COLUMBUS: Playing in their 29th postseason and eighth state final, Mogadore’s football team is a program steep in tradition.
The problem Friday in the Division VII final was the Wildcats were playing a team used to state-caliber games almost on a weekly basis.
Fort Recovery won its first state championship in its first appearance in a 33-14 win, but the Indians were used to the big-game atmosphere.
Fort Recovery (13-2) plays in the Midwest Athletic Conference. Fans of smaller division football know the MAC well.
It’s a conference that boasts 116 state championship titles with 30 coming in football. The league has two state titles in football this year and will go for a third when Maria Stein Marion Local seeks its fifth consecutive state crown against Kirtland in the Division VI game Saturday.
Fort Recovery became the seventh school in league history to win a title.
“In my opinion, we play in one of the toughest conferences in Ohio,” Indians quarterback Caleb Martin said. “In the regular season, we like to play each other. We like to sometimes beat up on each other, but we know that’s what makes us better and what prepares us for these type of games and atmospheres.”
It’s not that the Wildcats (13-2) have a soft schedule. With wins over six teams with winning records this season — five of them playoff teams — Mogadore’s resume is impressive.
Fort Recovery managed eight victories against schools with winning records with six coming against postseason teams.
The Indians’ only losses came to Division V state champion Coldwater, which has now won four titles in a row, and previously mentioned Marion Local.
Not bad for a school that had only two winning seasons before 2015 (6-4, 1994 and 7-5, 2014).
“The thing the MAC teams do well is they’re so cool and composed,” Mogadore coach Matt Adorni said. “They don’t make mistakes. They seem to play very machine-like.”
There is a state title win by Mogadore over the MAC, that coming in arguably one of the best state finals ever when the Wildcats went three overtimes in a 61-58 Division VI victory over St. Henry in 1996.
Since then, Mogadore has been outscored 150-21 by MAC teams in the title game, including 54-0 and 63-7 losses to Marion Local in the Division VI finals of 2000 and 2001.
Nothing will take away from the Wildcats’ first state final since they won it all in 2002, but this time, the Indians just got the better of them.
“For the young guys like Austin Williams, he’s the [Division VII] player of the year, he knows what it’s like,” Mogadore quarterback Zeddie Pollock said.
“He’ll bring the guys back. They know what it’s like to get here. They know what it takes.”