Banner season by Chardon, Kenston baseball is 2022 area's top story | High school sports year in review
Dec. 25—Memories.
Legendary memories time-stamped for eternity.
That would be a good way to sum up the 2022 high school sports season in The News-Herald area.
The sports staff put their collective heads together last week to discuss the previous year's accomplishments across the area, and what a trip down memory lane it was.
The staff voted on the Top 10 prep sports stories of the year. How great of a year was it? Fifteen topics received votes, and even the honorable mention list was so stellar they might have been Top 10 in other years.
But this year? Well, 2022 was extraordinary.
It starts with an unforgettable baseball season with Chardon and Kenston — the third- and fourth-place teams in the Western Reserve Conference — taking the state baseball tournament by storm, with Chardon winning the Division II title and Kenston advancing to the final four.
From there, the NDCL and Lake Catholic volleyball teams showed how dominant area volleyball is with state titles this past fall, Richmond Heights winning a boys basketball state title WITHOUT its best player, Gilmour's thrilling state hockey title and Lake Catholic's Brendan McCrone getting that elusive state wrestling title his senior year.
The list of greatness goes on and on.
So let's take a look at each in the top 10:
1. A baseball season for the ages (Three first-place votes, 45 total points)
Two young teams that weren't 100% sure of what they had when they came into the season.
After a season of WRC teams beating up on each other, Chardon and Kenston put themselves in position to make deep postseason runs.
Both teams built themselves around pitching, which allowed for the batters to find where they could get a hold of opponents' pitchers. Kenston saw that on full display when it had an extra inning, walk-off three-run home run to win the district title over South.
Following upsets of North Royalton and Walsh Jesuit, the Bombers made the trip to Canal Park. A sacrifice fly by LA Mighton allowed Carter Flynn to advance to third and a balk brought the tying run across in the fifth inning.
Jake Vasil recovered from a two-run first and kept Sylvania Northview off the board until one pitch got away and the Wildcats stunned the Bombers in the state semis.
Chardon had to battle to earn its first state title in school history. The Hilltoppers sprung five-run sixth innings on both Bishop Hartley and Hoban to take the state title.
Nolan Kirsh threw six strong innings in the semifinal and the rally against Bishop Hartley began with a Leo Colombi triple to right. In the final, Jake Barker answered the call with a two-run single to left that gave the Hilltoppers the lead for good.
Two teams that came into the season saying "all we need is a shot" are now thinking 'what's going to stop us from doing it again?'
2. NDCL and Lake Catholic win state volleyball titles (two first-place votes, 43 total points)
One a tale of destiny, the other a tale of revenge.
It felt like Lake Catholic was a year ahead of schedule a season ago when the Cougars reached the state semis. But they took those lessons to a new division and started the season as the favorite.
All season, the Cougars dropped just 11 sets, only one of which was in the postseason. A sweep of Coldwater in the state final meant they can finally fill in the open spot on the walls of their gym.
They also have their setter, four leading attackers and three of their top four defenders returning for 2023.
The past two seasons have left a sour taste in NDCL's mouth. The Lions came up short in the state title game in 2020 and were knocked out in the regional semifinals in 2021.
With one last shot at a state title for Caroline Jurevicius, she wasn't going to let the Lions down. Outside of a set against Holy Name, NDCL swept through to the state final and were set for a familiar face, Gilmour.
The same opposition from their 2020 campaign, this time the Lions made sure to finish the job and a Jurevicius kill gave the Lions their third state volleyball title in school history.
They say iron sharpens iron and when these two meet twice a season, that is on full display.
3. Richmond Heights wins its first boys basketball state title (39)
The brass ring is one of the most elusive things in sports. Nobody can attest to that more than Richmond Heights boys basketball and recent history.
In 2019, Crestview wouldn't be denied. In 2020, COVID-19 put their season to a halt. In 2021, Botkins was the only one to slow them down.
In 2022, the Spartans left nothing to chance. Even when their leader, Josiah Harris went down with an injury, the Spartans wouldn't be denied. Jaiden Cox-Holloway and London Maiden stepped up to handle the challenge.
Holloway led the way with 18 points, Maiden had eight boards, Detric Hearst had 10 when thrust into the lineup and both De'Erick Barber and Dorian Jones held down the defense.
When the final buzzer sounded, the party was on for the boys on Richmond Road. It's still unclear if Harris has stopped smiling from raising that trophy.
The only thing that can make winning one title better? Adding another to the collection.
4. Gilmour wins its first state hockey title in triple overtime (35)
Gilmour had made two prior trips to the frozen four in Columbus in 2008 and 2011 — and it would have been three had the novel coronavirus pandemic not ended the tournament before the state level in 2020.
There was no hardware to show for it.
Now there is.
Gilmour captured an elusive first state hockey championship in program history with a memorable postseason charge.
It essentially started with a triple-overtime survival in a Kent District semifinal against Walsh Jesuit. Then came a 2-0 grind over Mentor in the Kent District final.
To begin the frozen four, the all-Cleveland semifinal was up in the rotation, which meant a showdown with St. Edward. In truth on paper, the Eagles came into that matchup at Nationwide Arena favored.
But Coach John Malloy's Lancers slowed the tempo effectively, goaltender Ian Anderson was electric in recording the shutout and Gilmour won, 2-0.
The job, of course, was far from done, with Toledo St. Francis on tap in the state final.
The Lancers were down, 1-0, deep into the third period until Justin Wen's goal to force overtime. Then another OT. And then another.
Finally, Matt Bauman's goal with 1:53 left in triple OT gave Gilmour a 2-1 win and, finally, a state crown.
"It's so surreal, but also we knew it was a possibility," Malloy said postgame. "This was a special group. We don't have a superstar on the team. If you look at the stats, it's just guys banging away, doing the best they can."
5. Lake Catholic's Brendan McCrone wins a state title in wrestling and signs with Ohio State (30)
The roar McCrone let out after he pinned Steubenville's Brody Saccoccia for the Division II, 120-pound state title could probably be heard back at the corner of Reynolds and Bellflower.
The journey to the state title was a grueling one for McCrone. His sophomore trip to state was canceled by the coronavirus and his junior year ended with a heartbreaking loss in the title bout. But this time, McCrone (37-3) would not be denied. He led, 4-0, before wrapping Saccoccia in a cradle for the pin.
Upon hearing the slap on the mat to signify the pin, McCrone jumped to his feet and screamed, the longtime goal accomplished.
Not long after, McCrone committed to Ohio State on a wrestling scholarship.
"Since my freshman year, I made it my goal — I wanted to be state champion," he said. "Yeah, it's been worth the wait."
6. Riverside's football team has its best season in program history (17)
The Riverside football program is a long and storied one, but nothing in program history compares to what the Beavers accomplished in 2022.
Under the tutelage of Ohio's Division II co-coach of the year Dave Bors, the Beavers went 11-2, ran the table in the WRC with a spotless 6-0 record, ended Chardon's state-best (at the time) 31-game with a 21-7 win in Week 4 and advanced to the third round of the Division II, Region 5 playoffs for the first time in program history.
The Beavers lost two games by a total of three points, including a 7-6 defeat at the hands of Mentor in Week 3 and a 16-14 loss to Hudson in a regional semifinal. Among the marquee wins of the season was a thrilling 36-35 win over West Virginia powerhouse Martinsburg in early October.
Junior quarterback Mikey Maloney, one of many standouts on the team, led the way by throwing for 2,289 yards and 28 touchdowns, with another 677 yards and 15 scores on the ground — numbers that helped make him this year's Tony Fisher Award winner as the News-Herald football player of the year.
7. (tie) Madison's Maddie Moretti wins state titles in shot put and discus, young Kirtland football team finishes as state runner up, Hawken's boys 4×1 shatters record, wins state title (13)
—With the smallest (in numbers) senior class in Coach Tiger LaVerde's 17 years at the helm, Kirtland advanced to the Division VI state championship game, where the Hornets lost to fellow small-school state power Marion Local, 14-6.
Kirtland ran off 15 wins in a row and won the CVC Chagrin Division title. All 10 of the Hornets' regular-season wins came against schools in larger divisions.
Led by the powerful running attack of Rocco Alfieri and Tommy Gogolin and a stingy defense that allowed only 89 points all season long, the Hornets came up just short in the title game. But with a huge number of returners coming back, look out in 2023.
—In a banner year back at Ohio State for the state track and field meet, two highlights among many came in the form of Maddie Moretti's Division I throws sweep and Hawken's boys 4×100 going the distance in D-II with record-breaking precision.
Moretti, as a Madison senior, had shown promise from indoor season through outdoor for being a contender in shot put and discus. She got both in Columbus, with a 134-8 in discus and 44-6 1/2 in shot, becoming the first girls track and field state champion in school history and first News-Herald coverage area girls thrower to notch a throws sweep at state since 1995.
The Hawks' quartet of Dom Johnson, Christian Anderson, Andrew Bukovnik and Jordan Harrison never stopped making history from their 42.25 to break the all-time News-Herald coverage area record in 4×1 all the way to a state title push. The relay turned in a 41.66 at Ohio State and broke the D-II state record in the event at the Perry District with a 41.53.
It was the first boys relay state title for Hawken in track and field since 1982.
10. Beachwood boys 4×4 wins state title, breaks 42-year-old area record
Division II state track and field provided a wealth of memories with gold on a back half of the meet for the ages locally.
Hawken 4×1, NDCL's Brian Bates (800), Beaumont's 4×4 — and then Beachwood's boys 4×4.
The Bison relay of Braylen Eaton, Noah Saidel, Caleb Berns and David Steckner broke a 42-year-old News-Herald coverage area record as they won the D-II state title with a 3:17.62.
"It's just such a blessing," Berns said post-meet of Beachwood's first state title in a boys running event since 1973. "I mean, we worked so hard. Words don't even describe how hard we worked. We had our ups and downs. We just started dropping time, and when we got to 3:22, we were like, 'Man, we've really got this.' But this is a special group — Noah, David, Braylen. These are my brothers, and I would not want to do it with anyone else. It's just so special.
The all-time News-Herald coverage area boys 4×4 record coming into that weekend, in full disclosure, had been a point of controversy since area standards were first compiled in the mid-80s. It had been a 1980 North hand time that was never remotely broached for more than 40 years — and efforts to truly verify the time were impossible given the age of the record.
Honorable mention: Gilmour's basketball team finishes as Division II state runner-up (6), Madison announces it's leaving the WRC for the CVC (5), Mentor's Tai Malone long jumps 24 feet and high jumps 6-7 at district meet (5), Chardon's football team plays national schedule and goes 12-1 (2), Kenston girls cross country team's banner season (1).
