Ten years ago, Mitchell Trubisky and Mentor had comeback for the ages against St. Edward
Nov. 9—They all remember that night 10 years ago — Nov. 10, 2012 — at Byers Field in Parma.
Former Mentor coach Steve Trivisonno will never forget what he saw.
Neither will those — most notably former Mentor football standouts Mitchell Trubisky and Brandon Fritts — who made the improbable a reality for all involved with the Cardinals.
Even the losing side — led by former two-time state champion St. Edward coach Rick Finotti, most recently the head coach at John Carroll — will never forget that November night.
Some say it cemented Trubisky as a high school football legend in Northeast Ohio. A few weeks later — after another thrilling playoff victory over St. Ignatius — Trubisky was named Ohio's Mr. Football.
It was a game for the ages — some might say one of the best high school football playoff games in the history of Ohio — when Mentor played undefeated and No. 1-ranked St. Edward in a Division I regional semifinal Nov. 10, 2012, at Byers.
Midway through the third quarter, it looked like a St. Ed blowout. The score was 56-35 in favor of the Eagles. The Cardinals had a good run, many probably thought, but in reality it was likely see you next season. The thousands in attendance probably had no idea the game was far from over.
Mentor owned the fourth quarter, and when the scoreboard hit :00, it walked away 63-56 winners.
In the next day's sports section of The News-Herald, the lead of the game story read:
"Call it Bedlam at Byers. Or The Mentor Miracle. Whatever it was, it will go down in history."
Indeed it has. Ten years later, Trubisky said people still talk about that St. Edward game, as well as the win over Ignatius the following week.
As wild as Mentor's 57-56 triple-overtime regional final win over Ignatius was the following week, the magnitude of the comeback against No. 1-ranked St. Edward can't be understated.
The offensive numbers were staggering. There were 119 points scored in regulation with a combined 1,258 yards by both teams (726 by Mentor). Mentor had 44 first downs, St. Ed 32. The Cardinals had a ridiculous 34 plays of 10 yards or more.
Trubisky was a one-man wrecking ball. He was 36 of 48 for 476 yards and four touchdowns. Add in 25 carries for 102 rushing yards and two more scores. Fritts had 14 receptions for 242 yards and all four of Trubisky's TD passes.
"I think it was a stretch of his finest football," said Trivisonno, looking back at Trubisky's performances — not just against St. Ed but Ignatius too. "But not just at Mentor — anybody."
There was a little defense play too, at the most opportune time for the Cardinals.
Here's how Mentor's memorable comeback against St. Edward that still resonates played out:
The Cardinals entered 10-1 with their only loss a 48-21 setback to Ignatius at Byers. St. Edward mostly rolled through its 11 games — save a 20-13 win over rival Ignatius in the regular-season finale — en route to winning the Associated Press big-school poll title.
"It wasn't the most talented team we had," said Finotti, who won state titles with the Eagles in 2010 and 2014. "But it was the most-together team we had. The most-scrappy."
Outside of Mentor, few gave the Cardinals a chance.
"We didn't care what people were saying," said Trubisky, currently the backup QB for the Steelers. "We knew we were talented. We knew we were hard to stop on offense. We felt it could be a shootout and knew our defense could make big stops when we needed it to. Would we have drawn up being down 56-28 in (the second half)? We would not have drawn it up like that."
That's how it played out for two-and-a-half quarters. The Eagles led, 21-7 and 28-14 in the first half and took a 42-35 advantage into the break. The first half featured 14 possessions by the teams, and 11 TDs.
In the third quarter, St. Ed separated. Dwayne Aaron (22 carries, 149 yards) ran for three TDs in the quarter and it was 56-35 at one point until Trubisky, Fritts and Co. changed gears.
Mentor's defense, gashed for 56 points and 482 yards through three quarters, allowed 58 yards and zero points in the fourth quarters. That, perhaps more than Trubisky and Fritts' heroics, keyed the victory.
"We looked at the defense and said, 'We need one stop at a time.' " said Trivisonno. "The defense was lights out in the fourth quarter. That was really the difference."
On the other side, Finotti thought even with the big lead nothing felt safe.
"You look across the field, and you knew they had Trubisky and Fritts and all those guys," said Finotti. "Then you get caught up in play calling and you don't want to pass because you don't want to give the ball back to Trubisky. Those guys had weapons, and it was a big mismatch with Fritts on our cornerbacks."
Fritts wasn't the fastest receiver. But at 6-foot-3, Finotti admitted none of his top defensive backs had to size to shut down Trubisky's favorite target. So the QB kept throwing and throwing to his longtime friend dating to elementary school.
"You take that chemistry from elementary school, middle school, junior high and high school," said Trubisky of his connection with Fritts. "You're playing from more than just your city. You're playing for your brotherhood. In the fourth quarter, we just went back to the basics. Let's go play catch in the fourth quarter. They couldn't cover him. They couldn't stop us on offense."
Still, Fritts remembers being on one knee watching from the sidelines during the third and seeing the 56-35 score in the third quarter and thinking, "Oof ... That was the first time I'm thinking, 'I don't know. Will they put a 100 on us?
"From that moment though, we scored four times and our defense held them down," said Fritts, who lives in Austin, Texas, where he works for a software company.
With the defense doing its job, the Cardinals chipped away. Trailing 56-35, Trubisky scored on a 27-yard run late in the third quarter then again — this time on a Trubisky 2-yard run — and it was 56-49.
When Trubisky found Fritts for an 8-yard TD in the fourth to tie the score at 56, the reality of a comeback seemed real with momentum on the side of Mentor.
The Eagles were driving for the go-ahed score and had the ball at the Cardinals' 19 with 3 minutes, 33 second remaining in regulation but a stop by the D gave it back to Trubisky.
From there, the Mentor offensive train was a runaway with no stopping it. Eddie Daugherty ran for 17 yards on first, then on third-and-6 from Mentor's 41, Trubisky threw 38 yards to Fritts.
Two plays later, Fritts hauled in his fourth TD of the night in the corner of the end zone from 16 yards out with 33 seconds on the clock. Shortly after, Terrance Walton's interception of a Ryan Fallon pass at midfield clinched the win and set off a wild celebration.
"It was an all-world performance," said Trivisonno told The News-Herald, describing Trubisky in the postgame.
Said Fritts: "It was just our second playoff game, but it felt like we won the state championship."
Looking back, Finotti holds no hard feelings about the bitter loss. His nephew Jack O'Neil plays for the Cardinals and he's been to several games this fall, his first in a long time not coaching football. In a game such as the 63-56 loss to Mentor, he said there's no shame losing to a team led by the likes of Trubisky. Especially after seeing Trubisky and the Cardinals' performance the following week against St. Ignatius.
"To do what they did and us and Ignatius, that says a lot about Mitch and the rest of those guys in that program," said Finotti. "I think the world of them ... the epitome of high school football in Northeast Ohio."
Following the wins over St. Ed and Ignatius, Mentor played Toledo Whitmer in a Division I state semifinal and lost, 62-34. Frits suffered a hairline fracture in his ankle on the game's first series, and tried to play on it but was ineffective.
"I really believe if I were healthy, it would have been a different outcome," said Fritts.
That's up for debate. What's not up for debate is the impact that playoff run in November 2012 had on Mentor football and high school football in Northeast Ohio — especially a comeback for the ages that won't be soon forgotten.
