High school football: Rival Mentor all that stands between Medina's third straight regional final berth

Quarterback and Mr. Football Drew Allar graduated, as did first-team Division I All-Ohio picks Matt Spatny and Jajuan Jackson and second-team selections Nick Manley and Matt Hamula. Yet the second-seeded Medina football team, which some thought might go 6-4 in the regular season, is 11-1 as it prepares to play No. 3 Mentor (8-3) in a D-I, Region 1 semifinal tonight at 7 at Twinsburg's Tiger Stadium. If the Bees win, they will play in their third straight regional final. "That was my biggest goal — to prove that just because some guys left, we were still going to be good," junior center Patrick Gillespie said Thursday. "After our loss to Avon (in Week 2), we knew we weren't going to lose another game." Medina's 10 straight wins include a 52-38 victory over Mentor on Sept. 30 in a game that featured 1,048 yards from scrimmage, 943 passing yards, 11 touchdown receptions, 50 first downs, five players with 100-plus yards receiving, five interceptions and 66 first-half points. Despite all the offensive heroics, the real key for the Bees was winning the second half 17-7. "We found a lot of their tendencies from watching film, but in the first half we were worried, almost," sophomore safety Cooper Josefczyk said. "At halftime, we talked it over, made a couple adjustments and really clicked. "We just have to play our game and not worry about the environment. I know it's a big game, but we can't let it rattle us." Defensively, the Bees will have to focus on Cardinals sophomore quarterback Scotty Fox, who was 37-for-55 for 511 yards, five TDs and two interceptions in the first meeting, speedy receivers Jacob Snow (13 catches, 172 yards, TD) and Holden Cerny (7, 131, 1) and running back Mitchell Waite, who didn't do much on the ground but had nine catches for 107 yards and a TD. "We're going to have to work as a team and execute the plays the right way," sophomore safety Tallen Hulvey said. "We have to talk a lot and communicate on the things we've seen on film. If we do that, we can beat them." Fox was sensational in the first game, but the Bees kept the Cardinals out of the end zone in the second half until they scored with 3:37 left in the game. "For a sophomore, he knows what he's doing," Hulvey said. "I'm excited to see what he can do as a junior and senior. If we can shut down No. 7 (Snow), his main target, I don't think he can put up those numbers again." "He's got two or three really good receivers," Josefczyk added. "He's mobile and can get out of the pocket. He has a lot of time to find his receivers and he has a cannon. But he's only a sophomore. He's played a long season, but he's still young. If we can get a ton of pressure on him, he'll freak out and throw up some weird pass." The Bees succeeded in doing that in the first meeting, especially when Nathan Nunn got a strip-sack in his first game of the season and brother Jacob scooped up the loose ball and ran 9 yards for a TD that put Medina up 42-31 with 10:03 left in the third period. Tulvey and the now injured Jesse Rahe had interceptions. Offensively, Medina finished with 519 yards in the first meeting, with quarterback Danny Stoddard going 24-for-42 for 432 yards, six TDs and three picks. Stoddard had 311 yards passing in the Bees' 35-point first half. "I love the fact we can score on any given play," said the 6-foot-3, 240-pound Gillespie, who has had just one bad shotgun snap this season. "Coach Bill (Turner, offensive line) always tells us there's a half-second difference in how long we have to hold up defensive linemen, so we know we have to give max effort on every down." Jack Wojciak had seven catches for 188 yards and TDs of 11, 46 and 67 yards in the first meeting, while 2021 first-team All-Ohio pick Brennen Schramm had 11 for 102, Carlos Corchado had two for 83, including a 70-yard score that put the game on ice, and Austin Knowles had four for 59 and two scores. "We've got to find our groove, but we've tuned up a lot more and gotten better at our craft," Gillespie said. "We find out what works sooner. Teams have to decide if they're going to drop a lot of guys (into coverage) or bring pressure. Whatever they do, we do the opposite (when it comes to run or pass)." With a likely meeting against top-seeded St. Edward in the offing if they win, the Bees vow not to look past the Cardinals, who beat them handily in the 2020 regional final. St. Edward beat them just as handily in the regional final last year. "We focus on 1-0 every week," Gillespie said. "We try not to think about the past or the next game. We just try to focus on the guys across from us every week." Contact Rick Noland at (330) 721-4046 or rnoland@medina-gazette.com. Follow him @RickNoland on Twitter.