The Canton Central Catholic Crusaders thought their football season ended Friday night on the bus ride home from Youngstown. Less than 24 hours later, it was alive again: the Ohio High School Athletic Association ruled on Saturday, October 31, that Youngstown Liberty used an ineligible player in its first-round playoff win over Central and must forfeit the victory, The Repository reported.
The forfeit sends Central Catholic, of Perry Township in Stark County, into the second round of the Division V, Region 17 playoffs. The Crusaders will play at top-seeded Lake County Perry on Friday, November 6, according to The Repository.
Central head coach Jeff Lindesmith told The Repository the morning after the game began with an email from a concerned Liberty parent or booster saying an ineligible player had appeared in the game. Central contacted Liberty, said the email would be forwarded to the OHSAA, and the association investigated immediately, Lindesmith told The Repository.
Late that afternoon, OHSAA football administrator Beau Rugg delivered the news. Lindesmith told The Repository that Liberty’s athletic director had called the OHSAA and confirmed the school did play an ineligible player, turning the forfeit into a second chance for the Crusaders.
The reversal capped an emotional weekend, especially for Central’s seniors. Lindesmith told The Repository there were a lot of tears and hugs after Friday’s loss from players who believed they had worn a helmet for the last time, and that his captains spread the word to excited teammates once the ruling came down.
“You don’t get a second chance very often,” Lindesmith told The Repository. His staff spent Sunday morning in the film room preparing for Perry, and the Crusaders now get the one more game their coach asks his players to imagine — a real one, on the road, against the region’s top seed on Friday night.
For Liberty, the forfeit ends its postseason with a self-reported eligibility mistake — its athletic director’s call to the OHSAA is what confirmed the violation, according to Lindesmith’s account to The Repository. For Central, the week ahead is a compressed one: a full game plan for Lake County Perry, the region’s top seed, built in days rather than the usual week, with a trip to Lake County on Friday, November 6 for the second-round game.