CLEVELAND — Mentor football head coach Matt Gray knows St. Edwards well, since they have a history in the playoffs.
“2012, 2013, 2015 2017, 2018, 2019 and then 2020 and the regular season as well too,” Gray said. "So we’ve had a great matchup with them in the playoffs, and they’ve been back and forth.”
Gray said the two teams had a four season agreement to meet in the regular season since they had a number of exciting playoff matchups. That ended last season. Gray said he expected to eventually run into St. Edward again.
“That’s the fun part of being in Region 1,” Gray said. “You know you’re gonna have to go through a gauntlet of Ed’s and Ignatius and Medina and all those type of schools where you know if you’re coming out of this region you’re battle tested and you’re not gonna be able to escape anybody.”
St. Edward beat longtime rival St. Ignatius last week, and now they’ll face Mentor in the Division 1 Regional final. The two teams have split their last four meetings in the regular season, with Mentor falling to St. Edward 47-7 last year in the regular season. Gray said they sometimes see classics in the series.
“2019 was an overtime game where we scored on the very last play,” Gray said. “Go for it on the two point conversion. So it’s just been two really good just big time heavyweight clashes against two really good programs.”
Gray is making sure his team knows who they’re playing against, and he’s expecting another battle Friday night in the cold.
“Its not gonna affect us,” Gray said to his team at the end of practice. “It’s not gonna phase us. We gotta show up and do our job. Doing your job at a high level no matter the circumstances.”
