High school football: Highland's Grady Gibb appears ready to roll after Mentor Lake Catholic scrimmage

MENTOR — Grady Gibb looks ready to shine under the Friday night lights. After quarterbacking the freshman team and the junior varsity over his first three years of high school, the Highland senior completed 9-of-14 passes for 128 yards Friday morning in a scoreless varsity scrimmage with Mentor Lake Catholic. "I thought it was good, but there are some adjustments we have to make," Gibb said. "I felt a little antsy in the pocket, but my O-line blocked great. We just have little things we have to fix." The Division II Hornets, who were 13-1 overall and 7-0 in the Suburban League American Conference, and D-IV Cougars (12-1) each ran a pair of 10-play series. Down and distance were kept, with the ball returned to the offensive team's 25-yard line if it was in a fourth-down situation where it would have punted. Highland would have punted just once, with its first 10 plays ending on second-and-10 from the Lake Catholic 11 and its second series ending when receiver Lucas Gerding, who was otherwise outstanding with six catches for 74 yards, lost a fumble at the Cougars 9 on the 10th play. Lake Catholic's only first down came on a questionable pass interference call. On their other 19 plays, the Cougars totaled 1 yard. Despite claiming to be antsy, Gibb looked poised and comfortable, though he didn't get a chance to demonstrate his running skills because quarterbacks were ruled down on first contact. "It's great to get varsity experience, but I've been getting it since my freshman year playing against some great (Highland) defenses (in practice)," he said. "In my view, I'm not the fastest guy in the world (as a runner), but I see the gaps well." Gibb also saw the field well, completing passes of 3, 6, 9 and 21 yards to Gerding on Highland's first 10-play series. He had 12- and 15-yard tosses to Gerding on the next series and added a beautiful 27-yarder to Jake Weber. "We've been working all offseason to get our chemistry down," Gerding said. "We've been together our entire lives." Though Gibb only got the opportunity to attempt three varsity passes as a junior — he completed all of them for a total of 81 yards and a touchdown — he's ecstatic to be throwing to Gerding again. "He's someone who worked his butt off all offseason," Gibb said. "He's a good leader, and he always helps the underclassmen. He's going to have a really big year." Gerding, who had 25 catches for 447 yards (17.9 average) and three touchdowns while adding 358 yards and three scores on 35 rushing attempts (10.2 average), doesn't expect the Hornets to drop off without graduated two-way linemen Carson Noonan, who shared Gazette MVP honors with Highland returning running back Casey Myser, All-Gazette pick Ryan Zywiec and a host of others. "We reload and keep shooting," Gerding said. "We're out to compete with the guys on top, the (Archbishop) Hobans and Avons. We're gunning for the big dogs." Myser, who rushed for 2,130 yards, had 2,688 yards from scrimmage and scored 46 touchdowns as a junior, was used sparingly against Lake Catholic, rushing three times for 13 yards and catching one pass for 6 yards. The Highland defense was even better than the offense. Lukas Grillis had two tackles for loss and linebacker Jameson Gordon, who was all over the field, had one, while Ryan Zahir had a sack. The Hornets dominated in the trenches, applied pressure throughout and the coverage was so good the Cougars were rarely able to get off a pass. Those strengths should lead to another very successful season, even with the loss of a great senior class. "They set the standard," Gibb said. "We just have to follow it. They paved the path for us. Now we've got to go off on our own." Contact Rick Noland at (330) 721-4046 or rnoland@medina-gazette.com. Follow him @RickNoland on X.