PARMA, OH - The Saint Ignatius Wildcats (1-7) welcomed the Archbishop Moeller Crusaders (7-1) to town this Friday in the team's 14th overall meeting. This game would mark the Wildcats, return to Byers Field, a venue where they hold a 127-43-1 record all time.
The Crusaders, coming off a dominant 42-14 win over Elder to secure their third consecutive GCL South Championship, would prove to be a problem for the Wildcats all night. Moeller presents talent all around its roster, most notably junior quarterback Matt Ponatoski.
Ponatoski recently broke program records at Moeller, including the all-time passing yards record with 4,959 and the all-time passing touchdown record with 50. As if that isn't impressive enough, Ponatoski is also one of Ohio's top-ranked middle infield prospects for baseball. The rest of the offense features talent in wide receivers Matt Folger, Jovan Love, Carson Khayo, and Roman Mason.
The Moeller defense is led by a 6'6", 200-pound Northwestern commit linebacker, Jonah Hayes. Hayes came into the game with five tackles for loss and 2.5 sacks.
The Wildcats came into the game with significant gaps in their lineup. Saint Ignatius would face off without significant assets in Cody Haddad, Mike Van der Oord, James Conrad, and Dane Donovan. With Donovan out of the lineup, the Cats would start their third quarterback of the campaign in sophomore Anthony Anghilante. Anghilante and running back Owen Colwell would share the offensive snaps in the ball game.
Moeller won the coin toss and elected to defer possession to the second half, giving the Wildcats the football to start the game. The Cats started their drive hot, feeding senior running back Grant Washington as he picked up two explosive plays and a few first downs. The Cats would find themselves near mid-field and marching but quickly stalled as Colwell had the ball stripped, and Moeller's Griffin Daley would recover 48 seconds into the game.
It would not take long for Moeller to find their footing as Ponatoski found Khayo wide open across the middle of the field for an easy junior-to-junior connection for the Crusaders' first score. Moeller led the Cats 7-0 with 10:44 remaining in the first.
The Wildcats would go right back to Grant Washington on their next drive, where he was able to pick up a well-earned first down. On third and eight, after a fall start penalty backed the Cats up five, Anghilante delivered his first varsity completion after rolling out of the pocket and finding junior Luke Simms to move the sticks. The Cats' fresh set of downs was plagued with penalties, driving them back to a fourth and 25, and they were forced to punt.
Moeller's second drive began from their 37-yard line, and after only picking up four yards, they were forced to punt the rock away. The Cats' first and second down plays provided minimum yardage, and they were faced with another third down and long play that resulted in an incompletion, and the Cats yet again brought out the punt team.
The snap on the punt was over Schafer's head, and he elected to kick it out of the back of the endzone, resulting in a safety, making the score 9-0 Moeller with 4:17 left in the first quarter. The procedure of kicking the ball through the endzone, being illegal, resulted in an illegal touching penalty, making the kickoff following the safety slightly further into Cats territory.
On the kick, Chris Bradley brought it 73 yards to pay dirt, making it 16-0 Moeller with 4:05 left in the first quarter.
The rest of the half saw 21 Moeller points, all through the air, including two scores from Fogler with a 52-yard and 43-yard connection and a 12-yard pass to Sam Hamilton. The score at the half was 37-0 in a half that saw the Moeller offense firing on all cylinders.
The clock would run out of the half, per the OHSAA's point differential rule. This would benefit Moeller as their first drive ate up 10 minutes and 12 seconds, capped off by a Deacon Simmons rushing touchdown. The fourth quarter saw no score changes in what was a quick second half from Parma.
The final score was 44-0 Moeller, as they made a successful business trip up to Cleveland, taking care of the Wildcats and moving to 7-1 on the year. The Wildcats dropped their fifth straight game, with their last win coming in week three against Dublin Coffman.
The Cats will visit Cincinnati on Friday to take on the St. Xavier Bombers (5-3). The SIBN will have video coverage of the second annual Paul Lammermeier Memorial Game. Last season, the Bombers outlasted the Wildcats in overtime, coming away with a 21-14 win at Byers.
