Sports
Mentor Cardinals Fall From Ranks of Unbeaten
Late field goal ends No. 1 Cardinals' streak heading into playoffs
For once, quarterback Mitch Trubisky met his match.
Twinsburg’s Jalen Washington threw for three touchdowns and 359 yards as the Tigers knocked off the previously unbeaten and No. 1 ranked Cardinals on a late field goal, 38-35, in the final regular-season matchup on Friday night at Tiger Stadium.
Mentor fell to 9-1 overall and 4-1 in the Northeast Ohio Conference Valley Division, while Twinsburg climbed to 7-3 and 4-1 in league play. Mentor finishes tied with Twinsburg and Solon for the league title.
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Trubisky threw for three touchdowns and had 271 yards passing for a team that ranked No. 1 in the Associated Press’ Division I state poll, first in the Plain Dealer Top 25 poll and first in the Division I, Region 1 computer playoff rankings.
Mentor will discover its playoff positioning either late Saturday night or early Sunday.
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Trubisky threw two of his three touchdown passes in the first quarter to Brandon Fritts for 3 yards and Connor Krizancic for 13 which were sandwiched around a 44-yard John Barton TD run for Twinsburg and a 14-7 lead.
But the Tigers exploded for four unanswered touchdowns in the second and third quarters.
Barton’s 5-yard TD run got Twinsburg off and running, and Washington threw his three passing scores in the sequence for a 35-14 Twinsburg lead.
Mentor made its move in the fourth quarter to tie the score. Trubisky had a 39-yard TD run and a 3-yard pass to Cameron Kavan. Warren Ashton’s 1-yard run completed the rally and knotted the score at 35, but Frank Candau's 22-yard field goal with 2:46 left proved to be the difference.
Mentor 14 0 0 21 35
Twinsburg 7 14 14 3 38
First Quarter
Mentor – Fritts 3 pass from Trubisky (Derezic kick)
Twinsburg – Barton 44 run (Candau kick)
Mentor – Krizancic 13 pass from Trubisky (Derezic kick)
Second Quarter
Twinsburg – Barton 5 run (Candau kick)
Twinsburg – Buckeye 14 pass from Washington (Candau kick)
Third Quarter
Twinsburg – Jones 30 pass from Washington (Candau kick)
Twinsburg – Jones 30 pass from Washington (Candau kick)
4th Quarter
Mentor – Trubisky 39 run (Derezic kick)
Mentor – Kavan 3 pass from Trubisky (Derezic kick)
Mentor – Ashton 1 run (Derezic kick)
Twinsburg – Candau 22 field goal