2 weeks Ago By Sean Fitzgerald
There’s feeling it, and then there’s whatever Elyria Catholic’s Darrell Shumpert Jr. was feeling in the first half of their Week 2 home game against Mayfield on Aug. 30.
Shumpert Jr. hit paydirt three times in the first half, with strikes of 11 and 51 yards to Connor Petrus and a 97-yard catch-and-run by Connor Lattea. In spite of the Panthers having 14 penalties for 92 yards in the first half, Chase Farris’ squad looked to be in control.
Between the end of the first half and into the fourth quarter, Mayfield scored 26 unanswered points to tie the game with 8:27 to go – thanks to a Trent Merrell block on the point-after attempt – in a roller coaster no one saw coming. From a potential blowout to a nailbiter, Mayfield completed the comeback with Eddie Sanders’ five-yard rush with 3:45 remaining as Elyria Catholic collapsed late, 32-26. “It’s belief, man.
Our kids believed,” Mayfield coach Ross Bandiera’s voice filled with pride and emotion. “We never pointed fingers at each other. Our kids just believed and we had the ball inside the 10 (yard line) in the first half.
We made some plays, a bad call ...
all of that, those were tough plays and we just believed. We just believed and we kept fighting.” Already up 7-0 in the first quarter, a defensive pass interference on the next drive’s third down set up Petrus’s second trip to the end zone.
Shumpert dropped the ball drop straight into his hands and Petrus outraced the defensive back to a raucous applause. Mayfield had multiple chances in the red zone, with an incomplete pass on fourth-and-goal with about 5:30 to go in the opening half hurting the most. The very next play, Shumpert Jr.
hit Lattea, who motored down the field and broke through traffic to go up 20-0 following the extra point. While Mayfield’s AJ Rogers did get the Wildcats on the board with 11 seconds to go in the opening half, making it 26-6 at halftime, the Wildcats’ prior trip to the red zone ended with a Mikey Bates 93-yard pick-six. Yet the remarkable happened and with 8:27 to go, Rogers’ second rushing touchdown tied the game, and a Jon Harris blocked punt and recovery with roughly 6:30 left.
The Wildcats worked the clock down to 3:45, with Sanders plowing his way around the right edge for the go-ahead score. Eddie Sanders and AJ Rogers Chat @NHPreps @JKampf_NH @mpodo pic.twitter.
com/EBihe3tWII — Sean Fitzgerald (@fitzonsportsbsr) August 31, 2024 “We really just stayed together,” Eddie Sanders said. “We trusted our linemen, we trusted our coaches, we trusted everybody. In the huddle, we’re sitting there and talking to everybody about everything that was about to go down.
‘Yes, we’re about to get this.’ “We spoke it into existence. We really did.
” “It was really nothing. It was Mayfield football,” Rogers explained about any motivating factor in the hectic rally. “This is what we do.
We always stick together, and we know we can win. It doesn’t matter if we’re down 50 (points). We know we can win this game.
” There was a sense of disbelief from the Panthers players, as they let a winnable game slip through their fingers despite a great first half of offensive and defensive play. “Football is a game of momentum,” Farris stated. “We go out and we’re up, 26-0.
They scored at the end of the half, get the ball back and their first shot they end up scoring.” The Panthers are set to host Midview Sept. 6 in search of their first 2024 victory.
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