Kenton's Maty Mauk is new national passing yardage king

KENTON, Ohio - There wasn’t any stoppage in play. There wasn’t any postgame ceremony. There wasn’t even an announcement over the PA system.

There were, however, fireworks supplied by Maty Mauk.

On a night many have been counting down to, Mauk finally surpassed his brother Ben’s national passing yardage record in a 74-22 Division IV playoff win over Wellington. Starting his last game at Kenton’s Robinson Field, Mauk saved his best for last, literally.

Connecting on his first 19 passes, Mauk set an Ohio record for consecutive completions. He finished the night 27-for-29 for 505 yards and nine touchdowns, which tied another Ohio single-game record. Mauk carried the ball 11 times for 93 yards to finish with close to 600 yards of total offense for Kenton (Ohio).

“I don’t think you can get much better than that. That says it all,” Kenton senior receiver Kieran Fetter said. “He’s done a phenomenal job this year and Missouri has a great QB coming to them. If you give him time he can pick any defense apart. He’s so gifted.”

Mauk surpassed Ben’s national record of 17,364 passing yards on his third completion of the game – a 52-yard touchdown pass to Zach Wolowicz at the 9:26 mark of the first quarter. It was his second TD pass of the game.

Mauk has now thrown for 17,869 yards. He also owns national marks for total yards (21,046), passing attempts (1,974), completions (1,272) and touchdown passes (208).

“This was a big night for him,” Kenton head coach and Maty’s father Mike said. “It was a game where he came in very close to something (the record) that we really don’t talk a lot about. He knew in the back of his mind that he was close to it, and he was excited about his team rallying behind him and making plays. I don’t know what he was in the first half but I don’t think we had too many incomplete passes.”

At the end of two quarters Mauk was 21-of-22 for 401 yards and six TDs.

He exited the game after throwing his ninth touchdown pass with 7:04 left in the third quarter.

“We’ve been excited all week,” Maty Mauk said. “Last night we watched (the movie) Gladiator and everyone started to get jacked up. Coming in to today we knew everyone was ready. We came out right from the first play and played as good as we have all year.

“It feels good to have (the record) but we’re just one game down in the playoffs and we have four more.”

Winning a state title is Mauk’s ultimate goal and the only achievement that can never be taken away from him. Just ask Ben.

A two-time state champion at Kenton, Ben, who now calls plays for his little brother as Kenton’s offensive coordinator, was more than happy to surrender his passing record.

“It’s really kind of exciting to pass that on to him and let him deal with all the questions and be recognized for that,” Ben Mauk said. “The biggest thing for him though right now is winning a state championship because that’s something that can never be broken. A national record doesn’t mean anything compared to a state championship.”

Kenton’s next step towards a title is a regional quarterfinal against Genoa (10-1) next Saturday at a site yet to be determined.

Genoa enters the game allowing just 10.3 points per outing.

Kenton had that in two minutes Saturday.

Against Wellington Mauk led the Wildcats on five touchdown drives of two plays or less, none of which lasted longer than 26 seconds. Overall Kenton racked up 726 yards of offense. Mauk threw four touchdown passes to Fetter and three to sophomore Justin Sawmiller.

What a night is right.

“He was focused,” Mike Mauk said. “He knew what he had to do to help our team tonight and he did it right from the beginning.”

Said Fetter: “It’s a real blessing to have him on the field.”
Eric Frantz is the managing editor of JJHuddle.com and the Publisher of Miamivalleysports.com and MVP Magazine. He can be reached at efrantz@jjhuddle.com.