Tenth-seeded Archbishop Hoban went on the road Friday, Oct. 30, and knocked off No. 7 seed Cleveland Villa Angela-St. Joseph 38-7 in a Division I, Region 1 first-round playoff game, according to the Akron Beacon Journal.
The win sends the Knights into a rematch that has been circled since last November. Hoban advances to face No. 2 seed Walsh Jesuit (7-2) in the second round on Friday, Nov. 6, the Beacon Journal reported.
The Beacon Journal noted the recent history cuts both ways: Hoban beat the Warriors 30-0 in Week 6 this season, but the Knights have not forgotten a 35-7 loss to Walsh Jesuit that ended their season last year.
Hoban’s overall record made it a dangerous double-digit seed. The Knights entered the postseason at 4-6, a mark built against one of the state’s most demanding schedules, and Friday’s performance showed why seeding alone rarely tells the whole story in Region 1.
Friday’s result fit that pattern. A double-digit seed traveling to a higher seed’s field and winning by 31 points is the kind of result that reshapes a region’s bracket, and it came against a Villa Angela-St. Joseph team playing at home.
The Beacon Journal’s Akron-area recap credited Hoban’s return game and playmakers in the win, describing a night when the Knights controlled the game after the opening exchanges and never let the Vikings back within reach.
For Villa Angela-St. Joseph, the loss ends the season in the first round despite the home game and the higher seed.
What we know — and what we’re still waiting on
Confirmed: Hoban won 38-7 on Oct. 30 and plays at Walsh Jesuit on Nov. 6, per the Beacon Journal. What we are still waiting on is the full regional picture after the rest of Friday’s first-round games are certified by the OHSAA, including kickoff details for the second round.
The Hoban-Walsh Jesuit rematch is one of the headline games of the second round statewide. Hoban won the regular-season meeting 30-0, and Walsh Jesuit ended the Knights’ 2025 season — both facts will hang over the week of preparation.
More Ohio playoff coverage: Cardinal Mooney’s 47 unanswered points against Fairless and Hudson’s rout of Euclid behind six Lipinski touchdowns.
What happens next: Hoban travels to Walsh Jesuit on Friday, Nov. 6, with a regional semifinal berth on the line, while the rest of the Region 1 bracket sorts itself out this weekend.
The result also continued a strong opening night for the greater Akron area. The Beacon Journal reported that eight Akron-area teams played first-round games on Friday, Oct. 30, and five advanced, with Hudson, Wadsworth and Hoban all winning comfortably and Revere posting a shutout for its second postseason home victory ever.
That context matters for Hoban’s path. The Knights are not sneaking up on anyone — they are a program with recent state-championship pedigree playing its best football at the end of October, and the bracket now runs through a Walsh Jesuit team it has already beaten once this season.
For the second round statewide, all games kick off at 7 p.m. on Friday, Nov. 6, according to the Beacon Journal’s Akron-area schedule, which lists 11 greater Akron teams still playing in the second round after six local teams received first-round byes.
The road to the rematch — a short timeline
Week 6: Hoban shuts out Walsh Jesuit 30-0 in the regular season, per the Beacon Journal. Last November: Walsh Jesuit beat Hoban 35-7 to end the Knights’ season, a loss the Beacon Journal said Hoban has not forgotten. Friday, Oct. 30: Hoban wins 38-7 at Villa Angela-St. Joseph. Friday, Nov. 6: the rematch, at Walsh Jesuit, for a place in the regional semifinals.
What Friday also showed is how misleading a won-lost record can be in Ohio’s big-school brackets. Hoban played a schedule that left it 4-6 and seeded 10th, yet it outscored a 7-seed by 31 points on the road — the kind of performance that has made the Knights a program higher seeds prefer not to draw in the opening rounds, and one Walsh Jesuit will take seriously despite holding the higher seed and the home field on Nov. 6.
Photo: SilentMatt Psychedelic, CC BY-SA 4.0
[…] was one of five Akron-area winners on the first playoff night. Elsewhere in the region, Hoban rolled past Villa Angela-St. Joseph 38-7 to set up a Walsh Jesuit rematch, and Hudson routed Euclid 52-12 behind Hayden Lipinski’s six […]