The Canton McKinley Bulldogs travel to Mentor on Friday, Nov. 13, for a Division I, Region 1 regional semifinal that is a rematch of last year’s third-round game at the same stadium and the same stage of the playoffs, The Repository reported. No. 7 seed McKinley (9-3) faces No. 3 seed Mentor (9-2) at Jerome T. Osborne Senior Stadium, where the Cardinals stunned the Bulldogs 25-24 a year ago on a touchdown and 2-point conversion with 20 seconds left.
Mentor has ended McKinley’s season in the playoffs in each of the previous two years and in five of the past eight, according to The Repository. The Cardinals have won eight straight games in the series, dating to a run of four straight McKinley wins from 1994 through 1997, and McKinley has not advanced past the third round of the playoffs since 2006 — when it lost to Mentor in a state semifinal.
Second-year McKinley head coach Renzy Parnell told The Repository that Friday’s game is not about a mental hurdle against the Cardinals. “I don’t hear it from our kids,” Parnell said, in comments reported by The Repository. “I don’t sense it from our team. What I sense is last year. It’s all about, hey, they stopped us last year. We’ve got to get this one back.”
Many Bulldogs who played in last year’s game are back, including running back Kyelin West, who ran for 198 yards and a touchdown against Mentor as a sophomore, The Repository reported. West is a question mark for Friday because of a lower leg injury that has kept him out of the previous three games and most of the Week 9 loss to Jackson, and McKinley has had to learn to operate without its top player during that stretch.
McKinley earned the rematch the hard way. The Bulldogs went on the road last week and beat No. 2 seed Austintown Fitch 27-22, trailing 16-7 at halftime before scoring 20 points in the third quarter to rally for the win, according to The Repository. Fitch entered the night averaging 46.6 points per game and managed only one more offensive touchdown after an early score.
The rally started from an unlikely place. On the first play of the game, Fitch’s Deon’Dray Richard ripped off an 81-yard run that was stopped short of the end zone only by cornerback Chase Ivory’s chase-down tackle, and McKinley’s defense then held from the 3-yard line, according to The Repository. The Bulldogs trailed only 7-0 after the stand, and Parnell told The Repository he had a good feeling about his team’s fight from that moment on, even as Fitch added one more offensive touchdown the rest of the night.
The game nearly slipped away anyway. An illegal procedure penalty negated a game-sealing McKinley touchdown, and the Bulldogs had to survive a final Fitch drive that ended when sophomore linebacker Julius Jerels recorded a strip sack and senior defensive end Javier Moore recovered the fumble near midfield, The Repository reported. Parnell told The Repository his team was flagged 10 times for 70 yards and cannot afford the same mistakes on the road at Mentor.
Mentor, meanwhile, avenged a 56-30 loss to Strongsville in Week 7 by beating the Mustangs 45-14 last week. The Cardinals have scored at least 30 points in every game this season except for a 51-7 loss to St. Ignatius in Week 3, and The Repository noted their size and depth as the usual challenge for opponents.
The stakes extend beyond one rivalry game. A McKinley win would send the Bulldogs to a regional final for the first time in two decades and to double-figure wins for the first time since the 2006 team finished 12-2 under head coach Brian Cross, according to The Repository. The winner advances to the Region 1 final on Nov. 20 against the winner of Hudson at Lakewood St. Edward — part of a crowded Friday slate NewsForce247 surveyed in our rundown of Akron-area teams chasing regional finals.
Parnell’s message to his team, as reported by The Repository, centers on composure: avoid self-inflicted penalties, and when flags come anyway on the road, move on to the next play and keep battling — the same response McKinley showed after halftime at Fitch.
Kickoff is set for Friday night at Mentor. What happens next for the winner is a regional championship game on Nov. 20 at a neutral site, one win from the state semifinals — and, for McKinley, a chance to finally close a playoff chapter that Mentor has written for most of the past decade.
Photo: Engineerchange, CC BY-SA