Cuyahoga Heights blanked Mogadore 30-0 on Friday night, Nov. 13, at Ralph P. Adams Stadium in a Division VII, Region 25 semifinal, settling one of Ohio small-school football’s oldest playoff scores. The final score is listed in the Mansfield News Journal’s statewide regional-semifinal list, The Columbus Dispatch’s third-round scoreboard, the Akron Beacon Journal’s scoreboard and the Record-Courier’s game coverage.
For Cuyahoga Heights fans of a certain era, the Record-Courier reported, the win meant more than a regional-final berth. Mogadore was once Cuyahoga Heights’ greatest tormentor, including three consecutive regional championship game defeats from 2000 to 2002, and Wildcats postseason wins in 2005 and 2006 meant Mogadore ended four of six Cuyahoga Heights seasons in that span, the Record-Courier reported.
On a night played under a wintry mix, the Akron Beacon Journal reported, the game featured just 357 total yards, and every yard mattered. The Red Wolves put up 13 quick points on just 13 yards of offense, helped by a couple of early Mogadore miscues, the Beacon Journal reported.
The first miscue came on Mogadore’s opening possession. The Beacon Journal reported that the Red Wolves’ defense stuffed a first-down run to force third-and-long, and on third-and-11, a Maddox Smith pass to the far sideline hung in the air too long and Gus Tartara capitalized with a 50-yard pick-six. Cuyahoga Heights then forced a three-and-out, Mogadore fumbled the punt snap, and the Red Wolves took over at the Wildcats’ 13-yard line, the Beacon Journal reported.
Mogadore made Cuyahoga Heights fight for those 13 yards, the Beacon Journal reported, but Tartara struck again, taking an inside toss 11 yards to turn third-and-12 into a more manageable fourth-and-1, which Dustin Kraemer then converted. The Red Wolves led 30-0 entering the fourth quarter, the Record-Courier reported.
The defensive numbers tell the rest of the story. Cuyahoga Heights limited Mogadore to five first downs and 123 yards of offense, according to the Record-Courier — a shutout built on field position, turnovers and a defense that never let the Wildcats cross midfield with any consistency in the Record-Courier’s account.
The history between the programs runs deep on both sides. The Akron Beacon Journal’s pregame breakdown put Mogadore in its 40th postseason appearance with a 77-36 playoff record, and Cuyahoga Heights in its 29th appearance at 39-28. The teams last played in 2022, when Mogadore prevailed 41-10 in a regional semifinal at Twinsburg, the Record-Courier reported — which made Friday’s shutout the Red Wolves’ first playoff win in the series in at least two decades of trying.
Both teams came in off quarterfinal wins on Nov. 6: Cuyahoga Heights, the region’s No. 2 seed at 10-1, beat Dalton 23-8, while Mogadore, the No. 3 seed at 9-2, beat Ashtabula St. John 28-7, according to the Beacon Journal’s breakdown. What we know — and what we’re still waiting on: the 30-0 final and the defensive line above are confirmed across the Record-Courier and the Beacon Journal; the OHSAA’s neutral-site announcement for the regional finals arrives Sunday, Nov. 15.
Mogadore finishes its season 9-3. Cuyahoga Heights improves to 11-1 and reaches the Region 25 final — and does it against the program that haunted its postseasons a generation ago.
Friday was a good night for Northeast Ohio’s remaining small-school and suburban contenders alike: read our coverage of Nordonia’s 23-21 win over Walsh Jesuit and Highland’s 32-0 shutout of Mayfield, two more regional-final trips decided the same night.
Springfield’s path makes the final a meeting of two programs breaking new ground. The Tigers beat their Mahoning Valley Athletic Conference rivals from McDonald 27-7 on Friday, the Record-Courier reported, and McDonald, like Mogadore, played in last year’s Region 25 championship game — so neither of last year’s finalists will play for this year’s title. The OHSAA’s bracket calendar puts the state semifinals on Nov. 27 and the seven state championship games Dec. 3-5 at Tom Benson Hall of Fame Stadium in Canton, according to the association’s regional-semifinal pairings release, so Friday’s winner in Region 25 is two wins from a state final.
What happens next: Cuyahoga Heights meets New Middletown Springfield in the Division VII, Region 25 final on Friday, Nov. 20. Springfield beat McDonald 27-7 in the other Region 25 semifinal on Friday, according to the Record-Courier and the Mansfield News Journal’s statewide list, setting up, in the Record-Courier’s words, a battle of new blood in the title game, with both of last year’s finalists — Mogadore and McDonald — out. The OHSAA will announce the neutral site on Sunday, Nov. 15.
Photo: SilentMatt Psychedelic, CC BY-SA 4.0