10 Things To Watch: 41st Ohio State Football Finals

The 41st annual Ohio High School Athletic Association Football Finals will be held Friday and Saturday in fabled Stark County. The venues? Massillon's Paul Brown Tiger Stadium and Canton's Fawcett Stadium. The storylines? Just as impressive…

1. Moe Turns 50
Archbishop Moeller (Cincinnati) owns five national titles and seven Ohio championships. The Crusaders, however, haven't won a state title since 1985 and haven't played in a final since 1997. This year they're back.

Led by RB Keith Watkins (Northwestern commit), LB Shane Jones (Michigan State) and OL Alex Gall (Miami, Fla.), the Crusaders are celebrating "50 Years of Moeller Football" and are one step away from capping it with the program's 8th state title.

2. Holy Toledo
A week ago Whitmer (Toledo) was a relative unknown. This week the Panthers are No. 6 in the MaxPreps Xcellent 25 and No. 1 in the Freeman Rankings.

Whitmer has beaten Michigan runner-up Catholic Central (Novi), Indiana state champion Bishop Luers (Fort Wayne), Ohio D-II finalist Central Catholic (Toledo), Washington (Massillon) and Mentor en route to its first D-I state final.

"We're treating this as a business trip," head coach Jerry Bell said. "I feel like if we play our game and we play physical and fast that gives us a very good opportunity to bring home a state title. I have yet to feel that we've played our best game."

3. Four for Four
Coldwater is playing in its fourth straight D-V championship and its seniors are playing in their 60th high school game. The Cavs are 0-3 in the previous three finals.

"There's motivation," Coldwater head coach Chip Otten said. "They don't want revenge or anything, but they just want to win. They want to end their season with a win and only one team gets to do that. That's the motivation — to win that 60th game."

Coldwater's defense has been absurd. Through 14 games, the Cavs have allowed two rushing TDs and 83 total points, including just 28 in the first half. Coldwater has tied the school record for shutouts in a season with six.

Overall this is Coldwater's sixth final in eight years. The Cavs are two-time champions.

4. Rare Repeat
Coldwater's opponent in the D-V final is defending state champion Kirtland, which beat the Cavs 28-7 to cap a 15-0 season last year. Kirtland has won 29 straight games.

"I think it's really neat that two public schools can play back-to-back like this," Kirtland head coach Tiger LaVerde said.

After rushing for 4,600 yards last year, the Hornets have run for over 5,200 this season. Senior running back Damon Washington (32 TDs) is the headliner.

"We're in Northeast Ohio ... so we want to run the ball," LaVerde said. "We're not going to spread it out with five wides and go shotgun. We've got guys up front who want to get off the ball. We take the ground-and-pound approach and they take pride in it."

5. High Flying Falcons
Clinton-Massie (Clarksville) can score. In advancing to the D-IV final, the Falcons have set an Ohio record for single-season points by a team with 776 and are on the cusp of becoming the first team in state history to score 800 points.

Junior RB Bayle Wolf has rushed for 63 TDs the last two years and senior RB Wyatt Running has added 36.

"Nobody goes into a season expecting to score 776 points," C-M head coach Dan McSurely said. "It just kind of happens."

6. Big-Time Small School Clash
In Ohio's smallest classification — D-VI — two titans tangle for the title. Marion Local (Maria Stein) and Newark Catholic have combined for 21 state championship appearances and 13 state titles. They've never played each other in a championship game, though, until now. Only once before — in a 2003 state semifinal (ML won) — have they ever met.

Both teams featured 6-foot-4 junior quarterbacks that are D-I prospects. Marion Local's Adam Bertke has accounted for 28 TDs. NC's Chayce Crouch has accounted for 26.

7. Back-to-Back-to-Back
Trotwood-Madison (Trotwood) is making its third straight appearance in the D-II final and looking for its second straight championship.

The Rams have multiple D-I commits on their roster including DB Cam Burrows (Ohio State), LB Michael McCray (Michigan), DB Reon Dawson (Illinois), DL Jarrod Clements (Illinois) and OL Cody Collins (Marshall).

Trotwood is powered by a ground game that leans on senior Isreal Green (1,732 yards/24 TDs) and junior Ashton Jackson (1,060 yards/20 TDs). Freshman Messiah DeWeaver starts at quarterback.

8. Irish Eye Title
Notre Dame isn't the only Irish making a return to the championship game after a lengthy drought. St. Vincent-St. Mary (Akron) is 4-1 in five previous state finals, but the Irish are playing in their first title game since 1988. SVSM is led by a potent offense that features a QB that's thrown for 30 TDs and nearly 3,000 yards (Clayton Uecker); a RB that's rushed for over 1,000 yards and 25 TDs (Paris Campbell Jr.); and two WRs that have at least 12 TDs and 1,000 yards each (Jordan Hargrove and Franshon Bickley). Said head coach Dan Boarman: "It's nice to know you have go-to guys in several different positions."

SVSM plays Bellevue, which has a go-to guy of its own in senior quarterback Jalen Santoro. Santoro has rushed for 2,196 yards and thrown for 1,621. He's accounted for 52 TDs.

9. Final Six Pack
This is the final season in which the OHSAA will award football titles in six divisions. Next season there will be seven trophies handed out. The plan will place the top 10 percent of schools based on enrollment in Division I, with the remaining 644 schools divided evenly among the next six divisions. This will leave 72 schools in Division I with the other six divisions averaging approximately 108 schools. Each of the seven divisions will continue to qualify 32 teams to the tournament.

10. End Zone
Two athletic conferences have two teams playing for state championships. The Three Rivers Athletic Conference has representatives in the D-I (Whitmer) and D-II (Central Catholic) finals, while the Midwest Athletic Conference has teams in the D-V (Coldwater) and D-VI (Marion Local) finals ... Four of the six Ohio finals (D-I, II, III and VI) feature a public school versus a private school match-up. The two remaining championship games (D-IV and V) feature undefeated public schools … The OHSAA state football finals have been held in Stark County since 1990. In 2014 the games move to Columbus and will be held at Ohio Stadium — home to The Ohio State University.

Game Schedule:

Division I State Final

Whitmer (14-0) vs. Archbishop Moeller (11-3)
Saturday, 7 p.m. at Canton Fawcett Stadium

Division II State Final

Trotwood-Madison (12-2) vs. Central Catholic (13-1)
Friday, 7 p.m. @ Massillon’s Paul Brown Tiger Stadium

Division III State Final

Bellevue (13-1) vs. St. Vincent-St. Mary (12-2)
Saturday, 11 a.m. at Canton Fawcett Stadium

Division IV State Final

Clinton-Massie (14-0) vs. St. Clairsville (14-0)
Friday, 3 p.m. at Canton Fawcett Stadium

Division V State Final

Coldwater (14-0) vs. Kirtland (14-0)
Saturday, 3 p.m. @ Massillon’s Paul Brown Tiger Stadium

Division VI State Final

Marion Local (12-2) vs. Newark Catholic (12-2)
Friday, 11 a.m. @ Massillon’s Paul Brown Tiger Stadium