Mentor Football 2024

cardzfan1234

Well-known member
The 2023 season didn't meet expectations. The regular season wasn't terribly bad, but losing in the way they did to St Ignatius and Riverside left a poor taste in the mouth of everyone involved and the Mentor supporters who were watching. Mentor did play better in Weeks 4-10, but then the offense laid an egg against St Ignatius in the playoff rematch in Week 11. The talent on the 2023 team shouldn't have walked away with zero playoff wins, plain and simple.

The 2024 team has higher expectations. If you ask the coaching staff and players, they will say that the state championship is the goal. That is not an expectation unique to Mentor. And like many other programs that say the same thing, sometimes they say these things without having true faith that it is achievable. But, I think it is very reasonable for Mentor to optimistically build toward trying to compete to win Region 1 this year. After making four straight regional finals and winning three of them from 2017-2020, the Gray-led Mentor Cardinals have seen a significant slip. Two first round exits are sandwiched around a very solid 2022 playoff run. This is now year five under Coach Gray and I am of the belief that it is "put up or shut up" time. If the team loses to anyone other than St Edward in the Region 1 playoffs, this 2024 season will be a failure. And I don't know that Gray will make it to 2025 without showing the program is headed in the right direction. On paper, the offensive talent coming back is better than any in the area.

West Virginia-commit Scotty Fox returns for a 4th season as varsity starting QB. His 2023 stats and play took a step back from 2022, but overall he still played like one of the top QB's in the region. Fox earned 2nd Team All-Ohio recognition, which is a great accomplishment. His top two receivers return: Austin VanHuss (Class of 2025) and junior Justen Hodge (Class of 2026). VanHuss should continue to build on a solid junior season and be one of the top receivers in the GCC. Hodge, a player with a lot of DI college attention, is on his way to bigger offers. Cerny and Sierputowksi are returning receivers with experience and potential that should give Fox plenty of talented weapons to throw to. Hodge could end up being one of the top offensive players in the area. Blocking up front are two a pair of Class of 2026 lineman with DI offers: Landry Brede (a probable B10 lineman with tremendous size and potential) and JoJo LoDuca (6'3, 270). Fox took on a lot of the running game this past season. Mentor's "running back by committee" worked fine in 2023, but they will need something more consistent in 2024. The probable return of Mason Coughlin will help. The projected starter at running back for 2023 was injured the entire season. Jackson Farley, one of the three running backs that shared duties in 2023, did fine as a sophomore. He will bring some depth to the position with Coughlin. Mentor really needs to improve their running game to help take the necessary steps forward on offense.

Defensively, I am not sure what to expect. The first year under a new defensive coordinator Nick DeCesare was a good one. Mentor had to replace a ton of starters and defensive talent from the 2022 team. The 2023 defense stepped up and became the strength of a team you thought would be built on offense. The top returning starters are defense end Julian Solis, linebacker Caden Clair, and linebacker Spencer Barninger. The team's defensive identity was very much wrapped in the excellent play of a pair of safeties that were seniors. Replacing Markowski and Shelley will be incredibly difficult.

Kicker Dylan Tackett was an All-Ohio kind of talent that also returns.

On paper (depending on how the Week 3 game gets scheduled), this is a team that should have no less than 9 regular season wins. The St Ignatius game will be tough. Cleveland Heights has a Mr. Football candidate returning at running back in Davis. Splitting those games and winning the rest is my regular season prediction. Medina is likely taking a step back, but probably still will be a competitive team. The rest of the GCC should be no problem for Mentor. The September 20th game with Cleveland Heights is likely the league deciding game.

Schedule:
08/23 H Massillon Jackson
08/30 A Cleveland St. Ignatius
09/06 H Erie McDowell (PA)
09/13 A Medina
09/20 H Cleveland Heights
09/28 H River Rouge (MI)
10/04 A Shaker Heights
10/11 A Brunswick
10/18 H Strongsville
10/25 A Euclid
 
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Great summary and I agree with all of it. It's time for the team to take a big step forward in 24 especially on offense.

Gotta move St Ignatius to the non weeks 1-3 to make scheduling more flexible. I think and hope they are working on that
 
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The 2023 season didn't meet expectations. The regular season wasn't terribly bad, but losing in the way they did to St Ignatius and Riverside left a poor taste in the mouth of everyone involved and the Mentor supporters who were watching. Mentor did play better in Weeks 4-10, but then the offense laid an egg against St Ignatius in the playoff rematch in Week 11. The talent on the 2023 team shouldn't have walked away with zero playoff wins, plain and simple.

The 2024 team has higher expectations. If you ask the coaching staff and players, they will say that the state championship is the goal. That is not an expectation unique to Mentor. And like many other programs that say the same thing, sometimes they say these things without having true faith that it is achievable. But, I think it is very reasonable for Mentor to optimistically build toward trying to compete to win Region 1 this year. After making four straight regional finals and winning three of them from 2017-2020, the Gray-led Mentor Cardinals have seen a significant slip. Two first round exits are sandwiched around a very solid 2022 playoff run. This is now year five under Coach Gray and I am of the belief that it is "put up or shut up" time. If the team loses to anyone other than St Edward in the Region 1 playoffs, this 2024 season will be a failure. And I don't know that Gray will make it to 2025 without showing the program is headed in the right direction. On paper, the offensive talent coming back is better than any in the area.

West Virginia-commit Scotty Fox returns for a 4th season as varsity starting QB. His 2023 stats and play took a step back from 2022, but overall he still played like one of the top QB's in the region. Fox earned 2nd Team All-Ohio recognition, which is a great accomplishment. His top two receivers return: Austin VanHuss (Class of 2025) and junior Justen Hodge (Class of 2026). VanHuss should continue to build on a solid junior season and be one of the top receivers in the GCC. Hodge, a player with a lot of DI college attention, is on his way to bigger offers. Cerny and Sierputowksi are returning receivers with experience and potential that should give Fox plenty of talented weapons to throw to. Hodge could end up being one of the top offensive players in the area. Blocking up front are two a pair of Class of 2026 lineman with DI offers: Landry Brede (a probable B10 lineman with tremendous size and potential) and JoJo LoDuca (6'3, 270). Fox took on a lot of the running game this past season. Mentor's "running back by committee" worked fine in 2023, but they will need something more consistent in 2024. The probable return of Mason Coughlin will help. The projected starter at running back for 2023 was injured the entire season. Jackson Farley, one of the three running backs that shared duties in 2023, did fine as a sophomore. He will bring some depth to the position with Coughlin. Mentor really needs to improve their running game to help take the necessary steps forward on offense.

Defensively, I am not sure what to expect. The first year under a new defensive coordinator Nick DeCesare was a good one. Mentor had to replace a ton of starters and defensive talent from the 2022 team. The 2023 defense stepped up and became the strength of a team you thought would be built on offense. The top returning starters are defense end Julian Solis, linebacker Caden Clair, and linebacker Spencer Barninger. The team's defensive identity was very much wrapped in the excellent play of a pair of safeties that were seniors. Replacing Markowski and Shelley will be incredibly difficult.

Kicker Dylan Tackett was an All-Ohio kind of talent that also returns.

On paper (depending on how the Week 3 game gets scheduled), this is a team that should have no less than 9 regular season wins. The St Ignatius game will be tough. Cleveland Heights has a Mr. Football candidate returning at running back in Davis. Splitting those games and winning the rest is my regular season prediction. Medina is likely taking a step back, but probably still will be a competitive team. The rest of the GCC should be no problem for Mentor. The September 20th game with Cleveland Heights is likely the league deciding game.

Schedule:
08/23 H Massillon Jackson
08/30 A Cleveland St. Ignatius
09/06 OPEN
09/13 A Medina
09/20 H Cleveland Heights
09/27 A River Rouge (MI)
10/04 A Shaker Heights
10/11 A Brunswick
10/18 H Strongsville
10/25 A Euclid
Just wondering what makes you think the St. Ignatius game will be tough? They just the presumed starter at QB, Mentor beats St. Ignatius and loses to Cleveland Heights.
 
Just wondering what makes you think the St. Ignatius game will be tough? They just the presumed starter at QB, Mentor beats St. Ignatius and loses to Cleveland Heights.
Mentor went 0-2 against Ignatius this year. The Wildcats were injured and young. They should be better in 2024.
 
After reading 2023 Mentor and now 2024, I'm amazed the crap Coach Gray had taken.

Coach Triv's 1st 5 years, he went 30-22, with 2 Playoff appearances; both losses

Gray's 1st 4 years, he's 30-16, 4 Playoff Appearances, 6 Playoff wins, and a Regional Title.

What am I missing? Cardinal fans too spoiled?
 
After reading 2023 Mentor and now 2024, I'm amazed the crap Coach Gray had taken.

Coach Triv's 1st 5 years, he went 30-22, with 2 Playoff appearances; both losses

Gray's 1st 4 years, he's 30-16, 4 Playoff Appearances, 6 Playoff wins, and a Regional Title.

What am I missing? Cardinal fans too spoiled?
Lake County expectations 🤘🏽
 
After reading 2023 Mentor and now 2024, I'm amazed the crap Coach Gray had taken.

Coach Triv's 1st 5 years, he went 30-22, with 2 Playoff appearances; both losses

Gray's 1st 4 years, he's 30-16, 4 Playoff Appearances, 6 Playoff wins, and a Regional Title.

What am I missing? Cardinal fans too spoiled?
You're missing a lot to say the least

Triv took over a program that was mediocre for decades and built it

Gray took over in 2020 a team that made the state title game in 19 returning a senior class led by all Ohio QB Ian kipp. Alot easier to win with that. That first year with trivs built team was the 3 playoff win and regional title you referenced

2 of the last 3 years Mentor has lost in the first round of an expanded playoffs. Program has taken many steps back.

The Medina win in 22 was nice. The other two were weak competition which will happen when you expand the playoff to include basically everyone in the region . Triv never had that built in shot to win more early in the playoffs vs bad teams.
 
Who is replacing Riverside for week 3? I thought that had the makings of a great brewing rivalry.
 
After reading 2023 Mentor and now 2024, I'm amazed the crap Coach Gray had taken.

Coach Triv's 1st 5 years, he went 30-22, with 2 Playoff appearances; both losses

Gray's 1st 4 years, he's 30-16, 4 Playoff Appearances, 6 Playoff wins, and a Regional Title.

What am I missing? Cardinal fans too spoiled?
Gray reminds me of what Harbaugh said about Ryan Day. You know, starting on 3rd base. Like MG02 said, Gray was given a huge advantage compared to Triv’s start in the 90s. Gray has had some positive things during his time. All things considered, 2020 was an awful year to start. And they overcame a lot of stuff that season. A win over Drew Allar was impressive. Then to make it a competitive semifinal without Kipp was amazing. 2022 had another nice playoff win against Medina. I’m not going to say it’s all bad. But has it been good enough considering what was left to him? No. Even Gray would have to admit the program is not at the level he intended it to be when he took over.

Are Mentor fans “spoiled?” I guess, maybe so. But that doesn’t mean that the program should settle for “almost good enough” just because Triv set too high of a standard in your eyes.

Offensively, the area of the team Gray has ran for many years now, the team has taken steps back. That goes back to Gray’s days as OC too. Offense was the let down in the 2018 regional final, 2019 state semifinal, and the shortcomings of 2022 and 2023. While the Triv era was a failure on defense, most of the Gray era (OC and head coach) we have seen the offense be a let down.

Talent on offense has been there. Kipp, Snow, Fox at QB. All-Ohio type talent at receiver and RB like Floriea, Trobel, Harper, Norwood, Stapleton, Snow, and now Hodge.

Behind four offensive players that have D1 offers as well as a few other nice HS skill players (VanHuss, Cerny, Sierputowski, and Coughlin), no more time for excuses. The 2024 offense should be top 5 in the state. If they’re not, the buck stops with Gray. The talent is there.

Maybe that’s harsh for a man that gives his all to the coaching gig that pays peanuts relative to the hours he commits. But in big time HS football, things can be a little harsh at times. Expectations are too high to settle.
 
Before I get my red marker and write "F", to the 2 Mentor who quoted me, take a look at your win-loss history from this site. Also, pay special attention to each Coach who had at least 5 years, then look at 1st 5.

A little hint: "Mentor was mediocre for decades before Triv" is borderline laughable. Face it, you're spoiled little brats
 
I think the R1 gap will close a bit next year for sure. Mentor's offensive philosophy (throw the ball, a concept completely foreign at Eds) always works well against us if the talent gap is close. We've been blessed with 3 great teams in a row that made sure Mentor couldn't get into their explosive offensive rhythm that has made me miserable many times.

I always thought Gray did a good job coaching in the Eds games considering, but I really don't see enough Mentor football to make a judgement call on him. Sounds like this year is the year that you'll know if he's the guy or not.

I would like to see Mentor get back to where they were under the Triv regime. And also, I think Eds would be fine driving down 90 for a game if you guys want another home game in week 3.
 
Mentor should be better. I'm happy to hear St Eds won't have quite the same talent level as the past few seasons. We shall see. As for Week 3, I am not opposed to it once Mentor has exhausted every other reasonable option. The first hope is extending the Week 3 series with Riverside. If that doesn't work, I would be up for a home and home with Massillon. If no other team is willing and able to come to Mentor in Week 3, the Eagles should get a call. If Mentor can get the kind of deal that Massillon gets with St Eds (home only), sign me up. With six away games on the schedule, they really can't afford to get stuck with a seventh. If that means a home game with the Eagles, so be it.

As alluded earlier, Mentor should be moving St Ignatius to Week 6. Let's leave Weeks 1-3 open for some home and home series against area teams. I would love to see Lake Catholic back on the schedule in 2024.
 
In filling Week 3, according to the Yappi thread the following teams are open in Week 3 still: VASJ, Massillon, St Eds, Ursuline, Riverside, Lakeside, Barberton, Northmont, McKinley, Wayne

Assuming ALL of these teams wanted to schedule Mentor for a home and home (home at Mentor in 2024), here is how I would rank the desirability to schedule it:

1) Riverside: Local, likely win, biggest potential gate (although Massillon is right there). It checks off all of the boxes I am looking for.

2) Massillon: Mentor would be a slight underdog even at home in 2024 (likely a big underdog on the road in 2025), but it would be great to get the Tigers back on the schedule. Love going to PBTS.

3) McKinley: The series in 2021/2022 didn't go well for the Pups, but the next two years would be much more competitive. They bring very few people to games, but it is a solid measuring stick for Mentor while being pretty winnable.

4) VASJ: Their new stadium on the lake looks pretty cool. Rotsky is up for a challenge. No way they would be interested, but if so I would consider it. They have some talented athletes and wouldn't be a pushover.

5) Wayne: The distance is the only downside to me. There will be no gate compared to the teams above. But it would be a fresh matchup of two programs that have some similarities, both having gone 0-4 in state finals. I don't see myself going to Wayne in 2025, so as a fan who likes to actually watch these games I view that as the only negative.

6) St Eds: A likely competitive loss in 2024 followed by a certain loss in 2025. But still, a team willing to play you and a great measuring stick for what Mentor's goals in 2024 should be. The down side is if you catch the Eagles off guard and win the regular season game, it is to your disadvantage in a rematch if the past several years is any indication. The other down side is 2025 will go exactly like 2021 did. Ugly.

7) Ursuline: I don't really care about going to Youngstown, but Ursuline is a solid program that would give Mentor more of a challenge than VASJ.

If any of these programs are willing to agree to a one year (at Mentor) contract, their desirability moves up one or two slots from where I currently place them.
 
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Mentor should be better. I'm happy to hear St Eds won't have quite the same talent level as the past few seasons. We shall see. As for Week 3, I am not opposed to it once Mentor has exhausted every other reasonable option. The first hope is extending the Week 3 series with Riverside. If that doesn't work, I would be up for a home and home with Massillon. If no other team is willing and able to come to Mentor in Week 3, the Eagles should get a call. If Mentor can get the kind of deal that Massillon gets with St Eds (home only), sign me up. With six away games on the schedule, they really can't afford to get stuck with a seventh. If that means a home game with the Eagles, so be it.

As alluded earlier, Mentor should be moving St Ignatius to Week 6. Let's leave Weeks 1-3 open for some home and home series against area teams. I would love to see Lake Catholic back on the schedule in 2024.
LC won’t play Walsh Jesuit anymore. You do realize Lake is a Division V school enrollment wise.

If you want to play a smaller school one week of the season, I would call Kirtland. It would be a much better game for Mentor.
 
Mentor should be better. I'm happy to hear St Eds won't have quite the same talent level as the past few seasons. We shall see. As for Week 3, I am not opposed to it once Mentor has exhausted every other reasonable option. The first hope is extending the Week 3 series with Riverside. If that doesn't work, I would be up for a home and home with Massillon. If no other team is willing and able to come to Mentor in Week 3, the Eagles should get a call. If Mentor can get the kind of deal that Massillon gets with St Eds (home only), sign me up. With six away games on the schedule, they really can't afford to get stuck with a seventh. If that means a home game with the Eagles, so be it.

As alluded earlier, Mentor should be moving St Ignatius to Week 6. Let's leave Weeks 1-3 open for some home and home series against area teams. I would love to see Lake Catholic back on the schedule in 2024.
Lake Catholic dropped Mentor in basketball where literally every team in every division makes the playoffs. Last minute so we only have 21 games scheduled now ..

They aren't going to play Mentor in football
 
LC won’t play Walsh Jesuit anymore. You do realize Lake is a Division V school enrollment wise.

If you want to play a smaller school one week of the season, I would call Kirtland. It would be a much better game for Mentor.
It is quite an enrollment disparity, but I look at it as a game that could be about more than just the final score. 2024 would be a matchup problem for Lake. But after that, it wouldn’t be a blowout unless Lake is really down.

Mentor/Kirtland would be very interesting in some years but it’s a lose/lose situation for Mentor. I know that doesn’t make sense when I say I want to see Lake on the schedule again but not Kirtland, but at least there is some precedent in history and rivalry. The gate would be tremendous in both matchups. But in Lake Catholic’s case, at least they could split the gate with Mentor.

Lake Catholic has no real reason to play Mentor other than in this expanded playoff era, what’s one loss? And the environment and attendance would make it pretty memorable. They don’t owe Mentor a game. But I wish it could happen.
 
We can make a run this year if everyone stays healthy. Coughlin back , Farley and Dominic burns both very solid RB’s as Jr’s with a solid line. Some of these Sr. linemen that didn’t play this year will be solid, Ben McWilliams comes to mind as a super solid guard/center replacement.

Wr’s will be super scary, all seniors, Hodge with a ton of offers , I am hearing VanHuss may be getting DI offers in the off season (I know he is meeting with a lot of DI schools ) , if that is true when was the last time Mentor had an offense with 5 DI prospects on it? I don’t know if that ever happened ? Maybe I’m wrong.

Defense front 7 will be very good IMHO. I’m a little nervous about secondary this year but there are some athletes that may see some movement from the offense to the defensive side that will help. This should be a good season.

Only 3 home games sucks though for sure.
 
Wr’s will be super scary, all seniors, Hodge with a ton of offers , I am hearing VanHuss may be getting DI offers in the off season (I know he is meeting with a lot of DI schools ) , if that is true when was the last time Mentor had an offense with 5 DI prospects on it? I don’t know if that ever happened ? Maybe I’m wrong.

Defense front 7 will be very good IMHO. I’m a little nervous about secondary this year but there are some athletes that may see some movement from the offense to the defensive side that will help. This should be a good season.

Only 3 home games sucks though for sure.
Offensively, Mentor had four D1 on offense in 2012 (Trubisky, Fritts, Krizancic, Daugherty) and 2018 (Kipp, Floriea, Jacoby, Samac). Even if “5 is better than 4” with a 5th D1 player we know the talent isn’t at those 2012 or 2018 levels. The linemen in 2018 were tremendous. Fritts, Floriea, Daugherty, and Krizancic might be the four best receivers in program history in no particular order. Trubisky and Kipp’s resumes speak for themselves. Fox hasn’t put together a HS season (yet) near what they did.

Hopefully the front seven on defense is just as good or better than 2023. You will not get the kind of secondary play that we saw with Shelley, Markowski, and even Graham was a better than typical corner.
 
The big play has been the Achilles heal to Mentor over the years. Back end is super critical to them. It seems they improved defensively last year; was it personell or scheme? Or a bit of both?
 
Before I get my red marker and write "F", to the 2 Mentor who quoted me, take a look at your win-loss history from this site. Also, pay special attention to each Coach who had at least 5 years, then look at 1st 5.

A little hint: "Mentor was mediocre for decades before Triv" is borderline laughable. Face it, you're spoiled little brats
In the late 60's through early 70's -- Rick Galbos and Don Martin/Coach Dick Crum years -- Mentor was really good. I could easily be wrong, but it seem to my feeble memory that the gap from around then to the Triv years after he got established, were rather lean. Gosh, from "The Class" in 2003 until he retired, it's remarkable what Triv accomplished. He and Mike Elder at Avon are all too similar, right on down to the heartbreak endings.

The Gray years remind me that -- among plenty of other recent examples -- it's really hard to follow a legend.
 
In the late 60's through early 70's -- Rick Galbos and Don Martin/Coach Dick Crum years -- Mentor was really good. I could easily be wrong, but it seem to my feeble memory that the gap from around then to the Triv years after he got established, were rather lean. Gosh, from "The Class" in 2003 until he retired, it's remarkable what Triv accomplished. He and Mike Elder at Avon are all too similar, right on down to the heartbreak endings.

The Gray years remind me that -- among plenty of other recent examples -- it's really hard to follow a legend.
Triv's program really took off when he installed the no huddle spread offense in 2002. The other big change that Triv instituted was building the youth football and middle school football programs and getting those kids to continue to Mentor High School. Before that, Lake Catholic was taking a good portion of the top athletes from Mentor's middle schools. Triv hasn't dominated quite as much as Lee Tressel and Dick Crum, but he faced stiffer competition. Here are the Mentor coaching records (Gray's record was before his loss to Iggy in the playoffs this year):

1703785498396.png
 
Triv's program really took off when he installed the no huddle spread offense in 2002. The other big change that Triv instituted was building the youth football and middle school football programs and getting those kids to continue to Mentor High School. Before that, Lake Catholic was taking a good portion of the top athletes from Mentor's middle schools. Triv hasn't dominated quite as much as Lee Tressel and Dick Crum, but he faced stiffer competition. Here are the Mentor coaching records (Gray's record was before his loss to Iggy in the playoffs this year):

View attachment 52067
Yes, very true. When Triv embraced the offense led by offensive coordinator Don Andersen (RIP), the program really took off. Between Triv, Anderson, and legendary QB Coach Janiak - the trio helped lead Mentor to where they got. The defensive talent and focus of the 2002/2003 teams was mostly absent over the final 15 years of Triv's time. That lack of defensive focus certainly cost Triv and Mentor multiple state championships.

Tressel and Crum were legends in their time as well! For as bad as I assumed the 80's and 90's generally were, Kerschbaum had a very respectable winning percentage. Given, the schedule of those days wasn't very daunting. But still, not too bad.
 
You did before

To be the best, play the best. Plus, Ed may regress from past 3 years
Mentor doesn't need to play two mini colleges. You can research Eds schedule the last 15 years and see how many times each public school has scheduled them. Mentor is high on the list. Your school doesn't schedule private schools

So tell your school to schedule them and worry about your own program. Completely disingenuous to act like Mentor needs both Cleveland big school privates on their schedule when your school avoids them and others

Other D1 publics can take their turn. And your school can schedule them or schools like Hoban and TCC if you want to run your mouth
 
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Mentor doesn't need to play two mini colleges. You can research Eds schedule the last 15 years and see how many times each public school has scheduled them. Mentor is high on the list. Your school doesn't schedule private schools

So tell your school to schedule them and worry about your own program. Completely disingenuous to act like Mentor needs both Cleveland big school privates on their schedule when your school avoids them and others

Other D1 publics can take their turn. And your school can schedule them or schools like Hoban and TCC if you want to run your mouth
You consider the current version of St. Ignatius a mini college? IMO you’re vastly overrating them, their offensive scheme and OL was atrocious last season and doesn’t look like it will be much better next season.
 
You consider the current version of St. Ignatius a mini college? IMO you’re vastly overrating them, their offensive scheme and OL was atrocious last season and doesn’t look like it will be much better next season.
Just because they aren't recruiting as well or coaching as well doesn't mean they don't pull from all over like a mini college

Unless your school schedules them or privates like them closer to your division....don't tell Mentor fans we need to schedule BOTH of them
 
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