Ohio Highschool Football’s “The Game”
With the Ohio high school version of College Football’s, “The Game” coming up on the schedule for Moeller, the team on North Bend Road hosts the 72nd matchup between the two schools. Going into this year’s game, Moeller is 46-24-1 riding a 4 game win streak over the past two years. Undoubtedly, this is one of, if not the biggest, rivalry game in the state. However, going on the road to North Bend, can arguably be one of the toughest environments in Ohio high school football, with the stadium sitting around 7,500 people. But a win here would not only keep the win streak between the two to five in a row for Moeller, but it would start GCL play with a crucial 1-0 start.
Going into this matchup, Moeller’s offensive scheme suits up well for this matchup. So far, Moeller’s air raid offense has been matching up well against opponents this year, outscoring opponents by 70 across the first three games heading into week four against Mallard Creek. The offense is led by quarterback Matt Ponatowski 26’, receivers Jovan Love 25’, Matthew Fogler 25’, Roman Mason 25’, tight ends Sam Hamilton 26’, and Cooper McCutchen 26’, along with an experienced senior O-Line. This in particular fits really well, because with North Bend’s squad, they lack senior leadership on defense. They are lead by Kobe Clapper 26’, Tucker Kattus 25’, and Gordy Sulfsted 25’, however he has been sidelined due to an ACL tear and will miss the remainder of this season.
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On defense, Moeller has an experienced core of defensive linemen, linebackers, and backs. They refer to themselves as the “Havoc Mob” and this fits nicely considering their defensive has 6 turnovers going into week four of their season. Again, for North Bend’s team, they are running out roughly the same players on offense again this year, quarterback Chase Herbstreit 25’ leads the offense, however he’s coming off a rocky season last year but has shown some improvement in his passing game, as his team heads into week 4 sitting at 2-1. Although, with him at quarterback, he is yet to beat Moeller in his varsity career so heading into this game the big takeaway for Moeller is that they have experience playing and performing well against big rivals.
Some players to lookout for during this week would be quarterback Matt Ponatowski 26’, because with St. X and the defense that they have, the deep threat is very prominent in this matchup. Especially with the plethora of receivers Moeller has, I would not be surprised to see Ponatowski throw upwards of 350 yards with a couple of touchdowns. On the defense, lookout for senior Jacob Cravens 25’, who is off to an extremely hot start to the 2024 campaign. He is coming off a pick 6 in week three and is top ten in total tackles in the GCL standings. For St. X lookout for quarterback Chase Herbstreit 25’, this is a make-or-break player for the Bombers because as I mentioned he is going up against an already proven defense, and has had some misreads early on this season, and he can not afford to turn the ball over with Moeller’s offense. On defense for the Bombers, lookout for Kobe Clapper 26’, early on he is second in total tackles this season for the GCL standings and has done well covering the middle of the field and breaking through the o-line as a linebacker. Overall, this is a GCL game away for the Crusaders so I expect the Bombers to play up, but I still think if Moeller could limit turnovers my prediction for the game final would be 28-10 Moeller.