Six Akron-area high school football teams are one win from a regional championship game, and all six will play their Ohio High School Athletic Association regional semifinals at 7 p.m. on Friday, November 13, according to the pairings published by the Akron Beacon Journal.
The six survivors — Hudson, Highland, Nordonia, Walsh Jesuit, Streetsboro and Mogadore — each won on Friday, November 6, to reach the third round of the OHSAA playoffs, the Beacon Journal reported. The headline matchup is an all-local one: in Division II, Region 5, No. 3 Nordonia (10-1) travels to No. 2 Walsh Jesuit (8-2), guaranteeing the Akron area at least one team in a regional final.
Walsh Jesuit earned its spot with the area’s most emphatic statement of the second round, intercepting Hoban four times in a 20-7 win that avenged a regular-season loss to its archrival. Nordonia kept pace on the other side of the bracket, as Fakult and Jackson led the Knights past Eastlake North 37-21. Friday’s meeting at Walsh Jesuit is a rematch of programs that know each other well, with a regional final berth — and local bragging rights — on the line.
The other Division II, Region 5 semifinal sends unbeaten No. 4 Mayfield (11-0) to No. 1 Highland (10-1) in Medina County. Highland’s defense has carried the Hornets through the first two rounds, most recently swarming Brecksville in a 31-7 win despite an injury to Wadle. Mayfield, at 11-0, is the only unbeaten team left in the region, and something has to give in Medina on Friday night.
In Division I, Region 1, No. 5 Hudson (9-3) takes the longest road trip of the group, visiting No. 1 Lakewood St. Edward (10-1). Hudson reached this round by routing Jackson 44-14 for the second time this season, and the Explorers’ reward is a date with the region’s top seed and one of the state’s perennial powers on its home field in Lakewood.
Portage County carries two of the area’s hopes. In Division IV, Region 13, No. 5 West Geauga (10-2) visits No. 1 Streetsboro (9-2), which has home-field advantage as the region’s top seed. In Division VII, Region 25, No. 3 Mogadore (9-2) — one of Ohio’s storied small-school programs — travels to No. 2 Cuyahoga Heights (10-1) with a regional final trip at stake, according to the Beacon Journal’s pairings.
The regional semifinal round is where the OHSAA bracket tightens into its familiar shape: 16 teams remain in each division statewide, every game is a rematch, a rivalry or a heavyweight pairing, and there are no weak opponents left. All five of the area’s games kick off at 7 p.m. Friday, per the Beacon Journal, which means scoreboard-watching across Summit, Medina and Portage counties will run late into the night.
The road here ran through two Fridays. The OHSAA playoffs opened in late October, the area’s contenders thinned out through the second round on November 6, and the regional semifinals are the last round played at the higher seed’s home field — from the regional finals on, the OHSAA moves games to neutral sites, and the state finals are played at Tom Benson Hall of Fame Stadium in Canton, the building every remaining team is ultimately aiming for.
That neutral-site reality shapes Friday’s stakes differently for each local team. Highland, Walsh Jesuit and Streetsboro defend home fields as higher seeds this week knowing a win sends them to a neutral-site final, while Hudson and Mogadore have to win on the road just to keep their seasons alive. Home field in the regional semifinal is the last advantage the bracket hands out, and the area’s three hosts all earned it across an 11-week regular season and two playoff rounds.
For the players, the stakes are simple to state and hard to reach. Win Friday and the season extends to a regional championship game on Friday, November 20, one step from the state semifinals and two from the state finals in Canton. Lose, and for the seniors on each roster, Friday night is the last time they wear their school’s uniform.
What happens next: all six Akron-area teams kick off at 7 p.m. on Friday, November 13 — Hudson at Lakewood St. Edward, Mayfield at Highland, Nordonia at Walsh Jesuit, West Geauga at Streetsboro and Mogadore at Cuyahoga Heights. NewsForce247 will have results from all five games Friday night.
Photo: Engineerchange, CC BY-SA 4.0