitchel Waite. But if Mentor is going to win this game, they are going to need their best players (Evan Harper and Michael Norwood) to have great performances. Harper can get the ball in a variety of ways. Norwood has been the most dependable receiver all season. I also hope to see receiver Sean Allgood, by far Mentor's best player in a Week 8 loss to Solon, get the opportunity to play a lot on Friday.

I am still waiting to see the "Brenan Vernon game." He needs one now as much as ever. I hope that Vernon and the coaching staff will be prepared to unleash him as a difference making talent this week. Mentor's defensive line was supposed to be one of the major strengths of the team. They have done OK at times, but just not good enough or consistent enough to make up for the inconsistent play behind them at linebacker and in the secondary.

Coaching - advantage St Ignatius
Defense - big advantage St Ignatius
Offense - probably about even
Special teams - advantage St Ignatius

I think St Ignatius will win, something like 27-14 or something like that. I don't think Mentor will be able to muster a lot of offense unless their offensive line really comes to play. St Ignatius has a really good defense and an offense good enough to beat this Mentor team. I hope I'm wrong.
 
The 2003 playoff game was certainly a wake-up call for Wildcat fans. Total domination and a shutout by a team that had never beaten Ignatius. The all-time series stands at 13-12 in favor of Ignatius, with Mentor on a four game winning streak. Ignatius brings the best out of Mentor. Hoping for good weather and a close, well-played game.
 
What made the 2012 and 2017 losses to Mentor even more difficult is the Cardinals didn't win the state title.

There is no doubt in my mind Ignatius would have won it in 2012, and would have a very good shot in 2017.

There were points in the 2003 game it looked like Hoyer was throwing the ball to the Mentor DBs and not the Ignatius WRs
 
Looks like rainy Friday. Could
Wildcat66 said:
The 2003 playoff game was certainly a wake-up call for Wildcat fans. Total domination and a shutout by a team that had never beaten Ignatius. The all-time series stands at 13-12 in favor of Ignatius, with Mentor on a four game winning streak. Ignatius brings the best out of Mentor. Hoping for good weather and a close, well-played game.
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Weather looking less than optimal. Looks like rain and 40s
 
Unfortunately, much depends on the weather and its effect on the Byers wind tunnel. The forecast is for the remnants of the huge storm that dumped a ton of rain on the West Coast to hit NEO on Thurs and Fri, with winds from 10-20 mph. At Byers it will seem like 40mph. So, the win might be to the team that doesn't make a turnover or critical penalty late. And that team is usually not Ignatius.
 
tom 48 said:
Unfortunately, much depends on the weather and its effect on the Byers wind tunnel. The forecast is for the remnants of the huge storm that dumped a ton of rain on the West Coast to hit NEO on Thurs and Fri, with winds from 10-20 mph. At Byers it will seem like 40mph. So, the win might be to the team that doesn't make a turnover or critical penalty late. And that team is usually not Ignatius.
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Unfortunately looked at the forecast today for the game. Was going to make my way over to this one since last time I saw these two play, was the Iggy vs Mitch game ( pretty good one ?) Hopefully rain wont effect this game too much
 
PDC said:
Really? Thanks for that update, glad he's making millions. Maybe he'll brag about it later in life like you.
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Hoyer signed a $15 million contract with the Colts, all guaranteed. As for the rest of your comment, it's irrelevant to the topic at hand and gratuitous.
 
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JacksonNEO5 said:
Unfortunately looked at the forecast today for the game. Was going to make my way over to this one since last time I saw these two play, was the Iggy vs Mitch game ( pretty good one ?) Hopefully rain wont effect this game too much
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You might have to watch it on Spectrum
 
arizonawildcat said:
I've got a card from Ignatius stating that I am entitled to "complimentary admission for two" for any Ignatius game played at Byers Field. Living in Arizona, the card is just gathering dust. Anyone in Cleveland want it?
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I've had a request and sent him the card and an old driver's license in case they want ID verification.
 
JacksonNEO5 said:
Unfortunately looked at the forecast today for the game. Was going to make my way over to this one since last time I saw these two play, was the Iggy vs Mitch game ( pretty good one ?) Hopefully rain wont effect this game too much
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Mentor's starting QB has a 13-9 TD/INT ratio. Not terrible, but not great...especially when compared to most Mentor QB's over the years. Typically, Mentor's QB's are going 3:1 or better in TD/INT. Against a really good defense in a potentially poor weather night, that puts a lot of pressure on the running game. Mentor's running game is going to have to use Harper a lot on Friday.
 
The focus on Mentor's offense won't matter too much if the defense doesn't adjust and address the run up the middle. Ignatius and Ed's have both had success running right up the gut and Mentor has refused to adapt their strategy to stop this. We can score but if Ignatius has a free lane up the middle our offense won't be able to keep up.
 
JacksonNEO5 said:
Would not mind doing that! Any more information on that? Currently do not have Spectrum but my son does. Will be showing on a local channel?
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On Spectrum News 1. Signup for free trial, you can stream free via their app for 7 or 10 days or something
 
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