TOLEDO, Ohio — Toledo Central Catholic waited an extra week to open its postseason, and the Fighting Irish made sure the wait was worth it. The top-seeded Irish rolled past eighth-seeded Avon Lake 35-7 on Friday night in a Division II, Region 6 regional quarterfinal, a final score confirmed by the Columbus Dispatch, the Mansfield News Journal and High School On SI.
Central Catholic improved to 9-2 with the win and advanced to the regional semifinals in its first season in Division II. Avon Lake, which reached the quarterfinal round with a 44-0 first-round win over Toledo Waite, finished its season 6-6.
The matchup, announced by the Ohio High School Athletic Association in its regional quarterfinal pairings, sent Avon Lake (6-5 entering the night) to Toledo to face a Central Catholic team that entered at 8-2 as the region’s No. 1 seed. BCSN previewed the game earlier in the week as the Irish’s playoff opener, noting Central Catholic was rested and ready after sitting out the tournament’s first round.
That rest showed. A 35-7 final against a Shoremen program that had just hung 44 points on Waite a week earlier was a statement that the Irish’s regular-season form — built against one of northwest Ohio’s most demanding schedules — travels well into November.
The step up in class is the backdrop to everything Central Catholic does this month. The Akron Beacon Journal, in its September coverage of the Irish, described Central Catholic as the reigning Division III state runner-up now competing in Division II, and the Irish spent the fall proving they belong in the bigger bracket — including an early-season road test at Walsh Jesuit, where they fell 38-25 in September before settling into the top seed in Region 6.
The Beacon Journal also identified running back Jeremiah Fuller as a Division I prospect leading the Irish offense this season, part of a program tradition that has made Central Catholic one of Ohio’s most consistent postseason winners. Programs do not earn the region’s top seed on reputation, though — they earn it in the regular season, and Friday’s 28-point win was the payoff.
Avon Lake’s run deserves its own note. The Shoremen opened the playoffs by blanking Waite 44-0, then drew the region’s top seed on the road in the quarterfinals. Their season ends at 6-6, with the knowledge that the gap to Region 6’s summit currently runs through Toledo.
Central Catholic was not the only Region 6 power flexing on Friday. Avon routed Rhodes 38-8 behind three touchdown passes, while elsewhere in northwest Ohio Perrysburg rolled past Westland 42-6 and Hilliard Darby stunned top-seeded Whitmer 24-21 in Toledo in Division I. The Region 6 bracket is now down to four teams, and the Irish remain the one everyone else has to chase.
The rest of the Region 6 bracket broke the way the seeds suggested. Avon beat Cleveland Rhodes 38-8 and Olmsted Falls edged Findlay 21-14 in Friday’s other quarterfinals, according to the Dispatch’s score list, so the regional semifinals pair the Irish with Oregon Clay on one side and Avon with Olmsted Falls on the other. It is a final four full of programs with recent deep-playoff experience — and Central Catholic is the only one of them carrying a top seed and a 28-point quarterfinal win into the round.
For Toledo, the result also kept a strong local postseason alive on a mixed night for the city. While Whitmer’s season ended in the Division I upset across town, the Irish gave Toledo a team still playing for a regional title, and in a month when northwest Ohio brackets have thinned quickly, that matters to the area’s football fans. Central Catholic’s home crowd has seen this before: the Irish are a fixture in the tournament’s later rounds, and Friday’s opener had the comfortable feel of a program that schedules its November around them.
What happens next comes quickly. Central Catholic meets Oregon Clay in a Division II, Region 6 semifinal on Friday, Nov. 13. Clay advanced with a 33-5 win over Fremont Ross in the quarterfinals, according to the Dispatch’s statewide score list, and will bring its own momentum into a matchup that decides a spot in the regional final on Nov. 20.
Win there, and the Irish would be one victory from a regional championship in their first Division II tournament — a run that would stand alongside the program’s long list of deep November finishes. Friday’s opener suggested this group intends to make exactly that kind of run.
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