High school football playoffs: Remarkable playoff run ends for Medina Bees

MENTOR — The clock started approaching midnight on the best playoff run in Medina football history shortly after 8 p.m. By 8:25, all that was left to play was a largely inconsequential second half.The eighth-seeded Bees gave second-seeded Mentor all it wanted for 18-plus minutes, but a series of turnovers, major penalties and an inability to stop the Cardinals offense led to a 49-14 loss Friday in the Division I, Region 1 final."That's the thing about football: It teaches you life lessons," Medina coach Larry Laird told his team in a lengthy postgame huddle. "Sometimes you don't get what you want, but I'm proud of you guys."Having beaten Strongsville, top-seeded St. Edward and fifth-seeded St. Ignatius to advance to the first regional final in school history, Medina (6-4) was down 21-14 and marching toward a game-tying score when quarterback Drew Allar fumbled on first-and-10 from the Mentor 11-yard line with 5:52 to play in the first half.Nothing went right for the Bees after that, as Mentor (9-1), once in a 14-14 tie, scored the last 35 points and had a running clock for the final 10:34 of the game.Still, Medina players had no reason to hang their heads."It's pretty special," Allar said of the postseason run. "I don't know the last time a public school has beaten St. Edward and St. Ignatius back to back (only Warren Harding, Glenville and Mentor had done so in the playoffs). This is a really special team."The Bees never solved Cardinals quarterback Ian Kipp, the reigning Division I co-Offensive Player of the Year. The 6-foot-3, 210-pound senior had a hand in Mentor's first six touchdowns — he threw for four and ran for two — and finished 12-for-16 for 194 yards passing while rushing 10 times for 66 yards.Despite that, Medina was right in the game until a series of horrible things occurred, starting with Allar's second lost fumble of the night, which matched the number of times the Bees turned over the ball on the ground over their first nine games."It was sort of a bad exchange," said the 6-5, 220-pound junior, who finished 15-for-42 for 279 yards and a late interception. "I got pushed back. I should have held on to the ball, but I just didn't."At that point, the Bees had held possession of the ball for 27 of the last 28 plays, but all they had to show for it was a 7-7 tie in that span. That's because Mentor needed just one play in between for Kipp to hit Evan Harper on a simple flare pass that the speedy receiver turned into a 60-yard TD without being touched.After the Allar fumble, the Cardinals went 73 yards in seven plays to go up 28-14 with 3:31 left in the second quarter."You can't turn the ball over," Laird said. "If we put it in there (to make it 21-21), it's a whole different game. Once they stretched out the lead, we had to abandon the running game."After going down by 14, things got even worse for the Bees, who were called for 50 yards in penalties — they had seven for 90 yards in the first half — on their next possession.A 20-yard holding call, the second unsportsmanlike conduct penalty of the night on the Medina sideline and interference on Luke Hensley's punt gave the Cardinals the ball at the Bees 37 with 1:42 left in the half. Four plays later, Medina was down 35-14 and never recovered.Said Allar: "We just came out the second half and said, 'We have to lay it all on the line. Don't make excuses. Just go out and half fun because it's our last half together.'"And to think the game started OK for Medina.After Mentor went up 7-0 on its first possession, the Bees went 65 yards in 10 plays to tie. Seven of the plays, including a 3-yard TD, were pitchouts left to Dorian Boyland (13 carries, 60 yards), who accounted for 45 yards on the drive.The Cardinals came right back, with Kipp either finding open receivers or keeping the ball and running right before hitting John Sierputowski for a 12-yard TD that made it 14-7 with 2:34 left in the first period."It was the Elite 8," Medina linebacker Nathan Spatny said. "(Kipp) is going to take his team in his own hands. We were prepared for it, but it didn't work out."The Bees came right back, marching 90 yards in 17 plays — they converted two fourth downs — to tie the game at 14. The first fourth-down conversion was a 16-yard pass from Hensley to Michael Rodak on a fake punt (Medina needed 7 yards); the second was a beautiful 28-yard TD from Allar to Jajuan Jackson (the Bees needed 10 yards).It all unraveled after that.Jackson (3 catches, 79 yards), Luke Hensley (5, 67), Drew Hensley (3, 66) and Brennen Schramm (2, 50) were Medina's top receivers and Allar had ample time to throw most of the night, but he either couldn't find open receivers or waited a split-second too long and ended up throwing a tad short on deep balls."It was difficult," Allar said. "Getting behind the chains (due to penalties) hurt. They were doing a good job of rushing three and dropping eight (into coverage)."From a Medina defensive standpoint, Kipp, running backs Riley Coughlin (12 carries, 92 yards) and Brenden Panhorst (10, 78, TD) and receivers Harper (4 catches, 93 yards, 2 TDs) and Sierputowski (4, 64, 1) were too much to handle."They were running plays at the right moment and finding holes in our defense," Bees linebacker Matt Hamula said. "We had some miscommunications, too."Though the season-ending loss came by a lopsided score, it didn't detract from what Medina, which was 3-3 in the regular season, accomplished in its unprecedented playoff run."The big thing is it's growing the program," Laird said. "We accomplished a lot of things people didn't think we could accomplish. Getting to the Elite 8 is something to be proud of."I want our kids to remember this feeling and realize what it will take to make that next step."Contact Rick Noland at (330) 721-4061 or rnoland@medina-gazette.com. Follow him @RickNoland on Twitter.