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Yappi.com writer MASSILLON—As the heart and soul of the Mentor Cardinals, head coach Steve Trivisonno did not enjoy his last trip to Paul Brown Tiger Stadium in the form of a 31-10 loss to last season’s Division I state finalists, the Massillon Tigers. One year later, Trivisonno and his flock of Cardinals enjoyed their second visit in Massillon. Led by the phenomenal big play tandem of talented quarterback Bart Tanski and the physical running game, spearheaded by senior Bill Deitman, Mentor out-toughed a physical Warren Harding High School team for a 34-24 win for the region 1 championship. Mentor’s win trashed plans for what would have been a potential state semifinal meeting between Warren Harding and Canton McKinley, as current Harding commander Thom McDaniels coached the Bulldogs for 16 seasons. Qualifying for the first state semifinal appearance in the Mentor program was no easy task. Aside from avenging a 2002 regional final loss to the Raiders, Mentor had to do everything just right to make their dream come true. Consider their mission accomplished. “This is a good win for this program. We got it done tonight and the whole evening, the offense played great,” Trivisonno, a graduate of Bowling Green State University beamed. “I’ll tell you what, Tanski and Deitman are very smart players. Both are 4.0 students. Deitman might play small-college ball at a Division III school and Tanski has a bright future ahead of him.” Tanski and Deitman combined for 216 yards rushing on the ground as Deitman carried the ball 28 times for 128 yards and two touchdowns while Tanski ran 16 times for 88 yards. When he wasn’t scrambling, Tanski gave the vaunted Warren defense fits with his arm as he completed 14 passes on 21 attempts for 193 yards and three touchdowns. Receiver Brandon James caught two of the three scores while Tyler Schutz added one more. When asked if Mentor had hit their peak on the season, Trivisonno gleefully obliged. “The last four weeks, we have really started to take off and you know what, we just hit our peak,” he said. For the Raiders, who defeated Mentor four years ago in a regional final on their way to a state final appearance in 2002, their season ended short of a regional title. And no one knows the devastating pain of a loss better than the heart and soul of the Warren Harding High School program himself, McDaniels. “There are no excuses, they executed their offense better and I tip my hat to them,” the fierce seventh-year Harding field general said. “I thanked my players for everything they did for me in their four years and they will always have a place in my heart.” Things looked like it would go in the way of the black and gold on their first drive as the Raiders pounded the ball down the throats of the Cardinals. The drive consumed 4:17 off the clock as they drove 58 yards, which concluded with quarterback Sidney Glover scoring uncontested on a 12-yard touchdown run. James Teagardner’s extra-point gave Warren Harding a 7-0 lead with 7:30 remaining in the opening quarter. It took only two possessions for the Mentor offense to get on the scoreboard with a nine-play drive that ended with Deitman scoring the first of two scores for the mighty Cardinals offense. Kevin Harper missed the extra-point and though the Raiders led 7-6 the fun was just beginning. The game may have turned in Mentor’s favor for good on Warren Harding’s third possession. It was the most serious drive for the Raiders, which saw them obtain four first downs. But they only got as far to the Mentor 19-yard line and Teagardner kicked a 36-yard field goal to up the Raiders lead to 10-6. Harding not getting the touchdown proved to be costly. Tanski led an eight-play march down the field in a matter of 1:43 as he ended the drive with a touchdown pass of four yards to James and Harper’s extra-point kick sent Mentor into intermission with a 13-10 lead. “That touchdown before the half was huge. Huge!” Trivisonno said. “It gave us real momentum going into halftime.” Mentor constructed an 11-play drive led again by the running tandem of Tanski and Deitman. Deitman finished the drive with a four-yard touchdown run and with 7:58 to go in the third quarter, the Cardinals were ahead 20-10. On the canvas, the Raiders refused to stay down for the 10 count. Warren Harding responded in eight plays, seven of those were runs by future Ohio State star Dan Herron. But the big play was a 40-yard pass from quarterback Matt Straniak to senior Chris Rucker that set up Glover’s one-yard touchdown run and things got a little tenuous for the Cardinals as their lead was reduced to 20-17. But the game completely turned in Mentor’s favor for good before the end of the quarter when Tanski fired a perfect pass to James and he got away from a Raiders defender into the end zone at the end of the third quarter. “I thought we were going to intercept the ball there for a while. I don’t know if the defender missed the ball or not but it resulted in a touchdown for them,” McDaniels lamented. Being down 27-17, it forced the Raiders to score twice and keep Mentor off the scoreboard. They executed that feat four years ago against the Massillon Tigers in front of 15,000 fans at Mollenkopf Stadium. They were unable to do it this time. Tanski delivered the final snakebite in the form of a 21-yard touchdown pass to Schutz to put the game out of reach. Warren’s last score came on a kickoff touchdown return of 80 yards by Rucker, but the game was well out of reach and Mentor was in cut-loose and have a good time mode. When asked if he felt Mentor had the tougher football team on the field, Trivisonno was not taken in by it. “Were we the tougher football team? No, it wasn’t a case of us being the tougher football team,” he said tersely. “It was a great game, we wore them down in the end and we wanted it more.” The heart and soul of the Mentor Cardinals he is, Steve Trivisonno and his flock of Mentor Cardinals returned to Massillon and enjoyed this one in the form of a region 1 championship. OTHER DIVISION I REGIONAL FINALS Division I, Region 2: Canton McKinley 49, Toledo Whitmer 7 Never again will the Canton McKinley Bulldogs have to hear about their 21-3 loss to Massillon that annexed their regional title from Canton to Massillon. As a matter of fact, don’t even bring it to their attention as they have successfully buried that result from last season. The Bulldogs stormed out to a 35-0 halftime lead against Toledo Whitmer and easily regained their championship as the Panthers, after turning back Massillon the previous week were incinerated in the form of a 49-7 score. The win qualified the Bulldogs for their second state semifinal appearance in three years against the Mentor Cardinals at a site to be determined. The last time the two teams played, Canton McKinley captured a 36-0 win over the Cardinals in the 1997 regular season on their way to the second of three titles in their rich and storied program. Division I Region 3: Hilliard Davidson 28, Dublin Coffman 20 Hilliard Davidson returned to the Division I state semifinals for a second straight season by overcoming a 20-7 deficit to stop Dublin Coffman in a region 3 final to retain their championship. Last season, the Wildcats advanced to the state semifinals, where their season ended in a 17-10 loss to eventual state champion Cincinnati St. Xavier. Division I, Region 4: Cincinnati Colerain 24, Cincinnati St. Xavier 7 There will not be a repeat champion this year as Cincinnati Colerain ended the reign of Cincinnati St. Xavier with a decisive win in the region 4 title game. The Cardinals return to the state semifinals for the second time in three years under Colerain kingpin Kerry Coombs where they will have a chance to return to the Division I title game for the first time since 2004, when in a record-setting fashion led by former Colerain quarterback Dominick Goodman, the Cardinals overpowered Canton McKinley in a vicious 50-10 assault that earned the Colerain program their first state championship. |
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